Newspaper as Repeater: An Experiment on Defamation and Third-Person Effect
Laurie Mason · Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · 1995
The Third-Person Effect - the tendency to see others as more influenced than self by a mass media message - is replicated with a jury sample and extended to interpersonal communication. The effect on perceived other is found to be exaggerated when a message is reported through a newspaper rather than delivered directly by the message source. This finding is discussed in regard to its implication for inflated libel awards.