Media Dependency during COVID-19 Pandemic and Trust in Government: The Case of Bahrain

Abstract

Trust in government indicates a general perception of the government's competence in dealing with crises effectively, which impact political stability. Grounded in the media system dependency theory, this study examines the impact of traditional and new media dependency on trust in government in the context of Bahrain. Therefore, this study proposes to fill this gap by providing empirical evidence leading to advancement in the understanding of media role during COVID-19 in enhancing trust in government. To achieve this, the questionnaire was distributed electronically by using google forms. A sample of 463 Bahrainis was selected using non-random sampling methods. The results of this study revealed that the Newspaper and Radio dependency have no impact in predicting trust in government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the findings showed a positive relationship between news website dependency and trust in government. However, the relationship was found to be negative between Television and social media dependency and trust in government.

Keywords: Bahrain; COVID-19; Media Dependency; Trust in Government