Ego-Involvement and the Third Person Effect of Televised News Coverage

How do news coverage of a grassroot protest movement and perceived importance of the movement affect people’s participation in the movement? And does people’s inference of the effect of the news on themselves versus others make a difference in participation? Informed by the third-person effect hypothesis, we examine these questions in the context of the student-led Sunflower Movement in Taiwan that rose in opposition to a trade pact with China. In the study, we advanced three propositions: First, that the perceived effects of the protest news on oneself would be a better predictor of political participation than would perceived effects of such news on others. Second, that the perceived effect on oneself, not on others, would enhance the impact of issue importance on participation in the movement. And third, how people processed protest news would be another intermediate mechanism on subsequent participatory activities. We found support for these propositions in data collected from a probability sample of 1,137 respondents. The implications of the findings for the robust third-person effect research are discussed.

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The Role of Emotion in the Third-Person Effect of News Coverage of Opinion Poll Results

Journal of Political Communication ◽

10.35731/kpca.2012..26.001 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol null (26) ◽

pp. 5-37

Author(s):

김현정

Keyword(s):

News Coverage ◽

Opinion Poll ◽

Third Person Effect ◽

The Third ◽

Third Person ◽

The Third Person

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News Presentation and the Third-Person Effect of Violent Video Games

International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations ◽

10.4018/ijgcms.2019010102 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 18-30

Author(s):

Seong Choul Hong

Keyword(s):

Video Games ◽

Media Effects ◽

Video Game ◽

News Coverage ◽

Violent Video Games ◽

News Stories ◽

Third Person Effect ◽

The Third ◽

Third Person ◽

The Third Person

The present study explored the relationships between the tone in news presentations and the third-person effect. It investigated whether news stories about violent video games changed viewers perspectives based on the positively or negatively portrayed messages presented by the media. Overall, this study examined how news stories encouraged or discouraged viewers from supporting government regulations of violent video game content. An online survey of 388 American adults served as the main source of data collection. The study found that presumed media effects decreased on both others and self when viewers were exposed to positively presented news coverage. Subsequently, their support for regulating violent video games was reduced. However, no changes were found in third-person perception. In addition, those who were exposed to negative news coverage showed no significant changes in their perceived media effects on self, others, and support regulations on video game contents.

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Effects of Light-Hearted and Serious Entertainment on Enjoyment of the First and Third Person

Journal of Media Psychology Theories Methods and Applications ◽

10.1027/1864-1105/a000150 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 42-48 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Matthias Hofer

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Media Consumption ◽

First Person ◽

Online Experiment ◽

Entertainment Media ◽

Third Person Effect ◽

The Third ◽

Third Person ◽

Perceived Enjoyment ◽

The Third Person

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.

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