From Low-Choice to High-Choice Media Environments

Strömbäck, Jesper; Boomgaarden, Hajo G.; Broda, Elena; Damstra, Alyt; Lindgren, Elina; Tsfati, Yariv; Vliegenthart, Rens

doi:10.4324/9781003111474-3

Cited by 26 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Following this reasoning and considering the fairly high level of Romanians' beliefs in conspiracy narratives about the pandemic, we argue that even the mere attempt to debunk such narratives can have a boomerang effect, in the sense that it only affects people holding conspiracy beliefs, and it only decreases their trust in the media. This, as argued earlier, is also supported by people's tendency to resist knowledge and avoid information or evidence that challenges their deep-seated beliefs (Strömbäck et al, 2022). Therefore, people disbelieving conspiracy narratives will not necessarily be affected by such debunking attempts, whereas people holding high levels of personal belief in such stories will lose trust in the media for questioning attitudecompliant information, that is, information that is usually perceived as more credible, satisfying, reassuring, and self-protective (Sude and Knobloch-Westerwick, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…Another possible explanation refers to people's tendency to resist information and/or knowledge that is not consonant with pre-existing views and beliefs (Glüer and Wikforss, 2022). This, as scholars show, increases the risk of holding on to one's misperceptions, even when media outlets provide correct, empirically based information (Kvetanová et al, 2021;Strömbäck et al, 2022). In other words, we suggest that when the huge amount of information that is available in high-choice media environments aligns with people's former (conspiratorial) beliefs and values, efforts to correct it might be less successful, thus leading to decreased trust in the debunking source.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do conspiracy theories circulating in the media or their debunking affect people’s trust in the media?

Corbu,

Bârgăoanu,

Udrea

et al. 2023

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The COVID-19 pandemic has fostered an unprecedented number of conspiracy theories about the virus and the vaccine against the disease. Current research has tried to make sense of the effects of conspiracy narratives and debunking them in both mainstream and social media. However, the effect of such narratives or their debunking on media trust has not been investigated to date. By means of a 2 × 2 experimental design (N = 945) in Romania, we investigate how mainstream and social media content containing conspiracy theories about vaccination against COVID-19 and debunking them influence people’s trust in both mainstream and social media. People’s own beliefs in such narratives are used as moderators of these effects. Findings show that only the debunking content circulating in mainstream media decreases people’s trust in both mainstream and social media, and only for people exhibiting high levels of belief in conspiracy theories, that is only when people are exposed to counter-attitudinal content. Implications for stakeholders are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do conspiracy theories circulating in the media or their debunking affect people’s trust in the media?

Corbu,

Bârgăoanu,

Udrea

et al. 2023

Social Science Information

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Of course, there is no denying that Sweden was different then compared to, say, present-day US, where it is much easier to be selective about information and information sources. (See Chapter 3 by Strömbäck et al, 2022 for an in-depth discussion about media-related issues.) However, in Sweden around the referendum, there was a high level of political polarization on the issue (Asp & Holmberg, 1984) and partisan attachments were much higher than today.…”

Section: A Brief Illustration: the 1980 Nuclear Power Referendum In S...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge Resistance in High-Choice Information Environments

Strömbäck¹,

Wikforss²,

Glüer³

et al. 2022

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This book offers a truly interdisciplinary exploration of our patterns of engagement with politics, news, and information in current high-choice information environments. Putting forth the notion that high-choice information environments may contribute to increasing misperceptions and knowledge resistance rather than greater public knowledge, the book offers insights into the processes that influence the supply of misinformation and factors influencing how and why people expose themselves to and process information that may support or contradict their beliefs and attitudes.A team of authors from across a range of disciplines address the phenomena of knowledge resistance and its causes and consequences at the macro-as well as the micro-level. The chapters take a philosophical look at the notion of knowledge resistance, before moving on to discuss issues such as misinformation and fake news, psychological mechanisms such as motivated reasoning in processes of selective exposure and attention, how people respond to evidence and fact-checking, the role of political partisanship, political polarization over factual beliefs, and how knowledge resistance might be counteracted.This book will have a broad appeal to scholars and students interested in knowledge resistance, primarily within philosophy, psychology, media and communication, and political science, as well as journalists and policymakers.

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“…Following the DSMM, there are theoretical reasons to assume that general media trust is one key dispositional differential susceptibility variable that influences media use. This holds in particular in high-choice media environments where people are not constrained to using mainstream media and have greater opportunities than ever to seek out political alternative media with content that is attitude-congruent (Strömbäck et al, 2022).…”

Section: Media Trust As a Predictor Of Media Usementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two potential outcomes of these processes are an increasing divergence in worldviews and societal perceptions as well as a growing prevalence of misperceptions (O'Connor & Weatherall, 2019;Strömbäck et al, 2022;Vosoughi et al, 2018). Numerous studies also show that societal perceptions partly can be explained by citizens' media use and thus should be conceptualized as a media effect (Damstra et al, 2021;Meltzer & Schemer, 2021;Ridout et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Media Use and Societal Perceptions: The Dual Role of Media Trust

Shehata

Strömbäck²

2022

MaC

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How citizens’ perceptions of societal problems are shaped by media use has been a critical question in media effects research for decades. This study addresses a specific puzzle concerning media effects in contemporary fragmented media environments: the dual role of media trust as both (a) an antecedent variable guiding news selection and (b) a moderator variable conditioning the effects of news use on perceptions of societal problems. Building upon the differential susceptibility to media effects model, we analyze the role of media trust for citizens’ orientation towards mainstream and alternative news media—and how such usage influences perceptions of two major societal issues: health care and school. Findings from a four-wave panel survey conducted in Sweden suggest that public service and alternative news use matter for citizens’ perceptions of societal problems and that media trust influences news choices and may, partly, condition media effects.

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From Low-Choice to High-Choice Media Environments

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

Do conspiracy theories circulating in the media or their debunking affect people’s trust in the media?

Do conspiracy theories circulating in the media or their debunking affect people’s trust in the media?

Knowledge Resistance in High-Choice Information Environments

Media Use and Societal Perceptions: The Dual Role of Media Trust

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