How the news media activate public expression and influence national agendas

Abstract

We demonstrate that exposure to the news media causes Americans to take public stands on specific issues, join national policy conversations, and express themselves publicly-all key components of democratic politics-more often than they would otherwise. After recruiting 48 mostly small media outlets, we chose groups of these outlets to write and publish articles on subjects we approved, on dates we randomly assigned. We estimated the causal effect on proximal measures, such as website pageviews and Twitter discussion of the articles' specific subjects, and distal ones, such as national Twitter conversation in broad policy areas. Our intervention increased discussion in each broad policy area by ~62.7% (relative to a day's volume), accounting for 13,166 additional posts over the treatment week, with similar effects across population subgroups.

Science Training for Journalists: An Essential Tool in the Post-Specialist Era of Journalism

“…Yet, there are far more non-specializing journalists covering environmental stories today than there are specialists and the news industry needs ways to improve the coverage produced by this larger, inexpert group. Local news outlets, for example, are highly unlikely to be able to accommodate the knowledge-based journalism approach, yet these outlets play a significant role in public discussion within their target constituencies (King et al, 2017). Reich and Godler (2016) offered a potent critique of this debate when they argued that it is "more urgent to develop novel ways to optimize and cope with non-specialization rather than to lament its arrival.…”

“…However, it is equally-and perhaps more (Pew Research Center, 2016b;King et al, 2017)-important to ensure reporters at smaller, local news outlets have received sufficient training to build a basic fluency with the fundamental assumptions, limitations, and norms of scientific research and the confidence to pursue science-based stories. Metcalf Institute's outcomes demonstrate that training via professional development is an effective tool for optimizing the science reporting skills of specialists and non-specialists, alike.…”

Elite legitimation and delegitimation of international organizations in the media: Patterns and explanations

“…Consequently, elites engaged with IOs and their legitimacy try to gain public support through the news media and to position their legitimacy evaluations in this highly visible format (Kriesi et al 2012, p. 39). Exposure to such evaluations in the news media has the potential to affect citizens' perceptions of IO legitimacy, to mobilize their political engagement, and consequently to shape national agendas (King et al 2017).…”

Exposure to Opposing Views can Increase Political Polarization: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment on Social Media

“…77.7% of Clinton voters express favorable attitudes towards the Black Lives Matter movement, whereas 31.2% of Trump voters do the same. 68.9% of Trump voters believe immigration to the United States should be decreased, compared to 21.9% of Clinton voters.Longstanding divides about these and many other issues have far-reaching consequences for the design and implementation of social policies as well as the effective function of democracy more broadly (8-12).America's deep partisan divides are often attributed to "echo chambers," or patterns of information sharing that reinforce pre-existing political beliefs by limiting exposure to heterogeneous ideas and perspectives (13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Concern about selective exposure to information and political polarization has increased in the age of social media (13,(18)(19)(20).…”

“…America's deep partisan divides are often attributed to "echo chambers," or patterns of information sharing that reinforce pre-existing political beliefs by limiting exposure to heterogeneous ideas and perspectives (13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Concern about selective exposure to information and political polarization has increased in the age of social media (13,(18)(19)(20).…”