CAN MEDIA EDUCATION REDUCE SUSCEPTIBILITY TO MEDIA BIAS

2012

Abstract 1. Past research has shown that people judge a TV interviewee more favorably when the interviewer's nonverbal behavior toward the interviewee is friendly rather than hostile. This study examined whether students who participated in a media literacy course could be less susceptible to this media bias. Two groups of high school students (media literacy students and a control group) were shown a brief interview in which the interviewer's nonverbal behavior was friendly or hostile toward the interviewed politician.

Newspaper Research Journal, 2009

Researchers found those exposed to a media literacy presentation were less likely to perceive a story on a controversial issue to be biased.

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 2010

Previous research demonstrated that viewers' judgments of an interviewee are influenced by the nonverbal behavior of the interviewer. In studies of this media bias effect, judges view a short political interview with a friendly or a hostile interviewer, and then rate their ...

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 2022

The Media Bias Effect (MBE) represents the biasing influence of the nonverbal behavior of a TV interviewer on viewers' impressions of the interviewee. In the MBE experiment, participants view a 4-min made-up political interview in which they are exposed only to the nonverbal behavior of the actors. The interviewer is friendly toward the politician in one experimental condition and hostile in the other. The interviewee was a confederate filmed in the same studio, and his clips are identical in the two conditions. This experiment was used successfully in a series of studies in several countries (Babad and

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 2005

Media bias was investigated through the effects of a TV interviewer's preferential behavior on the image of the interviewee in the eyes of the viewers. Judges viewed a political interview with either a friendly or a hostile interviewer then rated their impressions of the interviewed politician, whose behavior was identical in all conditions. The preferential nonverbal behavior of the interviewer (controlling for recognition and comprehension of verbal content) systematically influenced viewers' ratings of the politician. The effect consisted mainly of damage to the politician in the hostile interviewer condition. Describing the interviewee as a professor yielded a similar preferential behavior effect. A strong halo effect was identified, but it was ruled out as the mechanism accounting for the interviewer effect.

This review explicates the past, present and future of theory and research concerning audience perceptions of the media as well as the effects that perceptions of media have on audiences. Before the sections that examine media perceptions and media effects perceptions, we first identify various psychological concepts and processes involved in generating media-related perceptions. In the first section, we analyze two types of media perceptions: media trust/credibility perceptions and bias perceptions, focusing on research on the Hostile Media Perception. In both cases, we address the potential consequences of these perceptions. In the second section, we assess theory and research on perceptions of media effects (often referred to as Presumed Influence) and their consequences (referred to as the Influence of Presumed Influence). As examples of Presumed Influence, we evaluate the literature on the Persuasive Press Inference and the Third-Person Perception. The bodies of research on media perceptions and media effects perceptions have been featured prominently in the top journals of the field of mass communication over the past 20 years. Here we bring them together in one synthetic theoretical review.

International Journal of Law, Government and Communication

In the context of today’s media realities which is influenced by rich access to news and information from various media sources, many viewers are unaware that media often constructed its content to persuade individuals of a certain intended message. However, recent years have seen the declining trust towards the media, which contributes to public belief that media has no longer adhere to its traditional media ethics. This study aims to investigate the biases and persuasion strategies as utilised in media interviews. Investigation on the interpersonal meanings articulated by the interactants was carried out based on their Mood choices. The data were obtained from two transcriptions of television interviews on the death of Muammar Gaddafi. Questions which were employed using the WH- interrogatives was found to be more superior in subjects which are linked to the death of the said figure. This finding highlights the use of Mood choices by the interviewers as they wish to reduce the pre...

Research about the way people perceive news media has made progress in three parallel avenues, the first used the concept of credibility and trust, the second of hostile media perceptions and the third-focusing on perceptions of media impact-used the concept of the third person perception. In this chapter, we argue that these three avenues are empirically and conceptually connected and that they are related to media effects in three ways: First, people's mistrust of media has been found to moderate the influence of media on the audience in an array of studies.

Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2007

The current research investigated whether bias exists in newspapers that are considered liberal or conservative, and whether this bias influences public opinion of events. Participants were college students (N = 67) who were enrolled in a 4-year university (n = 33) or a community college (n = 34). Participants were shown photographs and short articles relating to a presidential debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. Participants completed questionnaires relating to their opinions of the candidates. Results showed statistical significance within groups before and after exposure to the newspaper clippings.

The International Encyclopedia of Media …, 2013

Research about the way people perceive news media has made progress in three parallel avenues. The fi rst used the concept of credibility and trust; the second used the concept of hostile media perceptions; and the third -focusing on perceptions of media impact -used the concept of the third -person perception. In this chapter, we argue that these three avenues are empirically and conceptually connected and that they are related to media effects in three ways. First, people ' s mistrust of media has been found to moderate the infl uence of media on the audience in an array of studies. Second, people ' s perceptions regarding media impact matter, albeit indirectly, because people react to these perceptions as if they were real. Third, the effects of perceptions of media infl uence are amplifi ed when they are coupled with perceptions of media hostility, especially among audiences that are personally and emotionally involved in the issues on which media texts report.