Abstract
This study investigates the effects of media exposure on individuals' perception of opinion diversity and the psychological mechanisms underlying such effects. We compare the differential contributions of monopolistic with pluralistic media messages and test two conceptual models: The first delineates a mechanism of direct impact of media exposure on opinion perception; the second specifies a mechanism that relates to social projection effects. Using data from telephone interviews of a random sample of 595 Chinese citizens, we find that perceived opinion diversity is positively related to exposure to pluralistic media messages and negatively related to exposure to monopolistic media messages. Furthermore, opinion extremity is found to mediate such relationships.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 422-445 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Journal | Communication Research |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2011 |
Scopus Subject Areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Communication
- Linguistics and Language
User-Defined Keywords
- perceived opinion diversity
- pluralistic versus monopolistic media messages
- social projection