Media Literacy and Perceived Media Bias

• In Event: Trust in News: Comparative Perspectives

Abstract

A decreasing share of Americans trust the news. A possible explanation for this is that higher levels of political polarization have increased people’s perception of the media being biased against their side (hostile media effect). We study a potential amplifier and a potential moderator of the hostile media effect: Confidence in one’s own media literacy, and actual media literacy. Using questions from a representative US survey (CES 2021), we find that respondents who are more confident in their ability to detect fake news are more likely to perceive the media as increasingly biased. We then measure people’s actual ability to identify false information and find that it is negatively associated with the perception that news have become more biased. Based on these findings, we propose that policies to improve media literacy could at least partially restore Americans’ trust in the news. Further, using the 2022 CES survey fielded before and after the midterm election, we will first corroborate the main finding, i.e. the correlation between media literacy and perceived media bias. We then will examine the heterogenous effect of media literacy on perceived media bias depending on being winners and losers in the election.

Authors

• Greg Chih-Hsin Sheen, Academia Sinica

• Selina Hofstetter, Tecnológico de Monterrey