THE PERCEIVED LEGITIMACY OF DEVIANT POLITICAL GROUPS

This article serves three purposes: (1) An explication of the concept legitimacy. Legitimacy has been measured in a wide number of ways by several researchers. By using factor analysis and correlation validation techniques, the various measures of legitimacy are grouped into four dimensions: evaluation, legality, viability, and stability. (2) an investigation of a critical hypothesis which holds that the U.S. media support the centrist political groups by delegitimizing deviant political groups. Although the deviant groups' activities are reported in the U.S. media, the hypothesis holds that the media cover deviant political groups in such a way as to make them seem ridiculous and eccentric. Two experiments yield some supporting evidence for this hypothesis. (3) A discussion of the applied effects of the findings for working journalists and journalism educators. If news articles which are written in what has traditionally been known as an “objective” style can deligitimize a political group, then the U.S. media may be contributing to the support of centrist parties to the detriment of new or different ideas.