Abstract
News outlets rely on social media to freely distribute content, offering a venue for users to comment on news. This exposes individuals to user comments prior to reading news articles, which can influence perceptions of news content. A 2 × 2 between-subject experiment (N = 690) tested the hostile media bias theory via the influence of comments seen before viewing a news story on perceptions of bias and credibility. Results show that user comments induce hostile media perceptions.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 433-448 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Newspaper Research Journal |
Volume | 42 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2021 |
Keywords
- credibility
- hostile media bias
- hostile media effect
- online news