Social media and a hostile view of news generate distrust for mass media

Social media usage is at an all time high, while trust in media coverage is at an all time low

Many studies have been done to analyze the media and if the coverage that they generate is fair and unbiased. One article published online by Gallup, found that Americans’ trust in mass media has
generally been edging downward from higher levels in the late 1900s, and the early 2000s.

Gallup also explained that  “mainstream” news has been left aside as Americans “seek out their own personal veins of getting information”. Because of the mass usage of social media outlets as a source of information, individuals can pick and choose what online news casting sites or social media accounts to frequent that coincide with their personal beliefs.

Two major social media outlets today are Twitter and Facebook, both of which have accounts that favor a number of different biases. People can pick and choose what they see on their timelines for both of these outlets. For example, someone that follows Fox 5’s Twitter account is most likely not going to follow MSNBC’s account. There are so many accounts that support specific beliefs, and people have the ability to surround themselves with views that support their own.

Due to the mass media coverage increasing in today’s society, the role that media has on public opinion has too greatly increased. Millions across America today rely on social media forums such as Twitter and Facebook to get their daily information of international and national news.

According to an article, “about six-in-ten online Millennials (61%) report getting political news on Facebook in a given week”. This statistic shows that more than half of the millennial generation, which is made up of individuals who were born between the early 1980s and the 2000s, rely on social media posts as their daily source of news coverage.

A poll found that trust in the media was lowest among Americans aged 18 to 49. Because this cohort makes up the majority of social media users, the biases that the media is being accused of are recycling themselves throughout different social media sites by like mined users or subscribers.  

With a variety of portals to receive information comes a variety of opinions in which these portals support. Americans may gravitate toward outlets that support their own beliefs without being cognizant that they are doing so.  American audiences may also be guilty of falsely accusing media outlets of being prejudiced when they are generating information that is in contrast to their own beliefs.

The majority of Americans perceive biases in news outlets

The hostile media perception was analyzed in a study that focused on whether individuals believed news coverage of largely controversial events was seemingly biased. Their results stated that individuals did believe news coverage of controversial events was unfairly depicted and hostile to their personal beliefs and views.

This study further analyzed why many Americans took this stand. One reason explained by researches was that many Americans believe that the truth is either black or white.  Researchers also suggested that once audiences feel as though a news outlet has questioned their beliefs, they will forever internalize that site as being hostile toward their beliefs.

In a recent study it was determined that Americans feel that news organizations are generally biased in their reporting. These numbers have steadily increased from 45% to 56% in fifteen years. This steady increase can be attributed to the idea that once an individual has the belief that the media is biased; it is extremely hard to have a neutral opinion on newly printed or generated news coverage. 

The hostile media perception can also be seen in the world of politics. In a study, researchers found that even when two separate groups read the exact same article, they experience a sense of the hostile media perception.

This study also offered suggestions behind why the hostile media perception takes place so often. One major suggestion was that even if individuals are blind to the current news content, they will therefore use their predisposed beliefs as a means to judge the degree of bias in current news.

The hostile media perception has been examined and critiqued by numerous researchers in multiple studies. Due to this phenomenon and the growing dependence on social media forums to obtain daily news coverage, many individuals are creating their own bubbles filled with information that only agrees with their personal opinions. Both of these factors directly correlate to the increasing number of Americans who believe that news coverage today is biased.