Introduction

Author(s):  
Sharon Coen ◽  
Peter Bull

In contemporary Western societies, journalism often comes under fire. This is due in part to the increased economic threat posed to the profession by a steady decline in the consumption of news but also to increasing scepticism in the value of news and the media in general. This introductory chapter summarizes the theoretical approaches taken in this book, highlighting the unique contributions that a media psychological approach can make to our understanding of news-making and the construction of meaning. The chapter presents an overview of how psychology can contribute to our understanding of news, and it describes in relation to journalism uniquely media psychological constructs (parasocial interactions and the third-person effect). The chapter concludes with a chapter-by-chapter summary of the rest of the book.

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunyi Cho ◽  
Miejeong Han

This study represents the first cross-cultural investigation of the third person effect hypothesis, which states that individuals overestimate mass media effect on others (Davidson, 1983). It is predicted that the difference between perceived effects of the media on self vs. other will be greater in an individualistic than collectivistic culture, because in the latter self and other are not as separate and the motivation for self-enhancement is not as salient as in the former. Survey data were collected from 671 South Korean (n=351) and U.S. (n=320) college students regarding their perceptions about the effects of beer commercials, liquor advertisements, television news about AIDS, and television news about the effects of smoking. The third person effect of undesirable media content emerged from both American and Korean samples, but the size was consistently greater among Americans compared to Koreans. Likewise, the first person effect was greater among Americans rather than Koreans.


Author(s):  
Matthias Hofer

Abstract. This was a study on the perceived enjoyment of different movie genres. In an online experiment, 176 students were randomly divided into two groups (n = 88) and asked to estimate how much they, their closest friends, and young people in general enjoyed either serious or light-hearted movies. These self–other differences in perceived enjoyment of serious or light-hearted movies were also assessed as a function of differing individual motivations underlying entertainment media consumption. The results showed a clear third-person effect for light-hearted movies and a first-person effect for serious movies. The third-person effect for light-hearted movies was moderated by level of hedonic motivation, as participants with high hedonic motivations did not perceive their own and others’ enjoyment of light-hearted films differently. However, eudaimonic motivations did not moderate first-person perceptions in the case of serious films.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630512095517
Author(s):  
Fan Yang ◽  
Michael Horning

Rampant fake news on social media has drawn significant attention. Yet, much remains unknown as to how such imbalanced evaluations of self versus others could shape social media users’ perceptions and their subsequent attitudes and behavioral intentions regarding social media news. An online survey ( N = 335) was conducted to examine the third person effect (TPE) in fake news on social media and suggested that users perceived a greater influence of fake news on others than on themselves. However, although users evaluated fake news as socially undesirable, they were still unsupportive of government censorship as a remedy. In addition, the perceived prevalence of fake news leads audiences to reported significantly less willingness to share all news on social media either online or offline.


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