Hostile Media Perceptions

Hostile Media Perceptions
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Hostile Media Perceptions
Answer 1
Hostile media effect refers to the divergent perceptions of balanced, evenhanded, and neutral media content. Different researchers have unique ways of defining hostile media effects. For instance, Kim and Hansen (2011) defined the phenomenon as the way partisans perceive neutral news reports to be biased against their side (Hansen & Kim, 2011). Christen, Chia, Liebhart, and Gunther (2001) define hostile media effect as individuals’ tendency to be significantly involved in a specific issue to perceive news coverage as biased, mainly against their viewpoint (Gunther, Christen, Liebhart, & Chia, 2001). In the section “Moderating Factors,” Richard Perloff describes things that increase the likelihood that the hostile media effect will be experienced rather than biased assimilation. One of the factors that the author discusses is involvement. In particular, the hostile media effect increases as people become more involved in a particular issue. Perloff asserts that involvement is categorized into three distinctive levels, namely low, medium, and high (Perloff, 2015). Low involvement is experienced when participants are less connected to a specific issue. On the contrary, high involvement occurs when individuals are more connected to a particular problem. Medium involvement entails being averagely involved in something. People are more connected with things that affect their lives directly. For example, any news report involving water contamination is likely to have a high involvement. Besides, individuals cannot live without water. If water from a specific region is said to be contaminated, the hostile media effect would have a high likelihood to be experienced since the issue touches the lives of numerous people. Some types of involvement, such as affective and value-relevant, highly influence individuals’ emotional reactions, affecting hostile media perceptions. In other words, the more people are involved in something, the more they understand it better. As such, if such a problem is reported in the media, individuals are likely to give their views about the issue. People can criticize how the news is reported if the media misses some facts, leading to hostile media perceptions. As a result, individuals highly involved in a particular issue are likely to perceive its news coverage as biased against their viewpoints.
Answer 2
One has witnessed a hostile media effect in real-life. The former president of the United States of America (USA), Donald Trump, believed that his administration best dealt with issues affecting Americans. As such, Trump did not want to be criticized by the media. He was too involved in media affairs, and his response to specific problems was not the best. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 an international threat to humanity during his tenure. However, instead of implementing proper measures to curb the spread of this deadly virus, Trump was invested in fighting against the media. For sure, it appeared as if Trump did not believe that coronavirus was such a deadly diseas...