Does outgroup media exposure reduce prejudice in real life? Testing mediated contact effects with media diets in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Mediated intergroup contact can reduce recipients’ prejudice. However, prior studies have mainly examined the effects of carefully selected stimuli, contents, and genres. We investigated whether outgroup exposure on the level of real-life, multi-channel media diets is associated with reduced prejudice. Prior scholarship offers contradictory expectations: We tested this with survey data from South Africa where the numeric group constellation and the media system should make blatant stereotyping in traditional media less likely. While social media interactions were associated with more positive attitudes, effects in traditional media varied across the type of medium and sample. This suggests that it will be difficult to associate a person’s general media usage with their prejudice. We discuss the challenges for future tests of the real-life potential of mediated intergroup contact. Altogether, our study dampens initial hopes and underlines the importance of targeted interventions and outstanding single contents.

KEYWORDS:

• Intergroup contact theory
• Media and stereotyping
• Media repertoire
• Race
• Cultivation theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The online supplementary material including additional analyses, data and code to replicate all analyses are available at https://osf.io/ezu7y/?view_only=bb9393979f4d40a1beab432b08b8d195.

Ethics approval

This research was approved by the Rhodes University Ethical Standards Committee (2013Q4–10).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2023.2232839

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Schieferdecker

David Schieferdecker is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Freie Universit[ae]t Berlin. He holds a PhD from the University of Mannheim, Germany. His research interests pertain to the interplay between media and group attitudes as well as to media effects on pro-social behavior.

Jake Harwood

Jake Harwood is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Arizona. He holds a PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara, His research interests focus on intergroup communication, particularly as it connects to human experiences with music.