HME文献7 Broad reach or biased source Decomposing the hostile media effect.pdfVIP

Journal of Communication ISSN 0021-9916 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Broad Reach or Biased Source? Decomposing the Hostile Media Effect Albert C. Gunther Janice L. Liebhart Department of Life Sciences Communication, University of Wisconsin—Madison, WI 53706 This experiment examined theoretical questions surrounding the hostile media effect— the tendency of partisans on a controversial issue to see news coverage of that issue as biased in favor of the other side. Using opposing groups of partisans in the debate over genetically modified organisms, we tested the influence of source (journalist vs. college student) and reach (mass media vs. classroom composition) on perceptions of bias. The data revealed effects for both factors. Earlier research supported several processing mechanisms underlying the hostile media effect, but using stringent tests, we found evi- dence only for a categorization bias. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00295.x Most people occasionally consider news coverage to be biased—at times, perhaps, quite rightly (Dearing, 1995; Niven, 2004). But people who have strong opinions about or deep involvement in a controversial issue, people often referred to as partisans, are themselves prone to a systematic bias in their evaluations of news coverage. This bias has been termed the hostile media perception (Vallone, Ross Lepper, 1985). It is often difficult to say with certainty that perceptions of bias reflect prejudices of the observer rather than deficiencies in the message because both types of judg- ments are inherently subjective. But the hostile media perception (also known as the hostile media effect) has been reported with some confidence because partisans on both sides of an issue tend to see the same news coverage of that issue as