AUM Media Messages that Support My Precedent Views Discussion

I’m working on a other multi-part question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

Read the short article  on page 325 ” Hostile Media Effect” and answer the questions in complete sentence form.

• In what ways do you selectively expose yourself to media messages?
• Do you generally listen to the same news commentators rather than seeking alternative voices?
• Do you watch the same shows your friends watch, or do you look for something different?

this is the article

Selective exposure theories tell us that people tend to consume media that reinforce or support their own views. Yet, some media researchers counter this idea. Why? Researchers have found that people on both sides of an issue can be exposed to the same media coverage, and when asked what they thought of the coverage, both groups say that it was biased against their views. If both sides find the same coverage biased, it may undermine the idea that people only seek messages that confirm their views. Thus, the researchers concluded that although bias in media news stories surely does occur, another kind of bias rests with the viewer—a phenomenon called the “hostile media effect” because it reflects a general hostility toward media.

In their study, Albert C. Gunther and Kathleen Schmitt (2004) used the controversy over genetically modified foods to understand the hostile media effect. In part, their study found that regardless of respondents’ position on genetically modified foods, they viewed news media stories as biased against them. However, when respondents saw the same information in a student essay format, the hostility tended to be absent or at least minimal. The researchers conclude, then, that the hostile media effect is created by the perception that a media message has the potential to influence large numbers of people for or against a particular viewpoint.

If the selective exposure theory is correct, and people tend to select media messages that support their own views, then why would they interpret these messages to be biased against them? There is no easy answer, but perhaps questions of bias and media selection need to be thought about in more complicated ways. When charges of bias arise against a media source, how often do we consider that the bias may be our own?

SOURCE: Gunther, A. C., & Schmitt, K. (2004). Mapping boundaries of the hostile media effect. Journal of Communication, 54, 55–70.