Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1995

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Communication

Major Professor

Dorothy Bowles

Committee Members

Herbert Howard, Michael Singletary, Barbara Moore, William Lyons

Abstract

This study examined the third-person effect and its relationship to support for freedom of expression. Previous research has found substantial support for the existence of the third-person effect, a theoretical approach in which people tend to believe that they are largely immune to media messages but that other people are much more susceptible; that is, media messages don't affect "me" or "you," but they affect "everyone else." A number of researchers have speculated that this third-person effect could explain censorship; people believe others are adversely affected by media messages, so they want to restrict expression to protect them from these messages, even though they do not believe they have been affected by the same messages themselves. This study examined whether this speculation was supported empirically.

This study was based on a random-sample mail survey of the general population. Results were obtained from 275 people, for a 40 percent response rate. Those results produced scales based on scores to a battery of questions about perceived media effects on self and on others, plus a battery of freedom of expression questions and measurements of news media consumption.

More than nine of ten respondents (93.1 percent) reported that they would be less affected than others by a variety of media messages, thereby exhibiting the third-person effect. Correlation matrices showed that the stronger that discrepancy between media effects on self and on others, the stronger the belief in restrictions on expression. The support for restrictions on expression was stronger the more people believed others were affected by media messages, and the less people thought themselves affected by the same messages. There was no support for research hypotheses that news media use patterns were related to either the third- person effect or to support for expressive rights.

These findings suggest that support for restrictions on expression are related to perceptions by the public that, even though they are largely immune to many media messages, other people are not immune and should be protected for their own good.

Download
Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS