Media Malice and Political Trust: a Theoretical and Empirical Study

The results showed that as compared with voters\' trust toward Legislative Yuan and Justice system, Taiwan voters thought President Chen is most trustworthy. And political external efficacy became an important predictive variable in explaining why voters trust President, Legislative Yuan and Justice system.

Media variables, including media use and the perceptions of media negativism did not show any significance in predicting voters\' political trust. And those voters who claimed they are the supporters of Pan-Blue camp showed high degree of trust toward KMT and PFP while voters identified themselves as Pan-Green camp showed higher degree of political trust toward DPP and TSU.