How Does Multi-Platform Social Media Use Lead to Biased News Engagement? Examining the Role of Counter-Attitudinal Incidental Exposure, Cognitive Elaboration, and Network Homogeneity

Abstract

Using an online panel survey in the United States, this study examines how multi-platform social media use impacts news engagement on social media. Results show that multi-platform social media use prompts incidental exposure to counter-attitudinal news and further encourages people to cognitively elaborate on the counter-attitudinal information, which in turn contributes to news engagement on social media. However, news engagement is performed in a biased way that is supportive of like-minded content and non-supportive of counter-attitudinal content. Furthermore, the indirect effect of multi-platform social media use on biased news engagement becomes stronger when one’s network is more homogeneous. Although studies have pointed to the democratic prospects of multi-platform social media use as it leads to cross-cutting exposure, our results suggest that it could lead users to engage with news in ways that confirm their pre-existing attitudes and disconfirm counter-attitudinal ones.

Comparing Media Systems in Western Democracies: Examining the Role of Multiplatform News Use and Fake News Concern on News Engagement and Selective Exposure

“…Although one study noted that single-item measures are often as valid and reliable as their multi-item counterparts (Hoeppner et al, 2011), future studies could benefit from testing the scale’s convergent and concurrent validity. In addition, the observation that the average multi-platform social media use for news is 1.08, despite corroborating previous research (Chan et al, 2021b; Guo & Chen, 2022 M = 1~2), future studies could explore whether this varies across different devices or modalities. Finally, although comparative analysis is useful for making comparisons, causality may not be conclusively determined from cross-sectional data.…”

Bilibili, TikTok, and YouTube as sources of information on gastric cancer: assessment and analysis of the content and quality

“…For example, key users may demand that the production process and content of the videos is as rigorous and accurate as possible. Second, regulatory agencies must closely monitor health-related video content and prevent the dissemination of misleading videos on the internet [ 45 ]. Finally, relevant governments, professional organizations, and experts should proactively counter misinformation or disseminate quality health-related information on social media.…”

Political Persuasion Through Social Media

“…News elaboration is a cognitive process involved in processing news information, playing a critical role in comprehension (Guo & Chen, 2022). Individuals acquire understanding of using cognitive elaboration to analyze political topics from media.…”

“…A study conducted in Jakarta demonstrated that cognitive elaboration mediates the relationship between political persuasion and social media use (Venus et al, 2023). Individuals often read news in a way that confirms their pre-existing beliefs while rejecting arguments that contradict their opinions (Guo & Chen, 2022). According to Motivated Reasoning Theory, individuals exposed to information contradicting their beliefs tend to process biased information and critique arguments opposing their beliefs.…”