Psicologia Sociale
Volume 10, Issue 2, 2015, Pages 141-160

Exposure to politicized media and prejudice against immigrants in Italy: Identifying its impact and psychological mediators (Article)

Vaes J. , Latrofa M. , Vieno A. , Pastore M.
  • a Università di Trento, Dipartimento di Psicologia e Scienze Cognitive, Corso Bettini 31, Trento, 38068, Italy
  • b Università di Padova, Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Via Venezia 8, Padova, 35131, Italy
  • c Università di Padova, Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Via Venezia 8, Padova, 35131, Italy
  • d Università di Padova, Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Via Venezia 8, Padova, 35131, Italy

Abstract

Politics play a pivotal role in shaping the modern media. The political parallelism of the media differs from country to country and is known to be high in Italy. Therefore, an Italian sample of 244 females and 178 males (M age = 33.6, SD = 13.3) was gathered investigating the link between exposure to right- and left-wing oriented media and people's prejudice towards immigrants. As expected, results indicated that exposure to right-wing oriented media (both newspapers and newscasts) correlated positively with levels of prejudice, even when controlling for people's political orientation, their direct contact with immigrants, and the level of prejudice of their socializing agents. In a similar model, exposure to leftwing oriented newspapers correlated negatively with people's prejudice. Finally, a set of mediation models showed which psychological processes lie at the basis of these links: fear of crime, the endorsement of norms of non-discrimination and biased perceptions of the frequency with which immigrants commit crimes showed to mediate the relation between politicized media and prejudice.

Author Keywords

Prejudice immigrants Media exposure Politicized media Fear of crime

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84942310228&doi=10.1482%2f80762&partnerID=40&md5=3da1a1e0acaeee80ed099c1fbd78ad35
DOI: 10.1482/80762
ISSN: 18272517
Cited by: 5
Original Language: English