The Message or The Messenger: The Effects of Political Attitudes and Source on Perceptions of Media Bias

As the televised news media market becomes increasingly diversified, the evidence available suggests that news media audiences are more fragmented than ever, audiences trust the media less and less, and that news consumers tend to seek outlets that they believe share their political attitudes and worldview (Knobloch-Westerwick & Meng, 2009, Tsfati & Capella 2003, Niven 2002, Stalder, 2009, Pew Center, 2009). Researchers Vallone, Ross, and Lepper (1985) were some of the first to describe empirically an observation they call the “hostile media phenomenon.” This phenomenon draws from social judgment theory and assumes that “individuals evaluate the legitimacy of an object from a personally determined latitude of acceptance” (Vallone, Ross and Lepper, 1985). Since the classic study, several researchers have tested further implications of the hostile media phenomenon. Among those researchers, a number of them have found that Republicans and political conservatives usually hold stronger hostile media perceptions than Democrats or the politically liberal (Eveland & Shah, 2003; Lee 2005; Mutz & Martin, 2001; Stalder, 2009; Morris, 2007). This paper reviews the current literature on media trust, media bias, and the hostile media phenomenon, and presents a new method for studying the effects of these phenomena. The study explores the effects political attitudes have on source selection and perceptions of media bias, and poses the research question: What holds more weight when evaluating news messages: the message (content) or the messenger (source)?

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts in Social Sciences (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis (open access)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Year dc:date.available

2011

Author dc:creator

• Eisenhart, Emily E.

Contributors dc:contributor

• F. Erik Brooks
• Eric Silva

• ETD
• News media
• Political attitudes
• Media bias
• Hostile media phenomenon
• Media trust
• Social judgment theory
• News media audience perceptions
• Journalism

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/620

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-1620