Personal Bias or Government Bias? Testing the Hostile Media Effect in a Regulated Press System

This study examines the hostile media effect in relation to partisans’ perception of the slant of news coverage in a highly regulated press environment—Singapore. We found that partisans in Singapore perceived unbiased news to be in favor of the other side, while the nonpartisans perceived the same news to be neutral. Our findings show that hostile media effects can persist in a restricted press environment where people are aware of the government's control of media coverage. We also found that partisans’ awareness of the government's control of media information contributed to their perception of the article slant as well.