Assessing News Bias in the Age of a Polarized Media Environment: How Pre-Existing Skepticism Toward a Partisan News Outlet Affects Perceived News Bias

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Poster Session: Political Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

This study investigates how people identifying with a political party assess news bias in a polarized news media environment. We conducted an online experiment with a between-subjects design. Participants (N = 228) read the same news story, but were told that the news was from an either pro-Republican, neutral, or pro-Democrat news outlet. We found that attributing a news story to a news outlet aligned with an opposing party influenced the perception of news bias, irrespective of the leaning of the story. More importantly, partisans perceived the news to be biased only if they had pre-existing skepticism toward the news outlet. Our findings suggest that cross-cutting exposure (i.e. consuming news from outlets aligned with an opposing party) may not produce desirable outcomes because pre-existing skepticism towards an out-group news outlet can undermine the perceived credibility of the news produced by the outlet.

Authors

• Minchul Kim, Indiana University

• Xiaoxia Cao, U of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

• Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Indiana U