Conference Poster

1. Results
 Television use is not associated with G-Y’s social trust.
 Radio use is negatively associated with social trust.
 Both Newspaper use and social networking are positively associated with social trust,
but both associations disappear when ethnic identity and ethnic diversity awareness are
included in the model.
 Both ethnic variables are positively associated with social trust.
 Sobel’s mediation test shows that both newspaper use and social networking have
indirect relationship with social trust through ethnic identity.
Ethnic Identity as a Mediator of Media Effects on Social Trust
in Generation Y
Qingjiang (Q. J.) Yao, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, 77710
Introduction
 Social trust, trust invested in a generalized other in the society, is a key factor to glue
the modern societies together and ensure social production to take place (Fukuyama,
1997)
 Robert Putnam (1995, 2000, 2007) finds that newspaper reading and age increase
social connection and trust, while broadcast consumption and ethnic diversity
decrease social connection and trust.
 Since Putnam (2000) finds that media influences on social connection and trust are
different between the younger and the older generations, we wonder how media and
ethnicity moderate social trust in the Generation Y, the upcoming mainstream of the
labor force.
Methodology
 Data: collected from an online survey of a representative sample of all students from
four public universities in Kansas, during October 19-28, 2012. With a response rate
of 14.9%, 1299 complete responses were collected, and 1287 were born between
1977 and 1994, representing the Generation Y. Data were weighted by student
populations and gender ratios of the four universities.
 Variables:
 Social trust: three items from Rosenberg’s (1957) “Faith in People” scale
were used to ask respondents if they believed most people were 1)
trustworthy, 2) helpful, and 3) cooperative (α = .76, M = 9.84, SD = 2.35 )
 Media variables: asking how often respondents consuming info on current
events from 1) television, 2). radio, 3) newspaper, 4) magazine, 5)
Internet/web, and 6) mobile devices. 0 = never and 7 = multiple times a
day. Three items measure social media usage (α = .78, M = 12.90, SD =
4.46 ).
 Ethnic identity: Phinney’s (1992) Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (α =
.90, M = 39.78, SD = 8.67 ).
 Ethnic diversity awareness: Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity scale
(α = .85, M = 67.23, SD = 10.16 ).
 Demographic variables: age, gender, ethnicity, education/classification,
partisanship, ideology, and family income.
Discussion
 Why radio decreases G-Y’s social trust? Two possibilities:
 They mainly listen to radio talk programs that mix information with
strong opinions and sensation.
 Maybe due to the context effects of the cynic pop music on radio.
 The study shows that both ethnic variables enhance social trust, which implies
that ethnic diversity may not decrease social trust among G-Y.
 Ethnic identity’s mediation function may be through self-esteem.
Research Questions
 RQ1: how is Generation Y’s use of different media predicting their level of social
trust?
 RQ2: How are Generation Y’s ethnic identity and awareness of ethic diversity
predicting their level of social trust?