Hostile News: Partisan Use and Perceptions of Cable News Programming

Two trends have marked the development of U.S. cable television news in recent years: a blurring of hard and soft news and an increase in overt partisanship. This paper reports the results of 2 studies that provide insight into the nature and impact of these trends. The first study analyzes national survey data to identify the factors that lead political partisans to choose particular cable television news networks and programs. The second study employs experimental methods to demonstrate how viewers' partisan leanings influence their perceptions of content from CNN, Fox News, and The Daily Show. We found evidence of a relative hostile media phenomenon, in which partisans perceive more bias in programs that do not align with their own political perspective. Furthermore, the results indicate that partisanship informs viewers' perceptions of news content as interesting and informative.