News consumption and affective polarization in Taiwan: The mediating roles of like-minded discussion and relative hostile media perception

This study examines the mediating roles of like-minded discussion and the perceived hostility gap of partisan news in the relationship between news consumption and affective polarization. Consistent with the filter-hypothesis of interpersonal communication and the relative hostile media framework, the results indicate that news consumption encourages individuals to engage in like-minded discussions, which in turn leads to stronger relative hostile media perception and the subsequent affective polarization. We discuss the implications in terms of how news media use and interpersonal discussion may work jointly to affect political polarization in an emerging democratic society.