Journal of Media Psychology
Volume 22, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 99-104

Effects of linguistic abstractness in the mass media: How newspaper articles shape readers' attitudes toward migrants (Article)

Geschke D.* , Sassenberg K. , Ruhrmann G. , Sommer D.
  • a Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany
  • b Knowledge Media Research Center, Tübingen, Germany
  • c Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany
  • d University of Leipzig, Germany

Abstract

Media coverage contributes to the perpetuation of stereotypes and prejudice. So far, research has focused on biased content rather than style in reporting about minorities. One such stylistic dimension is the so-called linguistic intergroup bias: The tendency to describe positive behavior of members of one's own group and negative behavior of other groups' members in a more abstract way (compared to the same behavior of the respective other group). Recipients of communication biased in this way judge the described individuals in line with abstract descriptions (i.e., own-group members more positively than members of other groups). The current study demonstrates that linguistically biased news reports about minorities lead to higher levels of prejudice. Hence, media coverage does not only affect attitudes about minorities by what is reported, but also by how it is presented. © 2010 Hogrefe Publishing.

Author Keywords

News Prejudice Migrants linguistic abstractness

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-78650322812&doi=10.1027%2f1864-1105%2fa000014&partnerID=40&md5=373dd4538a9f06bc4ce22640dcdc808c
DOI: 10.1027/1864-1105/a000014
ISSN: 18641105
Cited by: 27
Original Language: English