Media Influence on Citizens’ Government Trust: A Cross-Sectional Data Analysis of China

Public Sector Reform and Perceptions of Public Servants: An International Longitudinal Review

“…There have been a growing number of studies analyzing citizens' perceptions of the government and civil service (Vigoda-Gadot 2009;Van Ryzin 2007;Van de Walle 2007;Kim 2005). More recently, scholars have also studied the relationship between these perceptions and other variables such as citizen satisfaction with public services (Van de Walle 2018), citizens' acceptance of regulations (Mørk et al 2017), bureauphobia (Del Pino et al 2016), electronic participation (Krishnan et al 2017), support of public sector reform (Camoes and Mendes 2019), public sector transparency (Porumbescu 2017), citizen participation (Lee and Lauer Schachter 2019;Slomczynski and Janicka 2009), use of social media to enhance trust in government (Chen and Sun 2019;Kim et al 2017), and quality of government (Khan 2016), among others. Public views about government play an important role in how citizens judge both its performance and legitimacy.…”

“…Furthermore, in some settings, the media (Chen and Sun 2019;Van de Walle et al 2008) and campaigning politicians have played a role in the development of negative imagery regarding public servants through bureaucratic bashing (Goodsell 2004). Moreover, behavioral experimental research has confirmed the existence of a "negativity bias" both in citizens' assessment of information about government performance (Deslatte 2020;James and John 2007;Olsen 2015Olsen , 2017, and politicians' assessment of bureaucratic performance (Nielsen and Moynihan 2017; Hong and Kim 2019).…”

“…Moreover, behavioral experimental research has confirmed the existence of a "negativity bias" both in citizens' assessment of information about government performance (Deslatte 2020;James and John 2007;Olsen 2015Olsen , 2017, and politicians' assessment of bureaucratic performance (Nielsen and Moynihan 2017; Hong and Kim 2019). There is also evidence that rapid changes in the widespread use of social media and information technologies have raised the pace at which citizens build their perceptions toward the State and their representatives (Lee and Lauer Schachter 2019;Chen and Sun 2019;Porumbescu 2016Porumbescu , 2017Haro-de-Rosario et al 2018;Park et al 2016;Im et al 2012;Kim et al 2017). Hence, negative images and assessments of government performance seem now to be more frequent and salient.…”

Global Evidence on the Determinants of Public Trust in Governments during the COVID-19

“…In addition to demographic indicators and institutional quality measures, several papers have examined the role of media for trust in government. Most of these papers have found that unofficial and official controls on media significantly affect trust in government (Chen and Sun 2019). However, the impact of media on trust in government can be negative or positive.…”

Understanding citizen engagement and concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic in China: a thematic analysis of government social media

“…For example, after analyzing Weibo posts, Jiang and Beaudoin (2016) found that public engagement is susceptible to perceived risks and self-efficacy. Active online government interaction also increases citizens' sense of trust on the government (Chen and Sun, 2019;Limay et al, 2020). With the increasing popularity of social media, opening and utilizing an account on social media has almost become compulsory for the government.…”