Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Studies of the hostile media effect have found that 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. The current study used an experimental design to test exemplification of public opinion as a theoretical explanation for the hostile media effect. Exemplification of public opinion (as manipulated by the ratio of supportive to unsupportive quotes in the article) was found to affect article bias perceptions among all participants, but especially among members of a partisan group. Perceptions of story bias mediated the relationship between exemplification of public opinion and perceptions of how influential the story would be in changing others’ opinions about the partisan group.