Algorithmic or Human Source? Examining Relative Hostile Media Effect With a Transformer-Based Framework

The relative hostile media effect suggests that partisans tend to perceive the bias of slanted news differently depending on whether the news is slanted in favor of or against their sides. To explore the effect of an algorithmic vs. human source on hostile media perceptions, this study conducts a 3 (author attribution: human, algorithm, or human-assisted algorithm) x 3 (news attitude: pro-issue, neutral, or anti-issue) mixed factorial design online experiment (<em>N</em> = 511). This study uses a transformer-based adversarial network to auto-generate comparable news headlines. The framework was trained with a dataset of 364,986 news stories from 22 mainstream media outlets. The results show that the relative hostile media effect occurs when people read news headlines attributed to all types of authors. News attributed to a sole human source is perceived as more credible than news attributed to two algorithm-related sources. For anti-Trump news headlines, there exists an interaction effect between author attribution and issue partisanship while controlling for people’s prior belief in machine heuristics. The difference of hostile media perceptions between the two partisan groups was relatively larger in anti-Trump news headlines compared with pro-Trump news headlines.

Facebook News Sharing, Hostile Perceptions of News Content, and Political Participation

This study explored Facebook users’ hostile perceptions of shared news content and its relationship with their political participation. This study conducted an online experiment with a 3 (news slant: pro-attitudinal, neutral, counter-attitudinal) × 3 (news sharer: in-group, neutral, out-group) between-subjects design. This experiment was administered in the context of the abortion issue in South Korea. Consistent with the hostile media effect, the news slant (pro-attitudinal, counter-attitudinal) of shared news content was found to influence Facebook users’ hostile perceptions of shared news content. Out-group sharers also significantly affected their hostile perceptions of shared news content. However, in-group sharers did not. Furthermore, the effect of Facebook users’ hostile perceptions of shared news content on their willingness for political participation was moderated by their prior minority perception in the general society. Only for Facebook users with high levels of prior minority perception in the general society, their hostile perceptions of shared news content appeared to encourage their political engagement. The implications of these findings were discussed.

ESPN and the Hostile Media Effect

Recent layoffs at sports media giant Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) have caused some commentators to question whether the network’s forays into social and political commentary are at the heart of shrinking revenue streams. Several conservative political commentators have accused ESPN of a liberal bias in their recent coverage of social issues within and related to sport. This study examined the political perception of ESPN by audiences, by applying a perceptual theory of communication known as the hostile media effect. Prior research of the hostile media effect has found that audiences with strongly held beliefs subjectively perceive media bias relative to their own beliefs, whether or not any actual bias is being demonstrated by the media source in question. Through a nationwide survey, study subjects were asked about their political leanings, media consumption, and views on ESPN. Statistical analysis found that individuals with conservative political leanings were more likely than others to view ESPN as hostile to their political beliefs, and those who perceived ESPN as hostile media were less likely to trust ESPN to cover social and political issues fairly.