Development and Validation of Perceived News Media Bias Scale

The study aimed to develop a scale to measure Chinese university students' perception of western news media bias. A pool of 14 original items was created through a literature review, and after expert review and revision, 8 items were retained. A total of 1998 valid participants (891 for EFA and 1107 for CFA) was collected from an independent college Hebei Province, China. Independent samples t-tests was conducted for item discrimination. EFA revealed two dimensions, editorial bias and reporting bias, with high internal consistency. CFA confirmed the scale's construct validity. Convergent validity and discriminant validity were satisfactory. Significant correlations were found between the scale and NMLS, indicating good concurrent validity. The scale showed full measurement invariance across birthplace but residual invariance across gender was not supported. The article discussed limitations related to sample homogeneity, absence of certain types of news, restricted sample selection method, and potential contextual dimension variation. Recommendations were then provided. In conclusion, the scale demonstrated good reliability and validity, providing an effective assessment tool for further research on media bias.