The existing literature on the relationship between media exposure, political involvement and trust discusses two competing hypotheses. Advocates of the media malaise theory argue that increasing media consumption has a negative impact on citizens’ political engagement. Proponents of the opposite position claim that growth in media consumption is accompanied by a growing extent of political knowledge and support for a democratic system among citizens. To assess the explanatory power of both approaches, this paper conducts a meta-analysis on the effects of media exposure on social capital and trust as well as political interest, knowledge, mobilization and participation. Cases included in the analysis originate from Social Science Journals from 2000 to 2014. Besides identifying the dominant direction of the causal relation between the variables of interest, this paper seeks to lay out methodological challenges associated with meta-analysis such as the determination of relevant articles and the harmonization of measurements and scales.
