Research on How Internet Political Participation Influences Government Trust in Emergencies Using Mobile Internet Environment as Basis

Abstract

In the mobile network era, governments at all levels realize that after inci-dents, the attention and participation of Internet users on the incidents through their mobile phones significantly influence political trust. How to deal with the adverse effects of Internet political participation during emer-gencies has become a focus in academia. This study investigates the effects of Internet political participation on government trust using quantitative analy-sis methods, including questionnaire survey and data analysis, and explores whether government information disclosure moderates the effects. Results show that after emergencies, the more relevant information the public obtains from mobile Internet, the higher the public assessment on the ability and be-nevolence dimensions of government trust. However, such information nega-tively affects assessment on the integrity dimension. In addition, the more po-litical behaviors the public express through mobile Internet, the lower they view the ability dimension. The findings also suggest that government infor-mation disclosure positively moderates all the relations. Nevertheless, human interaction with others through mobile Internet is not directly and signifi-cantly related to government trust.