The influence of media consumption on public risk perception: a meta-analysis

Chunhua Niu, Zhixin Jiang, Hongbing Liu, Kehu Yang, Xuping Song and Zhihong Li

Journal of Risk Research, 2022, vol. 25, issue 1, 21-47

Abstract: Media is an important explanatory variable in the research on the social amplification of risk; the public often perceives risks in social life through media consumption such as by relying on, using, and trusting the media dialectically. Currently, researchers have not reached a consistent conclusion about the relationship between media consumption and public risk perception (PRP). This study uses meta-analysis to integrate empirical literature and conducts a more in-depth and systematic analysis of the relationship between media consumption and PRP. The results show that (1) there is no significant correlation between general media use (GMU) and PRP, there is positive relationship between selective media exposure (SMEX) and PRP, and there is no significant correlation between media source credibility (MSC) and PRP. (2) Further meta-regression and subgroup analyses show that country type significantly moderates the relationship between GMU and PRP. Compared with high uncertainty avoidance countries, the relationship between GMU and PRP in low uncertainty avoidance countries is stronger. Moreover, risk type significantly moderates the relationship between SMEX and PRP. Compared with terrorist crime, environmental, accident and other types of risks, the SMEX is more positively correlated with public’s food safety and health risk perception. In addition, media type moderates the relationship between MSC and PRP. Compared with traditional media and internet social media, the MSC of mixed media have a stronger positive relationship with PRP.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2020.1819385

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