Vallone, R.P., Ross, L., & Lepper, M. R. The hostile media phenomenon:
Biased Perception and Perceptions of Media Bias in Coverage of the "Beirut
Massacre". JPSP, 1985, 49, 577-585.
"After viewing identical samples of major network television coverage
of the Beirut massacre, both pro-Israeli and pro-Arab partisans rated these
programs, and those responsible for them, as being biased against their
Preliminary Study: Media Treatment of Carter vs Reagan
During this campaign, one could find editorials claiming that a particular
coverage of an event was biased toward both sides. A phone interview just
before the election showed that while most felt media coverage was generally
unbiased, those who felt is was biased believe it was biased against their
Media Coverage of the Beirut Massacre: Method
They recruited 144 Stanford students with varying initial views on the Middle
East crisesis. They initially filled out questionnaires detailing their
initial knowledge of the massacre and general sympathies about the Middle
East. They divided the groups into pro-Israeli, pro-Arab, and neutral.
They viewed the tapes in groups of 6-12. After viewing they also filled
out forms about the objectivity and fairness of the news segments. They
idenitfied such things as the % favorable, neutray, and unfavorable references
to Israel, and estimate how many neutral viewers would change to more positive
or negative views about Israel.
Each side saw the news reports as biased in favor of the other side. Pro-arabs
thought the programs applied lower standards to Israel or focused less on
Israel's role in massacre. The pro-Isarael group saw exactly the opposite.
Both felt the personal views of the news staffs were opposite their own.
Further analysis showed that the two groups actually "saw" different
news programs. The pro-Arabs heard 42% opinions favorable to Israel and
26% unfavorable. while the pro-Isaraeli group saw 16% favorable and 57%
unfavorable. Besides being perceived differently, the program content was
evaluated differently too. It was the more knowledgable subjects that felt
the media was biased against them, because they had more information with
which to find discrepancies.