Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Studies of the hostile media effect (HME) have found that partisans, those who are highly involved with controversial issues or groups in the news, tend to perceive news stories about those issue or groups as biased, even though other uninvolved individuals would label such stories as balanced or neutral. A previous study found that the quotes used to exemplify public opinion in a news story predicted partisans’ perceptions of story bias and its influence on others. The current study examined the extent to which anecdotes that exemplified misdeeds committed by members of a partisan group affected group and non-group members’ perceptions of story bias, thus further testing the ability of exemplification theory to explain the HME. The study also added a new variable to the study of the HME: intent to continue to consume news produced by the offending source. Anecdotal exemplification did not predict hostile media judgments. However, hostile media judgments were associated with less intent to read the given paper and stories by the given reporter in the future.