Taking Message-Attitude Congruence as Media Effects: Examining Perceived Influence of Political Talk Radio in Hong Kong

This study examines how people perceive the influence of political talk radio in Hong Kong. Theoretically, the study focuses on the influence of message attitude congruence, that is, the situation in which a person's opinions or attitudes are consistent with the viewpoints promulgated by media messages, on the third-person perception. It is argued that message-attitude congruence provides a situation in which people may attribute their attitudes partly to media influence. Hence message-attitude congruence is expected to relate to increased levels of perceived media influence on self, and thereby weaken the size of the third-person differential. Moreover, it is hypothesized that attribution of media influence should be more likely when people perceive the media influence as desirable and when there is the absence of alternative sources of influence. These arguments were tested with a telephone survey (N = 800) in Hong Kong, where political talk radio has been a prominent medium in the past decade. The results support the theoretical arguments and contribute to our understanding of the significance of the medium in the city. The broader theoretical implications of the findings are also discussed.