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The media portray various social groups stereotypically, and studying the effects of these portrayals on prejudice is paramount. Yet, audience selectivity—inherent within today's high-choice media environments—has largely been disregarded. Relatedly, the predominance of forced-exposure designs is a source of concern. This article proposes the integration of audience selectivity into media stereotype effects research. Study 1 (N  =   1,166) indicated that prejudiced individuals tended to approach prejudice-consistent stereotypical news and avoid prejudice-challenging counter-stereotypical news. Using a forced-exposure experiment, study 2 (N  =   380) showed detrimental effects of prejudice-consistent news and beneficial effects of prejudice-challenging news. Relying on a self-selected exposure paradigm, study 3 (N  =   1,149) provided evidence for preference-based reinforcement. Study 4's "net-effect perspective" (N  =   937) indicated that operationalizing exposure as forced or self-selected can lead to different interpretations of actual societal effects. The findings emphasize the key role played by audience selectivity when studying media effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite much theorizing on the quality of journalism, there is limited actual empirical evidence for the effects of improved news quality on societal outcomes. This study provides such evidence for suicide reporting. News quality especially matters in this domain, as low-quality reporting can elicit "copycat" suicides (Werther effect). We developed and disseminated a web-based campaign promoting high-quality suicide reporting, targeting newsrooms in Germany. Twenty-two newsrooms participated. A content analysis (N  =   4,015 articles) provided supporting evidence for an increase in high-quality reporting (Study 1). Interrupted time series analyses offered tentative evidence for a reduction in actual suicides (Study 2). Acknowledging limitations in terms of causal interpretations, the findings support the claim that high-quality news can save lives. Similar newsroom interventions run elsewhere may contribute to preventing suicides globally. We discuss the implications, including those of a theoretically meaningful discovery related to the suicide-protective effect's underlying mechanism, termed the dampening-the-spikes hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a rich body of literature regarding the media effects on important mental health outcomes such as depression and suicide. We assessed the accuracy of health practitioners’ subjective theories about media effects on depression-related outcomes and identified blind spots in academic research. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with 82 psychiatrists and psychotherapists were conducted in Germany. The participants imparted heterogeneous subjective theories ranging from simplistic extreme positions (no effects at all, the magic bullet theory) to more nuanced conceptions (reinforcement models, differential susceptibility). This study provides suggestions to manage possible media effects in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an implicit cognition account of attribute agenda setting (AAS). We draw a distinction between implicit AAS, which conceptualizes media effects on automatically activated object-attribute associations, and explicit AAS, which deals with their overt expression. Previous research has relied almost exclusively on explicit AAS. This is unfortunate, because people must have the motivation and the ability to report inner mental associations. We investigated AAS in the context of the 2014 European Union parliamentary elections using a content analysis and a two-wave panel survey. Exposure to the mediated attribute agenda elicited implicit AAS effects, but no impact on the explicit dimension could be discerned. Only by additionally taking into account implicit cognition were we able to reveal substantial AAS effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial body of research suggests that some news media outlets depict certain social groups stereotypically. We hypothesize that long-term exposure to such news influences viewers' automatically activated gut feelings (i.e., implicit attitudes) toward this social group, which, in turn, may be used as a basis for overtly expressed evaluations (i.e., explicit attitudes). This prediction was investigated in three empirical studies in two cultural contexts. In the United States and Austria, results suggest that regular exposure to stereotypical news coverage creates negative implicit attitudes, which, in turn, alter explicit attitudes. A better understanding of the news stereotype effects will allow us to develop strategies to reduce prejudice, which may contribute to the improvement of a humane and open society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research estimated that an additional 195 suicides among 10- to 17-year-old youths occurred following the release of the television series 13 Reasons Why. There is an underrecognised aspect in this line of research that this effect represents a net effect based on different possible underlying patterns (e.g. +195/-0 or +395/-200). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]