THE CAUSES OF HOSTILE MEDIA JUDGMENTS

This research investigated the mechanisms involved in the hostile medi a effect, in which partisans tend to judge news coverage as biased aga inst their own side. Subjects on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the abortion issue were shown television news coverage o f both issues. They were then tested for memory of program content and judgments of bias and imbalance in coverage. Mideast partisans judged coverage to be biased against their own side, replicating previous fi ndings; abortion partisans showed a much less consistent pattern of ho stile media judgments. Prior beliefs about media bias, together with i ssue attitudes, were found to account for hostile media judgments. Sub jects also tended to selectively categorize specific items in a direct ion favorable to their attitude, a process tending to inhibit hostile media judgments. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.