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The Double-Edged Sword of State Media Credibility: Experimental Evidence from China

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Abstract

Existing research has shown that pubic trust in state-aligned media facilitates political persuasion. However, little is known about how media credibility interacts with political trust when governments exercise control over media outlets acting as watchdogs. This study addresses this research gap by conducting a survey experiment among university students using “real-world” scenarios. We investigate students’ trust preferences when presented with two allegedly detained journalists—one affiliated with state media and the other an independent citizen reporter. Our experimental findings first confirm the existence of a “state media credibility premium” as students reported higher trust in the state-affiliated journalist. More importantly, we uncover a significant erosion of trust in government bodies when students perceived restrictions over state media compared to citizen reporter. These results underscore the double-edged implications of state media credibility for regime resilience: while aiding political persuasion, it can also undermine political support when mouthpieces deviate from state directives and trigger media control. By investigating multifaceted government-media relations beyond simplistic propaganda assumptions, this study provides novel empirical evidence on the complex interplay among media credibility, government control, and political trust in the Chinese context.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Notes

  1. It is essential to note that the actual detention status of the two journalists and the specific reasons behind any potential detention remain uncertain. Similarly, the registration location of the website as being in Hong Kong lacks confirmation. Our primary objective is to simulate, within the confines of our experiment, the conditions of media control as they might be perceived by respondents in the real world. The actual circumstances surrounding these events are beyond the scope of our research interest.

  2. We recognize that our experimental design involves, more precisely, Hong Kong media. In essence, it differs from the concepts of foreign media and international media as found in the literature. Nevertheless, due to the constraints of our real-world context and experimental design, which do not allow for a direct comparison between the reporting effects of Hong Kong media and genuinely international media, we opt to use the umbrella term “foreign media” for simplicity.

  3. The results regarding students’ trust in state media are not presented due to space constraints but are available upon request.

  4. Certainly, given that our sample is not representative, this elitism might be a feature specific to our sample rather than a characteristic of the broader university student population.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Yichao Lu, Shenzhuo Xu, Cuishu Li, and Jieming Zhang for their excellent research assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Yanfeng Gu

  2. Department of Public Administration, School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Bingdao Zheng

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  1. Yanfeng Gu
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Bingdao Zheng’s contribution was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 22BZZ084).

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Correspondence to Bingdao Zheng.

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Gu, Y., Zheng, B. The Double-Edged Sword of State Media Credibility: Experimental Evidence from China. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-023-09877-9

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