Comparative Effects of Social Media on Public Trust Across Regions

Thesis Abstract

In an era of ubiquitous social media, public trust has become a contested resource that varies across regional contexts, influencing governance legitimacy, civic engagement, and media accountability. This study addresses the problem that existing evidence on social media’s impact on public trust is fragmented across regions, with inconsistent methodological designs and disparate indicators of trust. The aim is to compare how exposure to social media content shapes dimensions of public trust—trust in government, institutions, and media—in diverse regional settings, and to identify contextual factors that condition these effects. Specific objectives are (1) to quantify associations between frequency and nature of social media use and trust in government, institutions, and media across three regions (North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia); (2) to examine differential effects of platform type (general social networks, microblogging, and video-sharing sites) on trust perceptions; (3) to assess the mediating role of perceived informational quality, political cynicism, and perceived algorithmic personalization; and (4) to determine the moderating influence of media literacy and trust baseline, controlling for socio-demographic variables. The study adopts a cross-sectional, cross-regional comparative design grounded in two complementary theoretical frameworks Social Construction of Technology and the Theory of Planned Behavior, with elements of the Spiral of Silence to account for discourse dynamics. A multistage stratified sampling strategy yields a total sample of 6,000 adults aged 18–65, with 2,000 respondents per region selected from urban and rural strata to ensure representativeness. Data collection combines a structured questionnaire and targeted in-depth interviews (n=60, 20 per region) to triangulate survey findings. The instrument measures social media exposure (frequency, platform type, content credibility), trust indicators (trust in government, institutions, and media), perceived informational quality, political cynicism, perceived algorithmic personalization, media literacy, and socio-demographic variables. Validity and reliability are addressed through pretesting, pilot studies (n=300) and Cronbach’s alpha checks for multi-item scales (? ? 0.70). Data analysis employs a mixed-methods sequence (i) descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations to profile regional differences; (ii) multivariate regression and hierarchical linear modeling to estimate direct and interaction effects of social media exposure on trust dimensions; (iii) structural equation modeling to test mediation effects of informational quality, cynicism, and personalization; (iv) multi-group analysis to compare path coefficients across regions; and (v) thematic analysis of interview transcripts to elucidate mechanisms and contextual narratives. Robustness checks include propensity score weighting to address self-selection bias and sensitivity analyses across alternate model specifications. The study anticipates potential endogeneity between trust and media use by employing instrumental variable approaches where feasible, such as country-level media freedom indices. Key expected findings include regional variations in the strength and direction of social media effects on trust, with stronger negative associations in regions experiencing higher perceived misinformation and political polarization; differential impacts by platform type, where video-sharing sites exert more nuanced effects via emotional content while general networks influence cognitive trust through informational cues; mediation effects indicating that perceived informational quality and algorithmic personalization significantly transmit social media exposure into trust outcomes, and that higher media literacy attenuates adverse effects. The study contributes to knowledge by providing a theoretically informed, methodologically rigorous cross-regional comparison of how digital information ecosystems shape public trust, integrating explicit consideration of platform typologies and user competencies. It advances measurement by validating a cross-regional trust-in-media scale and a model of mediated social-media-to-trust pathways. The main conclusion is expected to be that social media’s influence on public trust is context-dependent, shaped by informational quality, perceived personalization, and media literacy, with platform-specific and region-specific dynamics. Policy and practice recommendations include (1) fostering media literacy programs that enhance critical evaluation of online content; (2) encouraging transparency in platform algorithms and promoting credible information through public-interest counter-misinformation campaigns; and (3) tailoring governance communications to regional media ecosystems to bolster trust in institutions. The study also suggests avenues for longitudinal research to capture evolving effects as digital ecosystems mature and cross-regional information flows intensify.