This article examines the role of news exposure and political trust in the decision to vote in European Parliament (EP) elections in established (EU-15) and new member states of the 2004/2007 enlargement. News coverage of EP elections tends to differ among established and new member states. News in new members contains more coverage of EP elections and the European Union (EU) and tends to also be more positive than in established members. The difference in coverage may play a role in how European institutions are trusted, and ultimately, in election participation. A moderated mediation model is proposed to test whether trust in the EP mediates the relationship between news exposure and voting in EP elections, and whether the relationship between news exposure and trust is stronger among new member states. Using two methods, an experiment conducted in four EU states and a structural equation model of 2004 European Election Studies survey data, support is found for the model. The results also suggest that while European-level considerations account for some of the variance in voting, they cannot be a substitute for national-level considerations.
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