Resumen
There is a long-standing debate about the effects of media-generated stereotypes on receivers? trust and attitude. However, there is insufficient consensus about their influence on the media receiver?s ecological perspective in determining their extent of trust and attitudes. Drawing an analogy from Differential Susceptibility to Media Effect Model (hereafter DSMM) notion that media effects are conditional and are contingent on differential-susceptibility, this study examines the influence of dispositional and social susceptibility to media. To do so, the study validates the influence of media user?s gender (dispositional susceptibility) and ethnicity (social susceptibility) in determining the outcomes of media-generated stereotypes, media trust (MT), and attitude towards media organization (AO). The survey method has been employed to collect data through a self-administered questionnaire from 1061 university students in public sector institutions in Pakistan. The results provide empirical evidence that media-generated stereotypes are a substantially negative predictor of media trust and attitudes towards the media organization. The results also validate that the influence of the stereotyping manifested by the receiver?s ecological perspective such as ethnicity and gender are crucial determinants of the receiver?s trust and attitudes. Managerially, the study urges that journalistic practices must be more ethnoculturally inclusive, to cope with the contemporary media landscape.