7 ǡ assistant professor School of Arts and Communication, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida, USA ǡ professor Department of Political Science, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA ǡ assistant professor College of Business, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, Oklahoma, USA ƪ Ƥ ͳ ǣ Public trust and conϐidence are considered essential components in the effective functioning of democratic societies. The majority, if not all, of demǦ ocratic institutions, as well as systems they create collectively, could successfully function only when the public agrees to rely on them. It is unclear, however, what factors affect trust and conϐidence in democratic institutions. It is reasonable to assume that indirect (through mass media) and direct (through interactions with democratic institutions represented by local authorities) exposure would affect trust levels signiϐicantly. Reported here are ϐindings of an exploratory study of the fundamental relationship among the exposure to mass media, interactions with loǦ cal government ofϐicials, and levels of conϐidence in democratic institutions. The study developed a scale of public conϐidence in institutions and explored the outǦ lined relationship in a semiǦexperimental survey of college students in the United States. Respondents perceived mass media as a signiϐicant factor in their conϐidence in democratic institutions, and the frequency of interactions with local authorities served as a signiϐicant predictor for that perceived inϐluence. This relationship needs to be tested on a generalǦpopulation sample. ǣϔǡǡǡǡ ͳ This study was initiated as a part of an independent study during Dzmitry uranǯs doctoral work and received no external funding. The authors would like to extend their gratitude to ustin est for thoughtful comments on the latest draft of this paper, to faculty at the University of Tennessee and Oklahoma City University for assistance in recruiting participants, as well as to student participants for volunteering their time to this work. ǤǣǤ ǣ ƤȀｫ