Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2019 |
Outros Autores: | |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
Texto Completo: | https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i3.2183 |
Resumo: | Contemporary democracies are increasingly shaped by a surge of populism, posing serious threats to the idea of liberal democracy. Particularly in the run-up to elections, knowledge of such threats is essential for citizens to cast an informed vote. Against this background, the present study examined the likelihood of media users to engage with political news providing critical perspectives on populist movements in a 24-hour social media field experiment during the 2017 federal election campaign in Germany (N = 210). Based on two selective exposure measures, findings suggest that exposure to critical news is contingent upon the conceptualization of populist partisanship as a political orientation of either high commitment (i.e., voting intention) or high affinity (i.e., sympathy for a party). While high commitment triggered a rather classic confirmation bias, especially regarding click decisions, high affinity caused selection patterns to be more strongly guided by informational utility, particularly during newsfeed browsing, with counter-attitudinal information receiving more attention. When public sentiment cues were present, however, attitudinal patterns disappeared. These findings imply that partisan news use in times of political upheaval is best gauged by taking a closer look at the particular type of partisanship that guides selective exposure, as both types of partisanship caused contrary exposure patterns, and that today’s news environments potentially override attitudinal influences by providing additional social monitoring cues. |
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Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experimentconfirmation bias; incidental exposure; informational utility; online opinion; partisanship; populism; selective exposure; social endorsements; social mediaContemporary democracies are increasingly shaped by a surge of populism, posing serious threats to the idea of liberal democracy. Particularly in the run-up to elections, knowledge of such threats is essential for citizens to cast an informed vote. Against this background, the present study examined the likelihood of media users to engage with political news providing critical perspectives on populist movements in a 24-hour social media field experiment during the 2017 federal election campaign in Germany (N = 210). Based on two selective exposure measures, findings suggest that exposure to critical news is contingent upon the conceptualization of populist partisanship as a political orientation of either high commitment (i.e., voting intention) or high affinity (i.e., sympathy for a party). While high commitment triggered a rather classic confirmation bias, especially regarding click decisions, high affinity caused selection patterns to be more strongly guided by informational utility, particularly during newsfeed browsing, with counter-attitudinal information receiving more attention. When public sentiment cues were present, however, attitudinal patterns disappeared. These findings imply that partisan news use in times of political upheaval is best gauged by taking a closer look at the particular type of partisanship that guides selective exposure, as both types of partisanship caused contrary exposure patterns, and that today’s news environments potentially override attitudinal influences by providing additional social monitoring cues.Cogitatio2019-07-30info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i3.2183oai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/2183Media and Communication; Vol 7, No 3 (2019): Selective Exposure in a Changing Political and Media Environment; 42-532183-2439reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAPenghttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2183https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i3.2183https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2183/2183https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/downloadSuppFile/2183/626Copyright (c) 2019 Cornelia Mothes, Jakob Ohmehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessMothes, CorneliaOhme, Jakob2022-12-20T10:58:34Zoai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/2183Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T16:20:57.966491Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment |
title |
Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment |
spellingShingle |
Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment Mothes, Cornelia confirmation bias; incidental exposure; informational utility; online opinion; partisanship; populism; selective exposure; social endorsements; social media |
title_short |
Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment |
title_full |
Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment |
title_fullStr |
Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment |
title_full_unstemmed |
Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment |
title_sort |
Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment |
author |
Mothes, Cornelia |
author_facet |
Mothes, Cornelia Ohme, Jakob |
author_role |
author |
author2 |
Ohme, Jakob |
author2_role |
author |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Mothes, Cornelia Ohme, Jakob |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
confirmation bias; incidental exposure; informational utility; online opinion; partisanship; populism; selective exposure; social endorsements; social media |
topic |
confirmation bias; incidental exposure; informational utility; online opinion; partisanship; populism; selective exposure; social endorsements; social media |
description |
Contemporary democracies are increasingly shaped by a surge of populism, posing serious threats to the idea of liberal democracy. Particularly in the run-up to elections, knowledge of such threats is essential for citizens to cast an informed vote. Against this background, the present study examined the likelihood of media users to engage with political news providing critical perspectives on populist movements in a 24-hour social media field experiment during the 2017 federal election campaign in Germany (N = 210). Based on two selective exposure measures, findings suggest that exposure to critical news is contingent upon the conceptualization of populist partisanship as a political orientation of either high commitment (i.e., voting intention) or high affinity (i.e., sympathy for a party). While high commitment triggered a rather classic confirmation bias, especially regarding click decisions, high affinity caused selection patterns to be more strongly guided by informational utility, particularly during newsfeed browsing, with counter-attitudinal information receiving more attention. When public sentiment cues were present, however, attitudinal patterns disappeared. These findings imply that partisan news use in times of political upheaval is best gauged by taking a closer look at the particular type of partisanship that guides selective exposure, as both types of partisanship caused contrary exposure patterns, and that today’s news environments potentially override attitudinal influences by providing additional social monitoring cues. |
publishDate |
2019 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2019-07-30 |
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i3.2183 oai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/2183 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i3.2183 |
identifier_str_mv |
oai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/2183 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2183 https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i3.2183 https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2183/2183 https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/downloadSuppFile/2183/626 |
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv |
Copyright (c) 2019 Cornelia Mothes, Jakob Ohme http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
rights_invalid_str_mv |
Copyright (c) 2019 Cornelia Mothes, Jakob Ohme http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
eu_rights_str_mv |
openAccess |
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv |
application/pdf |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Cogitatio |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Cogitatio |
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv |
Media and Communication; Vol 7, No 3 (2019): Selective Exposure in a Changing Political and Media Environment; 42-53 2183-2439 reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação instacron:RCAAP |
instname_str |
Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
instacron_str |
RCAAP |
institution |
RCAAP |
reponame_str |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
collection |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
repository.name.fl_str_mv |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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