Political Advertising Effects on Perceived Bias, Value, and Credibility in Online News

Abstract

This study represents an investigation of the effect of political advertising on readers' perceptions of bias, value, and credibility in an online news article. Participants read an unbiased news article placed alongside three advertisements. Participants randomly entered one of three conditions—right-leaning advertisements, left-leaning advertisements, or neutral advertisements. They then answered questions about the perceived bias and credibility of the article. The researchers predicted biased political ads would prime perceptions of bias for the news article, despite its neutrality. Though the findings trended in the hypothesized direction, a lack of significance suggests political advertising may not serve as a prime for news readers in making decisions about the political bias, credibility, and news value of an article or news source. However, participants who had a higher prior knowledge of politics did place a higher news value on the article than those with low prior knowledge. Also, men were more likely to see a liberal bias and to rate a news story higher on news value.