Global news – global identity? The relationship between media consumption, perception of identity, and ethnocentrism

Abstract

AbstractIn line with the common ingroup identity model, the present research investigated whether factors beyond contact conditions are associated with the emergence of a shared identity perception and outgroup attitudes. Concretely, we reasoned that higher consumption of global news would be positively related to a stronger global identity, which in turn would be negatively correlated with ethnocentrism. In contrast, consumption of local news should be associated with a local identity, which would then be positively related to ethnocentrism. To test these ideas, one cross‐sectional (N = 576) and one longitudinal study (N = 410) were carried out at an Austrian university. As hypothesized, global news consumption was associated with a stronger global identity, which then accounted for reduced ethnocentrism. However, only in the cross‐sectional study, we found empirical evidence that local news interest is positively correlated with ethnocentrism mediated by local identity.