2012/04/10 by Albert C. L. G. Günther, Stephanie Edgerly, Heather Akin +1 · 3 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · Mathematics · #Social Media and Politics #Media Influence and Politics #Media Studies and Communication #Perception #Media bias #Psychology #Social psychology #Content analysis #Information processing #Content (measure theory) #Confirmation bias #Political science #Sociology #Politics #Cognitive psychology #Law #Mathematics
paper · doi:10.1177/0093650212441794
openalex publication_date 2012/04/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
One recent and conspicuous change in the U.S. media landscape has been the shift toward more markedly partisan news content. At the same time, data suggest that the media audience has become more polarized across a wide array of controversial and politicized issues. Recruiting from a group of highly polarized opponents of childhood vaccinations, this study employed a 3 (content bias) × 2 (partisan vs. neutral participants) × 2 (information source) experimental design to examine audience perceptions of information bias. The data supported an expected hostile media perception in the case of “fair and balanced” information, but different patterns in the other bias conditions suggest that content variables can sometimes disarm defensive processing.