Hostile Media Effect As An Intergroup Phenomenon

In the end of 2016,Oxford Dictionary defines the word of the year as "post-truth",and believes that we are currently in the social settings in which emotions and personal beliefs are more powerful to influence and shape public opinions than facts and truths."Post-truth" refers to the fact that statements about objective facts are less influenced to public opinion than appeals to emotions and personal beliefs.This may indeed be the case.Even if the mass media has adhered to the principles of journalistic professionalism,it has presented different viewpoints and made it as objectively neutral as possible.However,many audiences still perceive bias against them in the reports.This phenomenon is called "hostile media effect"(also known as hostile media perception).This thesis traces back to the origins of the research about hostile media effect,defines its concept,and sorts out current studies from the aspects of its evidence of existence,factors affected(moderated variables),and explanatory mechanisms(mediated variables).After literature review,we found out that although some scholars have noticed the relationship between social identity theory and hostile media effects,still they rarely placed HME within the framework of intergroup phenomenon,and in China the research about HME has always been rather scarce.Therefore,this study believes that the hostile media effect should be regarded as an intergroup phenomenon,and the role of group identification and group status in HME should be explored.In this study,in the ecosystem of Chinese Internet public opinions,through the controversial figure of PG-ONE,we verify that the ingroup identification and group status have a moderated effect on HME.If PG-ONE's fans and antis perceive that their group status is lower,or their ingroup identification is very strong,then it is more likely to present a significant hostile media effect.