The Effects of Social Identities and Issue Involvement on Perceptions of Media Bias Against Gun Owners and Intention to Participate in Discursive Activities: In the Context of the Media Coverage of Mass Shootings

ABSTRACT

This study examined how news audience’s predispositions (value and outcome involvement, political and gun ownership identities) predicted perceived media bias in mass shooting coverage against gun owners and intention to participate in discursive activities concerning gun issues. Republicans, strong identifiers of gun ownership, and those who perceived the outcome of tightening gun ownership would affect their lives predicted perceptions of media bias. Strong party identifiers, gun ownership identifiers, and those who displayed outcome involvement predicted intention to participate in discursive activities. Perceived media bias was not found to predict the intention to participate in discursive activities concerning gun issues. The results extended the theoretical discussion of corrective action hypothesis and increased our understanding of both individual-level (personal involvement) and social-psychological level (social identities) factors relevant to biased media perception.

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Notes on contributors

Xueying Zhang

Xueying Zhang (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at North Carolina A&T State University. Her research focuses on strategic communication, examining persuasive messaging, crisis communication, public opinions on controversial social issues and the role that social media and new media play in facilitating strategic communications. In her other research, she has applied the hostile media perception theory to examine how the news coverage of mass shootings influence public’s advocacy for people with mental health issues.

Mei-Chen Lin

Mei-Chen Lin (Ph.D., University of Kansas) is a professor in the School of Communication Studies at Kent State University. Her research focuses on the ways in which individuals’ social identities influence people’s perceptions, emotions, and evaluations of intergroup communication. Specifically, she conducts research in communicative issues revolving around aging and older adulthood, such as intergenerational communication, older adults’ age identity expression, family communication about aging related issues, and elder abuse in the informal caregiving settings. She has also applied a social identity perspective to examine political party members’ attitudes towards members of the opposing political party, and the ways in which their political identity and intergroup attitudes may be associated with their use news media during the elections in the U.S.