hostile media effect , originally deemed the hostile media phenomenon and sometimes called hostile media perception , is a perceptual theory of mass communication that refers to the tendency for individuals with a strong preexisting attitude on an issue to perceive media coverage as biased against their side and in favor of their antagonists ' point of view . Partisans from opposite sides of an issue will tend to find the same coverage to be biased against them . The phenomenon was first proposed and studied experimentally by Robert Vallone , Lee Ross and Mark Lepper . In 1982 , the second major study of this phenomenon was undertaken ; pro-Palestinian students and pro-Israeli students at Stanford University were shown the same news filmstrips pertaining to the then-recent Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian refugees by Christian Lebanese militia fighters abetted by the Israeli army in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War . On a number of objective measures , both sides found that these identical news clips were slanted in favor of the other side . Pro-Israeli students reported seeing more anti-Israel references and fewer favorable references to Israel in the news report and pro-Palestinian students reported seeing more anti-Palestinian references , and so on . Both sides said a neutral observer would have a more negative view of their side from viewing the clips , and that the media would have excused the other side where it blamed their side
Sabra and Shatila massacre
Sabra and Shatila massacre
Hostile media effect