政治信任感的研究近年來受到學界的關注，大學生乃未來社會的中堅分子，其政治信任感更具研究價值。本研究透過理論的建構與實證資料的分析，探討大眾傳播媒介作為一個政治社會化媒介，其與政治信任感的關聯如何？本研究使用國立政治大學選舉研究中心於2001年4月到5月間 執行的「我國大學生政治社會化之研究」計畫之資料，運用政治社會化理論探究大眾傳播媒介是否為一個有影響力的媒介。本研究將大眾傳播媒介相關變數分成六項來剖析，更精緻地檢視了大眾傳播媒介與大學生政治信任感的關聯性，並將「政治媒介功效意識」區分成「內在政治媒介功效意識」、「外在政治媒介功效意識」，分析結果發現兩者對大學生政治信任感有不同方向和程度的影響，這樣的區分豐富了「大眾傳播媒介」影響大學生政治信任感的理論內涵。研究結果發現媒介相關變數對政治信任感有正向影響，也有負向影響，其中的負向影響更是政治信任感發展的絆腳石，值得我們警惕。整體而言，大學生處於資訊網路媒體發達的時代，其政治信任感的起源與影響因素，相當受到這個世代資訊媒介的薰陶，據此，大學生對於大眾傳播媒介的認知、態度與參與行為與其政治信任感的關聯也需要受到檢視，而媒介與政治信任之間的負向關聯，也有待民主進一步深化與公民社會逐漸成熟來提升與改善。

This study analyses the agency of mass media to influence the political trust of university students. Students of university will be the elite of the future; therefore, their political trust is of interest to examine. The study results find both positive and negative relationship between the media and students’ political trust. In terms of the degree to which political media variables affect the political trust of university student, six different political media variables （political media utility perception, internal political media efficacy, external political media efficacy, political media exposure, political media attention, political media participation）have different influences on students. This study employ six types of mass media variables to explore isolate thecorrelation between mass media and the students’ political trust. Otherwise, the study thinks although mass media would influence the political trust of university students, after controlling personal background, it’s hard to explain more actual, more complete situation of university student political trust. Furthermore, this study hopes to have broken new ground by dividing “political media efficacy” into two scales: “internal political media efficacy” and “external political media efficacy.” We demonstrate that the two scales influence the intensity and direction of students’ political trust. From this study, we can see that mass media is one of major source to influences students’ political trust.