Effect of Media Environment Diversity and Advertising Tone on Information Search, Selective Exposure, and Affective Polarization

Abstract

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Affective polarization, local contexts and public opinion in America

“…Also at work are other changes in elite behaviours 18 and increasing elite polarization 6,19 . Moreover, changes in the information environment, such as the rise of partisan media 20,21 , increasingly negative campaigns 22 and new social media outlets, contribute to out-party animosity 23 .…”

Analyzing change in network polarization

“…No doubt insights can be gleaned from studying affective competition between parties (e.g. Lau et al, 2016; Lee et al, 2014; Westfall et al, 2015), but affective, or even emotional, modes of polarization do not directly represent “dangerous,” or closed-off and self-reinforcing, manifestations of polarized societies. In fact, some theorists even claim that passionate and heated debates are cornerstones of democratic deliberation (e.g.…”

Poison If You Don’t Know How to Use It: Facebook, Democracy, and Human Rights in Myanmar

“…A substantial body of research in the United States suggests that individuals engage in selective exposure to information (Garrett 2009; Stroud 2008) when confronted with a “high choice” media environment like the Internet (Prior 2007) potentially opting into information “echo chambers” (Sunstein 2001). Scholars in the United States have warned about negative consequences of this phenomenon for democracy: affective polarization (e.g., more anger toward the political outgroup) (Iyengar et al 2012; Lau et al, 2017), attitudinal polarization (Sunstein 2001), and diminished democratic deliberation (Garrett 2009). Because these echo chambers can include fabricated information or extreme speech, selective exposure could be one reason for increased ethnic violence.…”