Media Bias
Media Bias
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Digital news plays a central role in today's society, which is why the way audiences perceive it - particularly around political and socially sensitive topics - has become an important area of research.
One of the most influential factors shaping that perception is media bias: the distortion of news content toward a particular perspective or ideology.
Toward the end of my master's program, I became increasingly interested in how media bias is perceived, and I explored this question in virtual reality (VR) - first in a larger independent project and then in my master's thesis. Below you can learn more about the research I carried out.
Master thesis: "Influence of avatar and agent comments on the perception of media bias in news articles in VR"
Master thesis: "Influence of avatar and agent comments on the perception of media bias in news articles in VR"
One effective way to shape that perception is through article comments — the remarks other users leave about a piece of content. For my master's thesis, I ran a laboratory study examining how avatar and agent comments affect the perception of media bias in news articles in VR. I also looked at how the articles and comments were perceived in terms of credibility and emotionality.
The hypothesis that the different comment types would affect perceived media bias was not supported by a significant result, and participants' attitudes toward the news topic were likewise not significantly influenced by the type of comment. There was, however, a significant difference between participants' opinions on the topics before and after the study, and the credibility of the articles and comments was perceived differently.
Overall, the study confirmed effects reported in earlier research and offered new insights into how article comments are perceived in VR.
HCI Project: "Media Bias in XR"
HCI Project: "Media Bias in XR"
I first entered media bias research through my HCI project "Media Bias in XR." One goal was simply to study media bias in VR — an area with little prior research. Beyond that, the project examined whether contextually reinforcing virtual environments influence how news articles are perceived.
In other words, participants were placed in a virtual environment matched to the topic. Since the news articles dealt with US abortion law, the context-matched environment was a hospital operating room, while the control group completed the study in a virtual replica of an ordinary lab room at the University of Würzburg.
The results showed no significant effect of the virtual environment on how the articles were perceived; several limitations may have masked a possible effect, and further research is needed to investigate it.
Virtual environment of the hospital group
Virtual environment of the control group
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