Influence of Hostile Media Perception on Willingness to Engage in Discursive Activities: An Examination of Mediating Role of Media Indignation

By Hyunseo Hwang, Zhongdang Pan, Ye Sun. 2008

137 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study examines the mediating role of media indignation, a set of negative emotional reactions to media coverage perceived to have partisan bias, between hostile media perception (HMP) and its consequences in behavioral willingness, more specifically, willingness to engage in discursive activities. It is examined together with a cognitive pathway through individuals' inference on opinion climate. Data from a web-based survey of university students (N = 696) on three controversial issues were analyzed. Findings showed that the degree of perceived partisan bias in mainstream media coverage on an issue was positively related to the intensity of media indignation and levels of incongruity between one's own opinion and perceived majority opinion. Media indignation in turn had a significant and positive effect on willingness to engage in discursive activities across all three issues, mediating the effect of HMP on behavioral willingness, whereas self-majority opinion incongruity did not. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Subfields: Communication, Literature and Literary Theory, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1b3f2e7a5c477a217fb64bc8526c419149f2f28d

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Communication

In Literature and Literary Theory

Richard P. Bagozzi

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Online Political Discourse: Exploring Differences in Effects of Civil and Uncivil Disagreement in News Website Comments (2017, background): “This process may boost hostile perceptions of those who perpetuated the incivility, and these negative perceptions in turn ignite an interest in political involvement to defend one’s viewpoints (Hwang et al., 2008).”
Consumer response to corporate irresponsible behavior: Moral emotions and virtues (2013, background): “Hwang, Pan, and Sun (2008) found that contempt, anger, and disgust, along with resentment, formed a factor which they termed, media indignation, and which mediated the effects of people’s exposure to hostile media on their willingness to express criticism of the media, voice their own views, and…”
A Three-Decade Retrospective on the Hostile Media Effect (2015, unknown): “It can stimulate political discussion and participation (e.g., Barnidge & Rojas, 2014; Hwang et al., 2008; Rojas, 2010), by strengthening partisan attitudes, bolstering commitment to a strongly held cause, and propelling individuals to translate attitudes into political action.”