The Hostile Media Phenomenon: Testing the Effect of News Framing on Perceptions of Media Bias

Recent theorizing in hostile media perception (HMP) has focused on the impact of news content on perceptions of media bias. Using a 2 (an outcome frame versus a value frame) × 2 (a societal frame versus an individual frame) experimental design (N = 114), this study examined the differential effects of news frames on perceptions of media bias. The results showed that an outcome frame induced relatively less HMP than a value frame. Further, a societal frame was more likely to elicit HMP than an individual frame when the medical abortion controversy was framed in term of values (vs. outcomes). Directions for future research on the potential impact of news framing on HMP were discussed.     

Credibility in Context: How Uncivil Online Commentary Affects News Credibility

In the new media environment, hard news stories are no longer found solely in the “A” section of the paper or on the front page of a news Web site. They are now distributed widely, appearing in contexts as disparate as a partisan blog or your own e-mail inbox, forwarded by a friend. In this study, we investigate how the credibility of a news story is affected by the context in which it appears. Results of an experiment show a news story embedded in an uncivil partisan blog post appears more credible in contrast. Specifically, a blogger's incivility highlights the relative credibility of the newspaper article. We also find that incivility and partisan disagreement in an adjacent blog post produce stronger correlations between ratings of news and blog credibility. These findings suggest that news story credibility is affected by context and that these context effects can have surprising benefits for news organizations. Findings are consistent with predictions of social judgment theory.     

The Sinclair Effect: Comparing Ownership Influences on Bias in Local TV News Content

Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest owner of U.S. local television stations, has received recent attention due to its apparent political lean and journalistic practices. This study compared the content and quality of national political news stories at Sinclair and non-Sinclair stations in three television markets. Results indicated evidence of a “Sinclair Effect,” whereby Sinclair-owned affiliate stories exhibited more cable news-style elements. Stations generally adhered to traditional journalistic principles, regardless of ownership, but Sinclair stations produced more stories with dramatic elements, commentary, and partisan sources.     

Hostile Media Perceptions in the Age of Social Media: Following Politicians,Emotions, and Perceptions of Media Bias

This study explores sadness-based message choices among comedy, game show, and sad drama that correspond to the three perceived goals of sadness regulation—optimization, distraction, and embracement, respectively. Results from an experiment showed that some sad participants selected sad drama with the expectation of realizing that their situations were not the worst possible, of creating new meanings and values, and finally of regaining a sense of control over the event and life in general. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of these cognitive gains and growth distinct from pleasurable experience from the use of entertainment messages.     

News Aggregation and Content Differences in Online Cancer News

Gatekeepers usually control news information. However, recent technological advancements might require rethinking previous gatekeeping hierarchies. Aggregation algorithms currently filter and present news information to millions of American Internet users daily. A content analysis demonstrates significant differences between health news content retrieved from Web sites that aggregate their articles from many sources (e.g., Google News), and those that focus on providing news from a limited number of sources (e.g., CNN.com). Explanations for these content differences are discussed, as are implications concerning health information seeking and Internet news consumption.     

Influence of Story Structure on Perceived Story Bias and News Organization Credibility

An experiment was conducted to illuminate the effects of balanced and imbalanced conflict story structure on perceived story bias and news organization credibility. Participants read mock newspaper stories on capital punishment, flat income tax rate, and drinking age that were systematically manipulated to be balanced or imbalanced. Imbalanced stories favored either the pro or the con side on each issue. Participants were randomly assigned to read one story about each issue. Results showed participants perceived imbalanced stories as biased and correctly identified the side favored by the story's imbalance. Participants evaluated newspapers apparently responsible for balanced stories as more credible than newspapers apparently publishing stories imbalanced to favor one side or the other on the issue. Imbalanced story structure directly led to perceived story bias, and perceived story bias in turn led to negative evaluation of the credibility of the newspaper publishing the imbalanced story.     

新型主流媒体新闻的身份建构:角色展演与道德规训

通过对三大央媒微信、微博报道的文本分析发现,新型主流媒体新闻的身份建构本质上是通过角色展演实现道德规训。一方面,身份建构的表征是角色展演,在角色展演中体现了基本的角色道德。另一方面,身份建构的旨归是形塑角色规范:道德规范、法律规范、伦理规范、技术规范。其中道德规训是新型主流媒体新闻进行身份建构的基本逻辑。为进行道德规训,新型主流媒体主要采取了叙述事件和价值判断相结合的方式。依托身份建构的这一逻辑,新型主流媒体新闻传递社会主流价值观,完成自身的职责和使命。     

The Role of Perceptions of Media Bias in General and Issue-Specific Political Participation

Despite a large body of literature documenting factors influencing general political participation, research has lagged in understanding what motivates participation regarding specific issues. Our research fills this gap by examining the interplay of perceptions of media bias, trust in government, and political efficacy on individuals' levels of general and issue-specific political participation. Using survey data with indicators related to general political participation, our results demonstrate that perceptions of media bias overall are negatively related to general political participation. Moreover, this relationship is an indirect one, mediated by trust in government and political efficacy. Using survey data with indicators of issue-specific political participation in the context of stem cell research, our results show that—contrary to the relationship found for general political participation—perceptions of media bias are directly and positively associated with issue-specific participation. Implications for political participation and media bias theories are discussed.     

Across the Great Divide: How Partisanship and Perceptions of Media Bias Influence Changes in Time Spent with Media

This study of media use during the 2012 presidential election examines whether online use, partisanship, and perceptions of media bias predict time spent with traditionally delivered media. Traditional media lost ground to online sources. Moreover, Obama supporters spent more time with liberal media, Romney backers with conservative media, and regardless of support, attention to neutral media increased. Respondents who thought the media were biased against Obama spent less time with conservative media and more with liberal ones and neutral CNN, while those who judged the media as hostile to Romney spent little time with liberal and neutral media.     

Reducing the Bias: How Perspective Taking Affects First- and Third-Person Perceptions of Media Influence

Third- and first-person perceptions (TPPs/FPPs) are considered to be biased judgments of media influence on self and others. Research suggests that perspective taking, i.e., thinking from another person’s position, decreases perceptual gaps between self and others via assimilation. In a two-factorial experiment (n = 431), we test whether this effect of perspective taking (Factor 1) holds true for the presumed influence of desirable and undesirable messages (Factor 2). Results indicate that perspective taking significantly reduces TPPs in the case of an undesirable message but not FPPs that are provoked by the desirable message. The observable effect traces back to a change in presumed message influence on the self. Presumed influence on others was independent of both factors, desirability of message influence and perspective taking. These findings are discussed in the light of cognitive and motivational explanations for FPPs/TPPs.     

(Re)Viewing Reviews: Effects of Emotionality and Valence on Credibility Perceptions in Online Consumer Reviews

This study examines credibility perceptions in online consumer reviews. Specifically, this work investigates the effects of review emotionality (high vs. low), review valence (positive vs. negative), and individuals’ need for affect on source credibility and information credibility. In an online experiment, U.S. adults (N = 327) viewed a product review from Amazon.com varied across four experimental conditions. Results indicate that high-emotionality reviews are perceived as lower in source and information credibility compared to low-emotionality reviews. A moderated mediation model was tested with the source credibility dimensions as possible mediators of information credibility and need for affect as a moderator for the effects of review emotionality. The effects of emotionality on information credibility were significantly mediated by source trustworthiness, and this mediation was moderated by participants’ need for affect, with the credibility-hampering effects of emotionality found only among participants with low and moderate levels of need for affect.     

线上互融:疫情背景下的融媒新闻生产——基于《白衣侠》制作过程的个案研究

本文基于对交汇点新闻客户端融媒体新闻产品《白衣侠》制作过程的个案研究,探讨主流媒体融媒新闻生产的路径创新。这一路径背后蕴含全新的思考路向,反映出媒介融合从业态层面到社会层面再回到业态层面的过程,有助于我们理解和把握新传播技术变革下的传播实践。     

在战“疫”中提升主流媒体网上传播能力

疫情防控阻击战,也是一场舆论战、信心战、信息战。面对突发公共卫生事件,主流媒体如何扛起责任与担当考验着媒体人。特别是作为主流媒体的党报、党台、党网,怎样适应公众获取信息渠道的变化,加快提升主流媒体网上传播能力,本文结合抗疫报道中媒体的成功案例进行了一些探索。就"主流媒体怎样主动作为,影响新媒体?主流媒体中的新媒体怎样充分发挥自身优势,影响自媒体?媒体怎样正视存在问题,回应群众关切,让真相走在谣言前面?"等进行了分析研究,提出了自己的见解。     

Routinizing a New Technology in the Newsroom: Twitter as a News Source in Mainstream Media

This study examined how news organizations employed Twitter as a news source, based on information subsidy and gatekeeping perspectives. News content analysis from 7 major media entities in 2010–2011 demonstrated that journalists embraced Twitter as a new channel for information gathering. TV frequently cited Twitter as a sole or a primary source. However, despite active usage of Twitter overall, journalists in both TV and newspapers maintained conventional routines by relying primarily on Twitter accounts of official sources. The popularity of Twitter accounts, as indicated by the number of followers, did not contribute to attracting more attention from journalists.     

Online News Media and Advanced Learning: A Test of Cognitive Flexibility Theory

This study looks at how audiences of online news media could benefit from an application of cognitive flexibility theory (CFT), a constructivist theory from the field of education psychology. CFT posits that when case examples from a complex, “ill-structured” knowledge area are interwoven with conceptual perspectives, individuals can better apply learning across diverse settings. Researchers propose that news stories on complex issues lend themselves to CFT. Results suggest that the CFT format offers greater efficiency and some advantages for more knowledgeable and involved audiences, and for frequent Web users.     

Effectiveness of a News Media Literacy Advertisement in Partisan Versus Nonpartisan Online Media Contexts

Moving media literacy messages out of the classroom and onto the Internet, where much news consumption happens, offers an opportunity to extend media literacy education to a wider public. However, in doing so it becomes important to consider how the context in which such messages are seen conditions their impact on media literacy attitudes and knowledge. The results of an experimental test suggest that a media literacy public service announcement was more effective in reinforcing media literacy beliefs when paired with a partisan, rather than a neutral, political program. The effects of presenting media literacy messages outside of the classroom are discussed.     

News Media Landscape in a Fragile State: Professional Ethics Perceptions in a Post-Ba'athist Iraq

During the years of Ba'athist dictator Saddam Hussein, media personnel were under tight control and tortured or executed when they strayed from the government line. In the decade following the fall of the Ba'athist regime, thousands of Iraqi journalists were trained in liberal democratic professional norms, and hundreds of news outlets opened even as some of the old patronage practices and violence continued. This study utilized Shoemaker and Reese's hierarchy of influences model to examine factors influencing a proxy indicator for professional ethics, the value of conflict of interest avoidance among a purposive sample of Iraqi journalists (N = 588). We found that the news media routines and ideological levels, though not strong, had the greatest influences on this conflict of interest avoidance perception criterion indicator, the proxy for professional ethics. The findings suggest a tension between liberal democratic journalism training at the routines level and ideological aspects, in some cases, such as ethnic identity and political ideology. Strong influences on perceptions of conflict of interest avoidance were the type of media platform/Western journalism training, Arab ethnicity over Kurdish ethnicity, ideology of “democrat” over Kurdish nationalist or Islamist. No influence was apparent for Internet use frequency or state versus nonstate media.     

Computer-Mediated False Consensus: Radical Online Groups,Social Networks and News Media

This study draws on survey data obtained from members in neo-Nazi discussion forums and builds on evidence that participation in these forums exacerbates false consensus, that is, overestimating public support for own views. This study goes further to test whether contacts with dissimilar offline social networks as well as exposure to ideologically dissimilar news media attenuate false consensus and its association with online participation. Contrary to predictions, politically dissimilar networks do not reduce false consensus among the analyzed sample. Exposure to ideologically dissimilar news media, on the other hand, results in more accurate estimates (main effect), but it exacerbates false consensus as resulting from participation in neo-Nazi online groups (interactive effect). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The Role of Political Identity and Media Selection on Perceptions of Hostile Media Bias During the 2012 Presidential Campaign

Viewing a hostile media bias against one’s group (e.g., political party) is a perceptual effect of media use. When it comes to the portrayal of political parties in the United States, prior research suggests that both Democrats and Republicans see mainstream media coverage as favoring the other side, regardless of the orientation of the political news coverage. Although prior research has not identified all factors that make this perceptual bias more likely, or at explaining how or why this perceptual effect occurs, we do know that it is related to one’s group identity. In this study, we examined salient predictors of hostile media bias during the 2012 presidential campaign. Individual (i.e., political cynicism) and group identity related (i.e., group status, intergroup bias, political ideology) differences of media users predicted such perceptions. But, the medium selected for political information about the campaign also mattered. The use of two media in particular—TV and social networking sites—appear to have blunted hostile media bias perceptions, whereas the use of two other media—radio and video sharing sites—appear to have accentuated perceptions that the media were biased against one’s party