Effect of the third person effect - 19
must mention that Avraham’s (2001, 2002) content analysis results concur with most
of our respondents, suggesting that coverage of development towns by the Israeli
media is indeed negative and unfair.
Outraged about the negative depiction of their cities, mayors of development
towns often appear in the media to criticize journalists and editors (probably with the
intent of influencing future coverage). Our findings suggest that this strategy could
potentially backfire. This is because such rhetoric might draw the attention of local
residents to the portrayals of their towns by the media, and might possibly enhance
beliefs about bias in coverage and about its impact. Residents of development towns
watching their mayor arguing on television that media coverage of their town is unfair
will probably be convinced that the coverage is negative. They might also be more
likely to believe the media coverage of their town has an impact. However, present
findings show that such perceptions contribute indirectly to residential mobility
thoughts, an undesirable consequence from the mayors’ point of view. Thus,
development town mayors (and perhaps leaders of marginalized groups in general)
should be aware of the potential undesirable effects of attacking the media.
The results of this study highlight the importance of our beliefs about media
representations of the places we live in and the presumed influence of these beliefs. If
earlier research demonstrated that beliefs about media power were important in
shaping our beliefs about media and society (i.e., freedom and censorship) the present
data show that these beliefs shape how we feel about our own lives. Even when it
comes to issues of self-identity, issues about which we have the most direct
knowledge, our perceptions of what others think about us are influential. By applying
the third person literature to the context of identity and marginalization, this study
further establishes the importance of presumed influence.
Convention