Sixty-six percent of Americans believe people are more angry with the federal government than they used to be and only 25 percent believe the government is making their lives better, according to a national poll at Ohio University.

The nationwide survey of 1,009 adults, conducted by Guido Stempel, distinguished professor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, and Thomas Hargrove of the Scripps Howard News Service, found that Americans have become increasingly distrustful of the government in several areas. Part of the distrust and anger, Stempel said, may stem from the negative nature of stories produced by the nation’s print and broadcast news media.

“The people who are angry with the government receive news coverage from the media,” Stempel said. “On the one hand, we have extremist groups reacting against the government, but we also have the elected officials doing this. It’s a general flow of negativism that is in the news.”

Findings from the poll suggest Americans have grown increasingly skeptical of their government since President John F. Kennedy was assassintated in 1963. Fifty-one percent of those surveyed believe the government was involved in Kennedy’s assassination.