Diversified exposure mitigates biased perceptions: Involvement, media exposure, and hostile media perceptions toward coverage of U.S.-China trade disputes

Abstract

This study empirically tested the proposition that diversified media exposure mediates the effect of involvement on hostile media perceptions (HMPs). Informed by social identity theory and the intergroup contact theory, the study examined issue involvement and cognitive involvement as the antecedents of diversified media exposure concerning U.S.-China trade dispute and tested how diversified media exposure affected peoples’ perceptual bias of U.S. media as out-group media. Using the data collected from a sample of 1029 Chinese media users, the structural equation modeling indicated that issue involvement and cognitive involvement both escalated people's diversified media exposure. Out-group media exposure significantly reduced HMP, whereas expanded information seeking boosted HMP. The serial mediation model also reveals that extended discussion and expanded information seeking mediated the relationship between involvement and HMP.