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Warring with the Press: The Influence of Elite Hostility, Emotions, and Perceptions of News Media Importance on Support for Journalism

ABSTRACT This experimental research effort highlights the mobilizing potential of elite hostility toward the press, examining causal mechanisms related to public support for the news media, as conditioned by perceptions of the news media’s importance. The study used a national sample (N = 330) to probe the influence of a “mashup” of video footage featuring President Donald Trump’s hostility toward the news media and, separately, the influence of footage depicting the Trump administration’s political activity. Employing the concept of elite cues, principles of appraisal theory, and the concept of Perceived News Media Importance (PNMI), the study demonstrates that exposure to elite hostility—in the mold of Donald Trump’s anti-media rhetoric—indirectly served as a catalyst for prompting intentions to support the press, via the elicitation of anger in response to the message exposure. Moreover, the indirect influence of exposure to Trump representations on press support was most pronounced when highly valuing journalism’s core normative functions (i.e., PNMI). A post-hoc analysis further confirms that perceptions of Trump posing a threat to the freedom of the press were positively associated with a willingness to express support for news media, as amplified by PNMI.