The Story Behind the Story

The Effect of Self-Referential News Coverage on Perceptions of Credibility and

Trust in Government

1)Does consuming media criticism affect perceptions of the government and/or the press?

2)Is this effect different for traditional media criticism and comedic media criticism?

CENTRAL QUESTIONS

MEDIA CRITICISM

• Novel feature of news coverage• Grew with rise of cable news, web• Driven by organizational competition• Overwhelmingly negative

Why would this affect perceptions of the press?

• Media criticism is virulent and hostile

• Such content tends to decrease affect toward its target and source

• Media criticism focuses on how the news is made

• Perceptions of process tend to decrease trust in institutions

Incivility Process

Why would this affect perceptions of the government?

• Public perceives media and government as related institutions (Mediatization, New Institutionalism)

• Institutional competition may result in spillover effect

• Unclear if this negative portrayal of press will make government look better or worse

THREE GROUPSSerious Control Comedic

Exposed to traditional media self-criticism (David Carr, Howard Kurtz, etc.)

Exposed to straight reporting on same events covered in media criticism

Exposed to media-focused content from late-night comedy programs & satire sites

Change in perceptions by group

Media credibility

Media trust

Trust in leaders

Trust in government

Serious

--

+ (ns)

- (ns)

Control

-- (ns)

- (ns)

None

Comedic

--++ (ns)

Overall ResultsPerceptions of government

Exposure to media criticism resulted in greater trust in political

leaders

No change in trust in government

Perceptions of the press No change

Comedic v. serious media criticismNo significant differences

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

Press self-criticism benefits government

Negative media criticism prompts positive comparison to government

Press tearing itself down results in more trust placed in political leaders

Attention matters

Greater change in attitudes for those who report paying little attention to politics

Method

Design: Experiment, pretest/posttest

Participants: 135 undergraduates

Procedure: Two exposures, one week apart, self-administered w/exposure check

Apparatus: Real, unaltered stories taken from recent media coverage

Perceptions measured

Perceptions of the pressCredibility of press as institutionTrust in press as institution

Perceptions of governmentTrust in political leaders

Trust in government

Table 1: Pre- and post-test scores and mean change, by group

Pre-test Post-test Within-group

difference Between-group

difference1 Media credibility -0.01

Serious 3.13 2.99 -0.14* Comedic 3.16 2.93 -0.24** Control 3.12 2.95 -0.18**

Media trust -0.09

Serious 3.11 2.98 -0.13a Comedic 3.21 2.99 -0.22** Control 3.11 3.01 -0.10

Trust in political leaders 0.19*

Serious 2.57 2.68 0.11 Comedic 2.45 2.61 0.15* Control 2.65 2.59 -0.06

Trust in government -0.01

Serious 2.80 2.69 -0.11 Comedic 2.53 2.63 0.10 Control 2.48 2.48 0.00

* Difference is significant at the p < .05 level using a one-tailed ANOVA test. ** Difference is significant at the p < .01 level using a one-tailed ANOVA test. a Difference is significant at the p < .10 level using a one-tailed ANOVA test.

All indicators are the mean of multiple measures assessed on a scale of 1 to 5. 1 Between-group difference represents the result of subtracting the mean difference between the pre-test and post-test scores for the control group from those of participants receiving the treatment.

Table 2: Mean change by level of attention to public affairs

Low attention High attention Media credibility

Serious -0.31 -0.01 Comedic -0.35 -0.12 Control -0.22 -0.14

Media trust

Serious -0.26 -0.04 Comedic -0.42 -0.03 Control -0.13 -0.09

Trust in political leaders

Serious 0.21 0.04 Comedic 0.16 0.15 Control -0.05 -0.06

Trust in government

Serious -0.03 -0.18 Comedic 0.00 0.20 Control 0.14 -0.18

Michael Barthel Department of Communication

University of Washingtonmbarthel@uw.edu

Ariel Hasell Department of Communication

University of California Santa Barbaraariel@umail.ucsb.edu