HME文献19 Democratic Consequences of Hostile Media Perceptions The Case of Gaza Settlers.pdfVIP

10.1177/1081180Tsfati,Press/PoliticsCohen / Democratic Consequences of Hostile Media P10(4) Fall 2005 erceptions Democratic Consequences of Hostile Media Perceptions The Case of Gaza Settlers Yariv Tsfati and Jonathan Cohen In this article,the authors examine the consequences of the hostile-media phenome- non and advance the argument that people’s perceptions of hostile coverage shape their trust in mainstream media institutions.Media trust in turn affects trust in democ- racy and willingness to accept democratic decisions.These ideas are tested on a sam- ple of Jewish Settlers in the Gaza Strip,in the weeks before a Likud Party vote on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip and evacuate settlers from their homes. Findings show that hostile media perceptions were negatively related to settlers’ trust in media and that trust in media was positively related to trust in democracy, which, in turn, affected settlers’ intentions to forcefully resist Sharon’s evacuation plan. No direct association was found between hostile media perceptions and intentions to forcefully resist evacuation. Keywords: hostile media perceptions; trust in media; trust in democracy; Gaza settler Democracy serves as a mechanism for solving disputes between opposing ideol- ogies and groups through debate and discourse. This mechanism encourages people to obey laws they disagree with and that go against their individual inter- ests in the name of majority rule and of the collective good.In this sense,democ- racy replaces the use of force as a coordinating principle,allowing the conduct o