Nature of reach and the perception of media bias: reaching into cyberspace.

Abstract

This study addresses how differences in the size and make-up of the target audience affect partisans’ perception of media bias when reading balanced blog articles concerning Singapore politics. Two groups of partisans – PAP supporters and opponents – were analyzed for our experiment. Contrary to results from previous studies, we found that audience size, or perceived quantity of reach, exerted no effects on the perception of media bias. However, the make-up of the blogs’ target audience, or the relative percentages of in-group and out-group members, was found to exert a considerable effect on the perception of media bias. Importantly, we found that the presumed influence of the articles on the blogs’ target audience correlates significantly with partisans’ perceptions of media bias.