Does Tribe Trump Facts? Novel Measures of Hostile Media

A national panel survey (n = 1,332) oversampled partisans (40% Democrat, 40% Republican, 20% Independent) and exposed them to an experiment showing partisan news sources (Fox News Channel and MSNBC) and partisan content, in a test of hostile media perception. Partisans did not find the news outlets to be hostile but did find out-group content to be hostile. The study also compared partisan cable news with broadcast TV news and found that viewers of traditional broadcast news (both network and local) were more moderate and viewed the news, and news sources, as less hostile. This study is also one of the first to examine the role of emerging social media outlets which have reportedly been embraced on the right, including Parler, Telegram, MeWe, Gab, Gettr, and Rumble.