Young Voters' Trust of Information and Media Sources: The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

The primary objective of this research study was to explore young voters' (i.e., those 18 to 34 years of age) trust of information media sources within the context of the 2008 U.S. presidential election. In particular, we wished to examine the following trust-specific relationships: (1) young v...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of political marketing 2012-10, Vol.11 (4), p.246-264
Main Authors: Sherman, Elaine, Schiffman, Leon G., Thelen, Shawn T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
2008 presidential election
Candidates
Decision
Elections
Electoral campaigning
influence of social media
Mass Media
Media
Presidents
Primary Elections
Respondents
Social Networks
trust of candidate information
trust of candidates
trust of media sources
U.S.A
Voters
Voting
Voting behaviour
young voters
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Summary:The primary objective of this research study was to explore young voters' (i.e., those 18 to 34 years of age) trust of information media sources within the context of the 2008 U.S. presidential election. In particular, we wished to examine the following trust-specific relationships: (1) young voters' preexisting or inherent trust of political officeholders and candidates; (2) young voters' trust of online social media networks as a source of information that may influence a young voters' decision as to whom to vote for; (3) a comparison of young voters' inherent trust of political officeholders and candidates, and their trust of social media participation as a source of information with respect to whom to vote for (i.e., a comparison of points 1 and 2, above); and (4) a comparison of young voters' specific trust of different information media options, when it comes to deciding who to vote for in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Finally, our research introduces a new measure (the Influence of Social Networking Scale), which possesses good psychometric properties. The measure was designed to indicate whether respondents feel that other participants communicating on social networks would provide them with useful and trustworthy information about political candidates. This is a trust scale with respect to voters' political-related social networking.
ISSN:1537-7857
1537-7865
DOI:10.1080/15377857.2012.724294