A Comparative Study on the Impact of Local and Satellite Televisions Consumption on the Social Trust

The present research seeks to study the impact of media consumption (local and satellite televisions) on the social trust. The population of the study is all of the enrolled students of Mazandaran University which 400 students through proportionate stratified sampling method have been selected as sample of the study. The required data has been gathered by self administered questionnaire and data were analyzed via SPSS software. Research findings indicate that while there is no significant relationship between watching local TV and social trust, watching satellite TV is related to social trust, negatively. Moreover, some variables such as the participation in voluntary associations, reciprocity norms, positive attitude toward law administration, and justice feeling all were positively related to social trust. In addition, the results of multiple regression analysis indicate that after the variable of justice feeling which has the most significant impact on the social trust, the variable of reciprocity norms is placed in the next ranking.