Media consumption and perceptions of police legitimacy

Given the heightened scrutiny of police by the media in the post-Ferguson era, the purpose of this paper is to test hypotheses derived from the cultivation theory regarding possible media-related effects on perceptions of police legitimacy.

A sample of 1,197 residents from a mid-size California city was surveyed. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the relative effects of media consumption and personal experience on perceptions of police legitimacy.

Partial support for the cultivation theory was found. Those who reported local TV as their most important news source saw police as more legitimate than those who reported the internet as most important. Consistent with past research, procedural justice was the strongest predictor of perceptions of police legitimacy for those recently stopped by the police. Awareness of negative media depictions of police, however, also had independent effects indicating that media consumption does impact perceptions of police legitimacy.

While a wealth of research on the relationship between procedural justice and perceptions of police legitimacy exists, no previous research has examined the role media consumption plays in shaping such perceptions.