A presentation by Olga Gasparyan (Hertie School). This event is part of the Political Economy Lunch Seminar (PELS).
Many studies have examined media bias mostly paying attention to how news outlets manipulate information to present a desired picture of the world. However, selling a particular picture makes the most sense if people buy it, i.e., when the visual frames being sold resonate with people’s perspectives according to the objectives and desired direction of the seller. Thus, when exploring media frames, it is crucial to not only pay attention to how the media frames are being sold (when and how outlets enhance visual frames) but also to a buyer’s perspective (how people respond to these frames). In this paper, we focus on both perspectives. First, we explore whether media outlets with different political views use systematically different visual representations of a polarizing issue, immigration, using a series of computational tools for image analysis. The second phase involves a survey to determine how people evaluate visuals from outlets with different ideologies. We find that media outlets selectively amplify visual representations that are more likely to activate partisan stereotypes. However, although we find evidence that visual content trigger “polarizing” reactions between partisans even when the source of this content is not revealed, we also find several instances when this does not occur. With this study, we contribute to the literature that examines the relationship between the use of visuals and ideology. In future work, we will explore the effect that visual content has on attitudes change, and the interplay of this element with text.
