An Analysis of the Relationship between Media Consumption and Level of Social Trust among Students of the University of Isfahan

Social trust is one of the most important aspects of human life it is one of those social phenomena that plays a crucial role in human interactions and relationships. As an important indicator of social capital, trust is essential for creating coherence and unity in society and facilitating participation in social systems. Trust accelerates cooperation in various fields of economic, social, political and cultural systems and increases individual's willingness to cooperate with various community groups. Without trust there is no chance for democratic systems to develop also, societal order, stability, balance, solidarity and cohesion will be damaged. In every society several elements play important roles in the formation of trust, among which the role of the media is of crucial importance. Today the media is responsible for shaping the minds of people as actors in social spheres. While influencing people's perceptions, the media provide various information, knowledge and attitudes about different topics. When media information is available to the audience, those interpretations and analyses which are presented gradually form a part of the system of knowledge, in so far as optimistic and pessimistic attitudes of people towards different things is considerably influenced by the type and content of media messages. University students are particularly important as a group of media consumers with great potential to undertake social responsibility in society. Therefore, in this study, with the aim of analyzing the relationship between media consumption and social trust, we want to know how media consumption has affected the level of social trust among university students in Isfahan.

The research is based on quantitative method and questionnaire. The research population is consisted of university students at the University of Isfahan, from all disciplines and both levels of undergraduate and graduate in the academic year of 1392-91. Considering the fact that this research include 7 variables, a sample size of 140 individuals would be a good fit. However, for greater certainty, we included 170 individuals in the initial sample size applying Morgan formula. After eliminating incomplete questionnaires, 158 questionnaires were finally considered for data analysis. The variable of social trust is divided into four dimensions of basic, interpersonal, generalized and political. Also, the variable of media consumption is divided into printed media, visual and audio media and electronic media. Discussion of Results &

The results of the study show that there is a positive and meaningful correlation between media consumption and social trust, in the sense that social media and social trust are 0/74 % correlated at the significant level of 0/50. Our findings indicate that there is not a significant correlation between basic, interpersonal and generalized trust with electronic media consumption. But the use of electronic media and other dimensions of social trust, namely, political trust, and trust in general are meaningfully correlated. The relationship between other forms of median namely, printed, visual, and audio media with social trust is also meaningful. Finally, the results indicate that the higher the level of media consumption among the student, the higher the level of social trust among them.