Intraparty Hostility: Social Identity, Subidentity, and the Hostile Media Effect in a Contested Primary

Abstract

The hostile media effect (HME) has generally been tested in terms of in-groups and out-groups, with a “neutral” story in between. This ignores the nature of many social groups as comprising subgroups, often but not always sharing feelings of connectedness and purpose. In cases when bounded subgroups are at odds with one another, HME provides little guidance. A contested partisan primary provides such a case. This study takes identity centrality, candidate favorability, and perceived social network homogeneity as measures of partisanship and involvement, hypothesizing relationships between each and perceived bias against one’s candidate and party. Findings show that markers of candidate-focused social identity predict greater perceived bias against one’s candidate during the 2016 primary season, while party-focused identity fails to predict perceived bias against one’s party. This suggests that candidate support identity overrides plain partisanship during primaries, supporting concern that a heated primary might damage general election party unity. Subsequent postconvention findings suggest that the salience of candidate-focused identity fades, while homogeneity of one’s network regarding party support helps to make perceived hostility toward one’s party identity more salient. However, as campaigns become more candidate-centered, the contestation between nested candidate and party identities may grow fiercer.

KEYWORDS:

• hostile media effect
• social identity
• subgroup conflict
• 2016 U.S. presidential election

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aaron S. Veenstra

Aaron S. Veenstra is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and acting Associate Dean of the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His work deals with the role of social identity in information seeking and processing. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2009).

Benjamin A. Lyons

Benjamin A. Lyons is a Martin Fishbein Postdoctoral Fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, where he works in the Science of Science Communication division. He received his Ph.D. in mass communication and media arts (2016) from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His research focuses on contested beliefs and effective corrective strategies.

İ. Alev Degim Flannagan

İ. Alev Degim Flannagan graduated as a Valedictorian in 2009 from Bilkent University’s Department of Communication and Design, receiving her B.A. degree. She received her M.A. in media and visual studies from the same university in 2011. She received a Fulbright scholarship to pursue her Ph.D. at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2016). She has edited two books on social media and has several articles on film and philosophy. She continues to work on media studies.