Immigrants’ Dual Identity and the Hostile Media Effect in the Context of Sports Broadcasts
Abstract
Abstract: We explored how immigrants’ dual (ethno-national) identity affects the hostile media effect in the context of broadcast news of international sporting events. A mixed-methods approach to collecting data was used comprising an online experiment and in-person focus group interviews with Korean Chinese immigrants residing in South Korea. The results demonstrate that hostile media perception in favor of the out-group was greater for out-group broadcast news than for in-group broadcast news. The hostile media perception was linked to support for in-group players only for immigrants with a strong dual identity. The results of the focus group interviews suggest that the dual-identity participants reinforce their national identity and increase their support for the in-group players to deal with the threat to their self-esteem when collective self-esteem connected to their national identity is threatened by what they considered broadcast news biased against Chinese players.
People with strong feelings about an issue tend to perceive media coverage as being biased against their own views (Vallone et al., 1985). “They Saw a Game,” Hastorf and Cantril’s (1954) classic study, provides a foundation for contemporary scholarship in media perception research. Briefly, Dartmouth and Princeton supporters watching a film of a gridiron game between their respective teams seemed to see two different games: The Princeton fans saw the Dartmouth team players as behaving badly in terms of infringing on rules including by committing fouls and the Princeton team players as retaliating only occasionally, whereas the Dartmouth fans perceived the exact opposite. Connected to this observation, according to a study of perceived media bias by Vallone et al. (1985), each partisan group is likely to perceive the media as spending more time on and giving more emphasis to the other side. The hostile media effect hypothesis explains this perceived media bias as well as its consequences (Perloff, 2015). The current study extends the hostile media effect research by focusing on the relationship between perceived media bias and viewers’ behavioral intention. Specifically, this relationship is investigated in the context of broadcasts of an international sports match that took place as part of a mega-sports event. The sports broadcasts provide a relevant context for examining the relationship between social identity and the hostile media effect in that they involve a clear categorization of in- and out-groups.
Further, given that more and more of individuals live in ethnically diverse contexts such that they must negotiate multiple cultures in their everyday lives, this study takes into account the dual identity of immigrants as a possible moderator of the hostile media effect. It is likely that immigrants internalize more than one culture as part of their social identity such that they have a dual identity based on a combination of national identity and ethnic identity (Martiny et al., 2017). The current study advances the literature by presenting the examination of the role of dual identity in the manifestation of the hostile media effect, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of audience perceptions of media coverage of international events and the behavioral consequences of those perceptions.
Literature Review
Hostile Media Effect and Social Identity
The hostile media effect research is concerned with differences in the ways that people from opposing partisan groups view media messages as well as the behavioral consequences of those differentiated media perceptions (Perloff, 2015). Research has found ample evidence of the hostile media perception, according to which those involved with an issue perceive media coverage of the issue as biased in favor of the opposite side, in a variety of contexts such as presidential elections (Dalton et al., 1998), Middle East conflicts (Tsfati & Cohen, 2005), the controversy over the use of genetically modified foods (Schmitt et al., 2004), foreign affairs (Golan et al., 2021), and climate change activism (Feldman et al., 2017).
Hostile media perception is a significant predictor of corrective actions such as support for restrictions on biased media content and a willingness to participate in political and civic activities (Choi et al., 2011; Rojas, 2010). Previous research also shows that hostile media perception can lead to public opinion perceptions that the climate of public opinion is unfavorable to one’s own side, which, in turn, can lead to a series of actions such as withdrawal from public participation and disengagement from government-oriented duties (Feldman et al., 2017; Perloff, 2015; Tsfati & Cohen, 2005).
The hostile media effect can be explained in the perspective of social identity and self-categorization theories. According to the social identity and self-categorization theories, “social identity,” defined by membership in social groups and/or social categories, constitutes an important part of an individual’s overall self-concept (Turner, 1991). Social identity is related to the tendency to make “intergroup comparisons that favor the in-group” (Duck et al., 1999, p. 1882), and social identity theory suggests that social identities are used in social comparisons to enhance a positive self-concept and self-esteem (Hogg, 2018). In social identity theory, the comparison is between in-groups and out-groups instead of between individuals, entailing inter-group dynamics (Abrams & Hogg, 1990). When people make group comparisons, they tend to favor the in-group to enhance self-esteem and sustain a favorable self-concept (Hogg, 2018). That is, individuals’ tendency to evaluate themselves more positively than others may provide “a motivational basis for differentiation between social groups” (Abrams & Hogg, 1990, p. 3).
Derived from social identity theory, self-categorization theory provides an important theoretical explanation for the relationship between social identity and hostile media perception. In this theory, social identities are viewed as forming and operating through a cognitive process that highlights perceived similarities between the self and in-groups and perceived differences between the self and out-groups (Turner, 1991). An individual categorizes the self and others into groups on the basis of self-selected characteristics such as age/generation (Hajek & Giles, 2002), race (Mastin et al., 2007), and nationality (Golan et al., 2021), each of which describes and prescribes the individual’s characteristics as a member of a given social group (Hogg, 2018). Hence, identity is bound to the attributes of the social groups to which the individual belongs such that membership in those groups may affect his or her perceptions of media bias and effects.
Hostile media perception can be understood as an intergroup phenomenon in which group membership, in-group identification, and in-group status exert significant effects (Hartmann & Tanis, 2013). In differentiating themselves from members of the out-group, in-group members view their group as superior to the out-group, thereby triggering self-categorization processes based on elevated self-esteem (Reid, 2012). When exposed to media coverage that in their view presents the in-group unfavorably, individuals may become concerned about the bias of the mediated messages. Further, convinced that these messages influence the audience against their group, such individuals tend to attempt to reduce what they foresee as the undesirable effects of the media content and thereby restore their social self-esteem (Perloff, 2015). For example, immigrants who consider a media presentation biased against their ethnic group and perceive the presentation as negatively affecting the public mood might both emphasize the positive aspects of their group in talking with others and draw attention to the presentation’s unfairness.
Research also shows that the perception of a bias against the in-group is more likely to manifest when viewing an out-group rather than an in-group media source (Reid, 2012). For example, in considering the hostile media effect in relation to a sports news article covering a football match, Arpan and Raney (2003) found that estimates of the percentage of negative statements about the home team in the news article tended to be lower in the hometown newspaper than in the rival town newspaper. The interaction effect between salient social identity and media source on hostile media perception may be amplified by the strength of the former (Reid, 2012). In the current study, we extend the research by incorporating the concept of dual identity into our investigation of the hostile media effect and social identity.
Dual Identity
As the number of immigrants in the world has increased steadily in recent decades (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2019), it has become important to investigate the structure and consequences of immigrants’ multiple social identities (Martiny et al., 2017). Although dual identity is conceptualized and examined in a number of ways, the combination of a comparatively strong ethnic identity and a moderate national identity indicates a sense of dual identity in general (Simon & Ruhs, 2008). In the current study, the conceptualization refers to the relative strength of distinct group identifications – that is, Korean minority identification and Chinese majority identification for Korean Chinese people (Cárdenas et al., 2021).
As a social identity, immigrants’ dual (ethno-national) identity can reasonably be expected to influence their attitudes and/or behavior to some extent. Also, dual identity can affect intergroup relations in both positive and negative ways depending on the indispensability of the identity and whether the out-group is a majority or minority group (Verkuyten & Martinovic, 2016). In self-categorization processes based on nationality, such as when watching a news broadcast of an international sports game, immigrants’ dual identity may affect their perceptions of the coverage, that is, those who do not identify strongly with the in-group are unlikely to be sensitive to media portrayals of their group (Hartmann & Tanis, 2013).
Context of the Study
Sports has provided a source of and a focus for media content (Tomlinson & Young, 2005). Major international sports events, such as the Olympic Games, provide a platform for national pride and prestige (Devlin et al., 2020). As nationalistic notions are embedded in every aspect of mega-sports events, consumption of media content focused on these events influences how individuals view their country (Devlin et al., 2020). Media portrayals of nationalism during international sports events may cause viewers’ national identity to become more salient to the viewers themselves (Bairner, 2005).
Also, it should be noted that an individual’s identity may affect perceptions of media content, which may influence subsequent behaviors (Golan et al., 2021). Multiple identities may coexist, but some may become more salient when an individual is watching a sports event (MacClancy, 1996). Hence, in the current study, we investigate how intermingled and salient identities affect media perceptions and subsequent behaviors (i.e., support for in-group players) in the context of international sports events, focusing on the role of national identity along with dual identity (ethno-national identity) in the manifestation of the hostile media effect relating to broadcast news coverage of a ping pong match between South Korean and Chinese players that took place as part of the 2018 Asian Games.
Our sample consisted of Korean Chinese immigrants, Joseonjok, who had returned from China to their ancestral homeland of South Korea. The complexity of Korean Chinese people’s national, ethnic, and dual identities partly results from the complicated history of Koreans in Manchuria, China (Seol & Skrentny, 2009). Most Korean Chinese people immigrated to China during the period of 1910–1945, the era of Japanese colonial rule of Korea. Since 1952, they have lived in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture where they have maintained Korean culture and language as Joseonjok (Min, 1992). In the 1980 s, Korean Chinese people began to leave China for South Korea in large numbers and as of 2019 South Korea had become home to 536,638 Korean Chinese, which makes them the largest group of immigrants in South Korea (Kostat, 2020). They are categorized as Korean Chinese because they have Chinese nationality, while having an ethnic identity as Joseonjok.
Hypotheses and Research Question
We investigate how exposure to broadcast news of a sports match between in-group and out-group players affects audience behavior through perceived media bias and how dual identity affects the relationship. As a basis for pursuing this investigation, we propose the following hypotheses and a research question based on the theories and research reviewed in the previous sections.
According to the social identity and self-categorization theories, individuals self-categorize and seek out membership groups based on prototypical characteristics of the groups (Turner, 1991). In that the self-categorization process can be extended to the message source (Perloff, 2015), the media source (i.e., broadcaster) has been considered as a potential moderator of the hostile media effect. Research demonstrates that a greater bias is perceived when the source is an out-group than when the source is an in-group (Reid, 2012). Based on previous research findings that individuals tend to perceive news coverage in out-group media as more biased against their in-group sports team than news coverage from in-group media (Arpan & Raney, 2003), the following hypothesis is proposed:
Sports broadcast news from out-group media is perceived as more biased against the in-group team than the same broadcast news from in-group media.
Media perception research suggests the “action-instigating effects” of hostile media perceptions such as political participation (Perloff, 2015, p. 718). In the context of the current study, it is expected that those with higher level of hostile media perception of sports broadcast news are more likely to intend to support their own national team players than are those with lower level of the perception. Thus, we propose the following hypothesis:
Hostile media perception is associated with support for in-group players.
Based on the theory and research findings reviewed for H1 and H2, we consider the mediation of hostile media perception between exposure to sports broadcast news from out-group media and support for in-group players. Thus, we propose the following hypothesis:
Exposure to sports broadcast news from out-group media is indirectly associated with support for in-group players through hostile media perception.
Finally, the dual identity of immigrants is proposed as a moderator of the effect of the hostile media perception of international sports broadcast news. Sensitivity to media portrayals of the in-group may be particularly likely for individuals who identify strongly with the in-group (Hartmann & Tanis, 2013). In the context of the current study, Korean Chinese immigrants residing in South Korea who identify as Chinese (national identity) rather than Korean Chinese (dual identity) might be more likely to perceive media bias against China and to intend to engage in action against the perceived media bias of South Korean broadcast news. However, we do not have any data regarding how dual identity affects the hostile media perception and behavioral consequences that might arise from the perception. The results of a study on the political mobilization of ethnic minorities have shown that dual ethno-national identification facilitates involvement in political action on behalf of the ethnic group (Simon & Grabow, 2010). On the other hand, Martinovic and Verkuyten (2014) found that a strong dual (ethno-national) identity can undermine immigrants’ support for the political rights. Given we know little about how dual identity affects hostile media effect, we put forth a research question to explore and provide deeper insight into the role of dual identity in the manifestation of the hostile media effect of international sports broadcast news:
How does dual identity affect the association between hostile media perception and support for in-group players?
Method
To gain a more in-depth understanding of the dual identity and media perceptions of Korean Chinese immigrants in South Korea, we used a mixed-methods study design whereby data were collected with an online experiment and semi-structured in-person focus group interviews. A web-based online experiment was conducted to test the hypotheses in regard to the hostile media effect in the period of August to October 2020. Focus group interviews were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of Korean Chinese immigrants’ perceptions regarding their identities, their media perceptions, and the effects of the media perceptions on their behavior. Institutional Review Board approval was acquired in June 2020.
Online Experiment
For the online experiment, we recruited Korean Chinese people residing in South Korea using snowball sampling, starting from the Korean Chinese community center to gain contacts and ask them to participate. The web address of the online experiment was provided to the potential participants via their smartphones to afford access at any location with an Internet connection. The participants’ phone numbers were listed with their ID numbers so that anyone who had participated multiple times could be identified and excluded from the analyses. All the participants received a coupon worth approximately US $3 for taking part in the study. A total of 368 participants completed the questionnaire. Half (53%) of the participants were female, and the mean age was 38.6 years (SD = 11.67).
After completing the pre-stimulus questionnaire that consisted of items about salient identity and demographics, participants were asked to watch a video clip of broadcast news reporting on a ping pong match between a South Korean player and a Chinese player during the 2018 Asian Games. The online questionnaire was programmed to randomly assign each participant to one of three media source groups: South Korean media, Chinese media, and media not known. As a stimulus, a 1-min video clip was produced for each group. All three video clips were identical except for the upper right-hand corner of the screen, which for the South Korean media group showed the logo of the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), South Korea’s public service broadcaster; for the Chinese media group it showed the logo of the China Central Television (CCTV), the state-controlled broadcaster of the People’s Republic of China media group; and for the media unknown group it showed no logo. After watching the clip, the participants answered the post-stimulus questionnaire, which included items about the media source, perceived media bias, and support for in-group players. Guided by previous research, we also measured demographics, involvement with the sports game, and years of stay in South Korea to include in the analysis as control variables (Martiny et al., 2017).
Measures
To measure hostile media perception, the participants were asked to evaluate the extent of the bias shown in the telecast with four items on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 = greatly biased against South Korea to 5 = greatly biased against China, with 3 as the neutral (M = 3.46, SD = 0.67, α = .95; Schmitt et al., 2004).
For salient identity, the participants were asked which of the following responses they would give if a friend of their acquaintance were to ask them about their national and ethnic identities:
- (1)I am Korean,
- (2)I am Chinese,
- (3)I am Korean Chinese.
The relative strength of each identity was measured on a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = not at all; 5 = very much so; Brenner et al., 2014):
- (1)I am Korean (M = 1.69, SD = 1.02),
- (2)I am Chinese (M = 4.19, SD = 0.99), and
- (3)I am Korean Chinese (M = 4.37, SD = 0.84).
To measure support for in-group players, the participants were asked to report whether they would support their own national team players in the upcoming Olympic Games. Responses indicating that participants would support their national team players were coded 1.
Involvement (with the sports game) was measured with three 5-interval semantic differential-type items bounded by bipolar adjectives. The adjective pairs comprised important/unimportant, relevant/irrelevant, and significant/insignificant (M = 3.28, SD = 1.21, α = .94).
Focus Group Interviews
After the online experiment, to further the field’s understanding of the role of dual identity in the manifestation of the hostile media effect in the context of international sports broadcast news, we conducted two in-person focus group interviews with a combined total of 12 Korean Chinese participants residing in the Seoul capital area: Group 1 consisted of three men and three women in their 20 s and 30 s, and Group 2 of three men and three women in their 40 s and 50 s. The focus group participants were recruited using snowball sampling, and each participant received approximately US $30 for taking part. The participants’ characteristics are described in Table 1.
Averaging 2 hr in duration, the interviews were conducted by a trained moderator and taped and video-recorded with the participants’ informed consent. A series of questions were prepared in advance to assess perceptions and attitudes related to media bias as well as national, ethnic, and dual identities. The participants were encouraged to speak freely and to raise issues they considered important. Key questions in the discussion protocol included the following:
- •How would you respond if a friend of your acquaintance asked about your national and ethnic identity? What are the reasons for your response?
- •How fair do you think South Korean/Chinese media are in their news coverage in general? What makes you think so?
- •How fair do you think South Korean/Chinese media are in their coverage of global sports events? What makes you think so?
- •How would media coverage influence your attitudes, opinions, and/or behaviors?
All the interviews were transcribed in Korean and then translated into English. We used thematic analysis with traditional human coding for the analysis. Based on three principal criteria – repetition, recurrence, and forcefulness (Owen, 1984) – we read the text to identify and categorize important data and highlight key content themes across the dataset. We then reviewed the text again to confirm emerging relationships and identify preliminary themes, with the latter understood as representing something meaningful about the data in relation to the research question and patterned responses in the dataset (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
Results
Online Experiment
To make sure the participants recognized the media source, they were required to indicate the media source of the match they had watched. Those who did not identify the correct media source were excluded from the analysis. Of the 208 participants who answered this question correctly, 62 identified themselves as Chinese, 144 as Korean Chinese, and only two as Korean. In that the number of respondents who identified themselves as Korean was too small, we only included those who identified themselves as either Chinese or Korean Chinese. The final sample included 206 cases. Overall, 60% of the participants were female, and the mean age was 38.4 (SD = 11.20). Those who identified themselves as Chinese were categorized as national identity while those who identified themselves as Korean Chinese were categorized as dual identity in terms of salient identity.
To test H1, predicting a relatively greater perceived media bias against the in-group for out-group media than for in-group media, a one-way ANCOVA was performed using media as a between-subjects factor and involvement, education, and years of stay in South Korea as covariates. Hostile media perception was entered as a criterion variable. The results indicate that the main effect of media is statistically significant, F(2, 200) = 13.11, p < .001, η2p = .12. Estimated hostile media perception in favor of South Korea was greater for broadcast news from the South Korean media (M = 3.67, SE = 0.07) and unknown media (M = 3.53, SE = 0.08) than for broadcast news from the Chinese media (M = 3.14, SE = 0.08). It is assumed that Korean Chinese participants perceive Chinese media as in-group media based on their nationality because they just watched international sports broadcasts, which would have made the viewers’ nationality salient in their minds (Bairner, 2005). Given that the study was conducted in South Korea, we assume that the participants who were exposed to the stimulus without a media name or logo appearing on the screen considered the media source to be South Korean. We therefore assume that the participants perceived the source to be out-group media. Hence, H1 was supported.
Next, a logistic regression analysis was performed to examine H2, which predicted the effect of hostile media perception on support for in-group players. Hostile media perception as the predictor, and involvement, education, years of stay, sex, and age as control variables were included in the analysis. The results demonstrate hostile media perception was positively associated with support for in-group players, B = 0.98, SE = 0.27, p < .001, Exp(B) = 2.54, Nagelkerke R2 = .26. Thus, H2 was supported.
Finally, to test H3 and to answer RQ, we used a PROCESS model, which is a tool for mediation and moderation tests (Hayes, 2018). A moderated mediation model with exposure to sports broadcast news from out-group media as the independent variable, support for in-group players as the outcome variable, hostile media perception as the mediator, and dual identity as the moderator was tested using PROCESS (Hayes, 2018; Model 14). Involvement, education, years of stay, sex, and age were entered as control variables. The indirect effect of exposure to sports broadcast news from out-group media on support for in-group players through hostile media perception (H3) was statistically significant for those with dual identity, b = .68, SE = .26, p < .01, 95% CI [.32, 1.31], whereas the mediation of hostile media perception was not statistically significant for those with national identity, b = .17, SE = .23, p > .05, 95% CI [− .24, .66]. Hence, H3 was supported only for the dual-identity participants. The estimates and bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals with 5,000 bootstrap samples demonstrate that the moderated mediation is statistically significant, b = .51, SE = .29, p < .05, 95% CI [.02, 1.17] (see Figure 1). These results suggest that the Korean Chinese participants who were exposed to sports broadcast news from the South Korean media were more likely to perceive the media biased against Chinese players, which was likely to lead to a greater support for Chinese players, particularly for the dual-identity participants.
When the hostile media perception was relatively weak, the dual-identity participants showed a weaker intention to express their support for in-group players than did the national-identity participants. However, for the dual-identity participants, the intention increased greatly as hostile media perception increased (see Figure 2). These results demonstrate that dual identity may affect the hostile media effect such that strong perceptions of media bias on the part of the dual-identity participants lead them to intend to support their national team players.
Focus Group Interviews
The findings of the thematic analysis in regard to our guiding research question – how national identity and dual identity affect the relationship between hostile media perception and support for in-group players – are presented in this section. Thematic analysis is a method for identifying, analyzing, and reporting patterns (themes) in data, which involves a progression from description to interpretation (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Through this analytic process, we theorized the significance of the patterns (themes) and their broader meanings and implications.
National Identity, Dual Identity
In regard to salient identity, three participants responded that they were Chinese. Although these participants were fluent in Korean, they were more comfortable speaking Chinese and expressed the belief that they would return to China one day.
“We lived in China for a long time. There are many other minority groups, like the Korean Chinese, Joseonjok, in China. China is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural country […] so it is natural to say that I am Chinese even though my ancestors are from Korea.” (Participant D)
These participants with a strong national identity are more likely than those with dual identity to consider themselves different from South Koreans in terms of social and cultural status. For example, one of the participants who identified as Chinese stated that because she had retained her Chinese nationality, the South Korean government had failed to provide support for her child.
On the other hand, other participants identified themselves as Korean Chinese or Joseonjok and find their Korean heritage accounts for a considerable portion of their identity although they still have the Chinese nationality:
“It is right, my nationality is Chinese […] I was born in China and went to school in China. But I was always special in my class because I was a Joseonjok … not Hanjok (the majority ethnic group in China). It is not unnatural to say that I am Korean Chinese whether I am in China or in Korea.” (Participant B)
“I speak Korean fluently. I have eaten Kimchi and soybean paste soup [a typical Korean meal] since childhood. Although my nationality is Chinese, my lifestyle is more like Korean.” (Participant F)
As the groups to which people belong are of great importance in determining their life experiences (Abrams & Hogg, 1990), both national identity and ethnic identity should influence how immigrants with dual identity view and react to the world. Particularly when self-esteem is involved, a person’s salient social identities should have a significant impact on his/her perceptions and behaviors (Spinner-Halev & Theiss-Morse, 2003).
Social Identity and Self-Esteem
According to the results of the focus group interviews, the participants, in general, viewed their dual identity in a positive way. They were proud of their ethnic heritage, even expressing a feeling of superiority given the ways in which they are distinct from other Chinese or Korean people:
“I speak both Chinese and Korean equally well…I feel great about interpreting at a business meeting as a Korean Chinese.” (Participant A)
“I am proud we are descendants of the fighters for Korea’s national independence.” (Participant D)
“I am proud I am Joseonjok especially when we are presented as beautiful and good at dancing and singing in the media.” (Participant G)
The participants expressed a positive attachment to the Korean Chinese group, Joseonjok, which is related with self-esteem. Social psychologists make a distinction between personal self-esteem and collective self-esteem: An individual feels personal self-esteem, which increases or decreases depending on his or her own individual experiences, whereas members of a group feel collective self-esteem, which increases or decreases depending on collective experiences (Long et al., 1994). If people believe that the ways in which their group differs from other groups make it better than those others, they feel better about themselves and their collective self-esteem increases.
However, the participants whose collective self-esteem as Chinese was threatened by sports broadcasts that they considered biased against their in-group reported reacting to such content. For example, one participant commented that his sense of himself as Chinese, his identity as a Chinese person, becomes stronger when he is treated unfairly in Korean society. If he watches a South Korean film that he sees derogatory toward Chinese people or Joseonjok, he responds by becoming upset and turning off the television.
Self-Esteem and the Hostile Media Effect
When their in-group is unfairly treated in the media, which threatens their collective self-esteem in turn, people attempt to restore self-esteem by taking certain actions. For example, one participant stated that he watches YouTube almost every day, barely watching South Korean television at least partly because of the bias in the South Korean media against China and Joseonjok. Those who identify as Chinese (national identity) are no more likely to perceive South Korean media as biased toward South Korea than are those who identify as Korean Chinese (dual identity). All the participants perceived the sports broadcast attributed to the South Korean media as biased toward South Korean teams and players. When the participants considered South Korean media content to be biased and unfair, the dual-identity participants were more likely than the national-identity participants to engage in action such as talking with other Korean Chinese people about the bias in media content, trying to be nice to other people, and reading comments online about the media content:
“I used to get upset and disappointed about media content that is too much biased against China in Korean media, whether it is a film or news […] Why do they do that? When I feel angry, I would look up the comments about the content or talk to my friends, Korean Chinese friends, about the content, which makes me feel a little better.” (Participant E)
Those who identified as Korean Chinese having internalized a dual identity found both the Chinese media and the South Korean media to be biased in some ways. However, they considered South Korean sports broadcast news to be more biased toward South Korea than they considered the equivalent Chinese news to be biased toward China. Compared with the national-identity participants, the dual-identity participants expressed stronger negative affective responses, such as disappointment, frustration, and resentment, arising from their hostile media perception of the South Korean media content as biased against China. Further, compared with the national-identity participants, the dual-identity participants were more likely to take steps to bolster collective self-esteem. These findings from the focus group interviews are consistent with the results of the online experiment demonstrating that those who identify as Korean Chinese (dual identity) are more likely to show an association between perceived media bias and intention to support Chinese players than those who identify as Chinese (national identity).
Discussion
We explored how immigrants’ dual identity affects the hostile media effect in the context of broadcast news of international sporting events. A mixed-methods approach to collecting data was used comprising an online experiment and in-person focus group interviews with Korean Chinese immigrants residing in South Korea. The results demonstrate that hostile media perception in favor of the out-group was greater for out-group broadcast news than for in-group broadcast news. The hostile media perception was linked to support for in-group players only for immigrants with a strong dual identity. The results of the focus group interviews suggest that the dual-identity participants reinforce their national identity and increase their support for the in-group players to deal with the threat to their collective self-esteem.
Given that most hostile media effect research has been conducted in the context of news coverage of political or social issues (Perloff, 2015), in the current study, we extended the research context to broadcast news of international sports events, particularly for those with dual identity. Partisanship, which is at the center of the hostile media effect, is not always limited to a single dimension of identity but rather activated in a multidimensional process of self-categorization (Reid, 2012). For example, those who do not think about their national identity or ethnic identity very much in their everyday lives might find that their national identity becomes the most salient of their social identities when watching an international sports game on television such that they become more involved in supporting their national team. The results of the current study show that those with strong national identity are more likely to intend to support their national team players compared with those with dual identity regardless of how weak or strong their perceived media bias is. However, the dual-identity participants are more likely to intend to support their in-group players as perceived media bias increases.
The results of the focus group interviews provide some clues as to why support from the dual-identity participants for in-group players increased as their hostile media perception increased. The participants in the current study were proud of being Korean Chinese, identifying with the accomplishments of the Korean Chinese group and expressing a positive attachment to it. Social identity theory predicts that having this sense of positive identification with a group increases self-esteem (Turner et al., 1979). That is, people tend to differentiate themselves and the in-group from the out-group “to feel good about their group (and themselves)” (Brown, 2000, p. 747). The group identity literature indicates that people have a psychological need to belong to a group that is evaluated positively to increase their collective self-esteem (Spinner-Halev & Theiss-Morse, 2003). Thus, when members of a minority group are exposed to media they see as demeaning toward their in-group, they may feel a threat to their self-esteem based on their sense of being perceived as members of an inferior group (Mavrić, 2014). Participants in the focus group interviews reported that faced with such media content, their national identity becomes stronger, and they would take step to bolster collective self-esteem. From the perspective of social identity theory, the behaviors of the dual-identity participants that reinforce their national identity and increase their support for the in-group players can be interpreted as a psychological strategy to deal with the threat to self-esteem when collective self-esteem connected to their Chinese identity is threatened by what they considered broadcast news biased against Chinese players.
These results have clear and important implications for media production and coverage. For example, the interviewees levelled criticism at the South Korean media for showing an explicit bias in favor of South Korean players/teams in sports broadcasts and for misrepresenting the Chinese players with demeaning remarks and attitudes. This perception of media bias on the part of the immigrant groups may contribute to or even be directly responsible for their perception of a negative public mood toward them, which is not helpful for maintaining harmony among diverse ethnic groups in a multicultural society. Hence, the South Korean media should be more sensitive about comments and attitudes with nationalistic bias especially when covering international events for global audiences.
The hostile media effect is important because it can bring about dysfunctional outcomes (Perloff, 2015). The hostile media perception can be transferred to a negative perception of society or public opinion in general. That is, immigrants who consume media of the host country will have not only an unfavorable perception of their representation in the media of the host country but a negative perception about how the host society perceives them. For example, when members of a minority group perceive the media as unfavorable toward them, they may feel a sense of social alienation from broader society (Tsfati, 2007). Further, hostile media perception among those with dual identification can foster politicization and corresponding behavior (Simon & Ruhs, 2008). The findings of the present study showing that perceived media bias may have a stronger behavioral impact on those with dual identity than on those with national identity suggest that we need to look more deeply into the mechanism by which various social identities and the relative strength of these identities affect the relationship between hostile media perception and its behavioral consequences through differential social psychological responses to the perceived media bias, such as self-esteem. Since threat to collective self-esteem may increase the salience of group identity and often distorts people’s view of their own group and the out-group, decreasing the threat will help to reduce the salience of group identity in ways that may lead to a stable state (Spinner-Halev & Theiss-Morse, 2003).
Limitations
Any consideration of the results and findings presented in the current study should take several limitations into account. First, it may be that the findings are context-specific such that they should be examined further in other national contexts in relation to other groups and with other measures of behavioral effects. It should be noted that the study’s sample comprised Korean Chinese people who had “returned” to South Korea, their ancestral homeland. In previous studies, researchers have found that when members of a diaspora return, they are more likely to re-evaluate rather than strengthen their attachments to their ancestral homeland and their ethnic identity associated with it (Lee, 2018). Hence, it is possible that the dual-identity participants living in South Korea felt uncomfortable with and even upset about the unfairness of the South Korean media, whereas those with dual identity living in China may be less concerned about South Korean media bias.
Second, we employed a snowball sampling for the sake of the efficiency of the data collection. As a convenience sample was used, the generalizability of the results is comparatively low. Also, the attrition described, whereby about 40% of the respondents were dropped from the analysis given their inability to identify the broadcaster, was significant. Although the final sample was similar to the initial sample relative to sex, age, salient identity, hostile media perception, and support for the in-group players, a larger sample would have improved the reliability of the findings. Future research could advance the field by investigating the moderating role of dual identity in the manifestation of the hostile media effect in more diverse contexts with more representative samples to secure highly reliable results.
Third, although we assume the participants in the media unknown group considered the media source to be South Korean given the study was conducted in South Korea, we are not certain about the assumption because we did not ask the participants what media they thought the unknown source was. A more sophisticated study design with a solid manipulation check in future research should help increase the reliability of the findings.
Conclusion
Despite its limitations, our exploration of how national and dual identities function in the association between hostile media perception and its behavioral consequence in the context of sports broadcasts advances the media effect research. The findings provide a deeper understanding of the role of social identity in the manifestation of the hostile media effect and highlight the implications of failing to mitigate its consequences. Given the importance of the concept of dual identity in this globalized world (Bairner, 2005), it should be meaningful to continue investigating how dual identity interacts with media perceptions in diverse contexts.
Hyunjung Kim (PhD, University of Oklahoma, 2010) is an assistant professor in the Division of Liberal Arts and Science at Korea National Sport University. Her research interests include media effects and social influence.
References
(1990).
An introduction to the social identity approach . In D. AbramsM. A. HoggsEds., Social identity theory: Constructive and critical advances (pp. 1–9). Springer.(2003). An experimental investigation of news source and the hostile media effect. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 80(2), 265–281. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900308000203
(2005).
Sport and the nation in global era . In L. AllisonEd., The global politics of sport: The role of global institutions in sport (pp. 87–100). Routledge.(2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
(2014). The causal ordering of prominence and salience in identity theory: An empirical examination. Social Psychology Quarterly, 77(3), 231–252. https://doi.org/10.1177/0190272513518337
(2000). Social identity theory: Past achievements, current problems and future challenges. European Journal of Social Psychology, 30(6), 745–778. https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-0992(200011/12)30:6<745::AID-EJSP24>3.0.CO;2-O
(2021). “You are too ethnic, you are too national”: Dual identity denial and dual identification. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 81, 193–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2021.01.011
(2011). Hostile media perception, involvement types, and advocacy behaviors. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 88(1), 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769901108800102
(1998). Partisan cues and the media: Information flows in the 1992 Presidential campaign. American Political Science Review, 92(1), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.2307/2585932
(2020). “My country is better than yours”: Delineating differences between six countries’ national identity, fan identity, and media consumption during the 2018 Olympic Games. Sociology of Sport Journal, 37(3), 254–263. https://doi.org/10.1123/SSJ.2019-0125
(1999). Social identity and perceptions of media persuasion: Are we always less influenced than others? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29(9), 1879–1899. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1999.tb00156.x
(2017). Do hostile media perceptions lead to action? The role of hostile media perceptions, political efficacy, and ideology in predicting climate change activism. Communication Research, 44(8), 1099–1124. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650214565914
(2021). Competing identity cues in the hostile media phenomenon: Source, nationalism, and perceived bias in news coverage of foreign affairs. Mass Communication & Society, 24(5), 676–700. https://doi.org/8080/10.1080/15205436.2021.1884263
(2002). The old man out: An intergroup analysis of intergenerational communication among gay men. Journal of Communication, 52(4), 698–714. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2002.tb02569.x
(2013). Examining the hostile media effect as an intergroup phenomenon: The role of ingroup identification and status. Journal of Communication, 63(3), 535–555. https://doi.org/10.1111=jcom.12031
(1954). They saw a game: A case study. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49(1), 129–134. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0057880
(2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
(2018).
Social identity theory . In P. J. BurkeEd., Contemporary social psychological theories (pp. 112–138). Stanford University Press.. (2020). Population census. https://kostat.go.kr/portal/korea/index.action
(2018). Between foreign and family: Return migration and identity construction among Korean Americans and Korean Chinese. Rutgers University Press.
(1994). The influence of personal and collective self-esteem on strategies of social differentiation. British Journal of Social Psychology, 33(3), 313–329. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1994.tb01028.x
MacClancy, J.Ed. (1996). Sport, identity and ethnicity. Berg.
(2014). The political downside of dual identity: Group identifications and religious political mobilization of Muslim minorities. British Journal of Social Psychology, 53(4), 711–730. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12065
(2017). Defining ethnic, national, and dual identities: Structure, antecedents, and consequences of multiple social identities of Turkish‐origin high school students in Germany. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 27(5), 400–410. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2318
(2007). Health disparities and direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising: A content analysis of targeted magazine genres, 1992–2002. Health Communication, 22(1), 49–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410230701310299
(2014). Psycho-social conception of national identity and collective self-esteem. Epiphany, 7(1), 183–200.
(1992). A comparison of Korean minorities in China and Japan. International Migration Review, 26(1), 4–21.
. (2019). International migration outlook 2019. OECD. http://www.oecd.org/migration/international-migration-outlook-1999124x.htm
(1984). Interpretive themes in relational communication. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70(3), 274–287. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335638409383697
(2015). A three-decade retrospective on the hostile media effect. Mass Communication & Society, 18(6), 701–729. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2015.1051234
(2012). A self-categorization explanation for the hostile media effect. Journal of Communication, 62(3), 381–399. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01647.x
(2010). “Corrective” actions in the public sphere: How perceptions of media and media effects shape political behaviors. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 22(3), 343–363. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edq018
(2004). Why partisans see mass media as biased. Communication Research, 31(6), 623–641. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650204269390
(2009). Ethnic return migration and hierarchical nationhood: Korean Chinese foreign workers in South Korea. Ethnicities, 9(2), 147–174. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796808099901
(2010). The politicization of migrants: Further evidence that politicized collective identity is a dual identity. Political Psychology, 31(5), 717–738. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2010.00782.x
(2008). Identity and politicization among Turkish migrants in Germany: The role of dual identification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(6), 1354–1366. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012630
(2003). National identity and self-esteem. Perspectives on Politics, 1(3), 515–532. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592703000379
(2005). National identity and global sports events: Culture, politics, and spectacle in the Olympics and the football World Cup. State University of New York Press.
(2007). Hostile media perceptions, presumed media influence, and minority alienation: The case of Arabs in Israel. Journal of Communication, 57(4), 632–651. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2007.00361.x
(2005). The influence of presumed media influence on democratic legitimacy: The case of Gaza settlers. Communication Research, 32(6), 794–821. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650205281057
(1991). Social influence. Open University Press.
(1979). Social comparison and group interest ingroup favouritism. European Journal of Social Psychology, 9(2), 187–204. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420090207
(1985). The hostile media phenomenon: Biased perception and perceptions of media bias in coverage of the Beirut massacre. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(3), 577–589. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.49.3.577
(2016). Dual identity, in-group projection, and out-group feelings among ethnic minority groups. European Journal of Social Psychology, 46(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2131
