The Influence of News Brand Cues and Story Content on Citizen Perceptions of News Bias

Bibliographic Data

ID12977243
AuthorsMinchul Kim (0000-0001-8168-1087, Sungkyunkwan University, corresponding author), Maria Elizabeth Grabe (0000-0001-6372-8363, Indiana University Bloomington)
Year2020
Volume27
Issue1
Pages76-95
Publication date2020-10-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe International Journal of Press/Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1940-1612 • E-ISSN: 1040-1620
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1940161220963580
OpenAlexW3091996722
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited36

Mainstream U.S. news media stand accused of bias against the forty-fifth president, Donald Trump. The relentlessness and intensity of these accusations over the course of Trump’s presidency are unusual and make for an opportunity to study perceptions of news bias. During the experiment reported here, participants ( N = 315) were exposed to biased (pro- and anti-Trump) news stories that were attributed to either CNN, Breitbart , or remained unattributed to a news brand. After reading the stories, participants rated the stories for their relative slantedness in favor of, neutral, or against the president. Findings reveal that news users are sensitized to the president’s accusations of bias against CNN . For example, anti-Trump stories were rated as more slanted than pro-Trump stories when they were attributed to CNN . This was not the case when the same stories were attributed to Breitbart . Interestingly, unattributed biased news received the highest ratings for slantedness

Advertising · Business · Mainstream · Media bias · Media studies · News media · Perception · Political science · Politics · Presidency · Sociology · Law · Media Influence and Politics · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Social Media and Politics

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