Leaking Trust: Assessing the Effects of Leaked Documents on Political and Media Trust

This study investigates whether news media coverage of leaked government documents can influence citizen trust in the government agencies and the media coverage of the leaks using the rare instance of a leak from the U.S. Supreme Court as the primary incident of focus. A 2 (liberal or conservative argument) x 2 (political ideology: liberal or conservative) experiment revealed that an effect of government leaks is primarily motivated by ideology, and not as much by transparency of government action, as some previous scholars have suggested. While there was not a direct effect of exposure on trust in the Supreme Court or media coverage, political ideology and perceptions of perceived fairness in the judicial process both had significant moderating effects on political and media trust. Results better refine the effects of hostile media perceptions and give more indications of the ways government transparency can impact audiences.