An Analysis of the Impact of Online Political News on Political Security -A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Political security constitutes the cornerstone of national security. Drawing on data from the “2019 Netizen Social Awareness Survey” released by the China National Survey Database, this study introduces “government trust” as a mediating variable and “official media trust” as a moderating variable to investigate the mechanism through which online political news influences political security. The results indicate that online political news exerts a significant positive effect on political security; government trust also positively influences political security and serves as a partial mediator in the relationship between online political news and political security. Additionally, official media trust moderates the link between government trust and political security. These findings highlight the interrelationships among the four variables, and deepen our understanding of how online political news shapes netizens’ perceptions of political security, also offer insights for further research aimed at enhancing political security.