Hostile Media Perception Affects News Bias, but Not News Sharing
hubie writes:
Hostile Media Perception theory (HMP) is a theory about mass communication that says a partisan perceives bias when presented with neutral coverage of news from a source deemed to be opposite to their political leanings. It also suggests that reading news from a source perceived as politically biased might decrease their willingness to share it with others and vice versa. A paper in Royal Society Open Scientist reports on tests conducted to measure this effect. They took two "hot button" topics, police conduct and COVID-19 restrictions, and presented them to people as a headline and short report. The news items presented were real stories and presented in a neutral manner, but they manipulated the banner graphic on top of the headline to appear that it came from either Fox News or CNN.
Their results showed that perceptions that a news source is biased depends upon both the political leaning of the viewer as well as particular topics being reported:
We show that news reporting on important contemporary and debated issues in US society, such as negative police conduct (Study 1) and compliant or defiant behaviours concerning COVID-19 norms (Study 2), are more likely to be perceived as biased when the news source is not aligned with one's political view. This HMP effect might contribute to further polarization in US society, eroding trust towards media outlets and information providers. However, in line with theory, our evidence indicates that not all news content is relevant in triggering HMP: when respondents are exposed to less controversial news (i.e. positive police conduct, Study 1), perceived news bias is similar across political leanings.
Journal Reference:
Sergio Lo Iacono and Terence Daniel Dores Cruz, Hostile media perception affects news bias, but not news sharing intentions [open], Royal Soc. Open Sci., 9, 2022.
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211504
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.