Non-news websites expose people to more political content than news websites: Evidence from browsing data in three countries

Wojcieszak, Magdalena; Menchen-Trevino, Ericka; Hohenberg, Bernhard Clemm von; Leeuw, Sjifra de; Gonçalves, João; Davidson, Samuel; Gonçalves, Alexandre Leopoldo

doi:10.31219/osf.io/8et9g

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…With regard to the newsfeed stimulus, we focused on securing internal validity by keeping (1) the amount of post elements that would typically be found in a Facebook post in the newsfeed consistent, that is, there was no post without a title or picture, and (2) the distribution of political posts consistent, which may have affected external validity (cf. Vraga et al, 2015; Wojcieszak et al, 2024). Nonetheless, our results provide general tendencies to which newsfeed post elements users pay attention to in different conditions and can lay the groundwork for more detailed research on the attention to one manipulated newsfeed post element on specific devices and in different usage environments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Headlines, Pictures, Likes: Attention to Social Media Newsfeed Post Elements on Smartphones and in Public

Mayer,

Ohme,

Maslowska

et al. 2024

Social Media + Society

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Scrolling through a social media newsfeed has become almost ubiquitous. Yet, it remains unknown what specific post elements people pay attention to and whether this varies depending on how they access social media newsfeeds. In an eye-tracking experiment among university students ( N = 201), we compare user attention to specific post elements like source, title, or picture, in a dynamic Facebook newsfeed by device (desktop vs. mobile) and smartphone usage environment (private vs. public). Significant attentional differences occur at the level of the newsfeed post elements. Users pay less attention to visual information on the mobile newsfeed and more attention to textual post elements in a public setting.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Headlines, Pictures, Likes: Attention to Social Media Newsfeed Post Elements on Smartphones and in Public

Mayer,

Ohme,

Maslowska

et al. 2024

Social Media + Society

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“…Most research in political communication focuses on the impact of news exposure or political social media use on attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. However, as use of news media and dependence on professional journalism declines and use of social media increases (Auxier & Anderson, 2021; Wojcieszak et al, 2023), it becomes vital to consider how the social media information environment as a whole may affect politically relevant attitudes and policy preferences. Our results showed that aspirational use of social media was positively associated with anti-intellectualism but had no association with distrust of science.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We see these results as evidence for the need for further research on how patterns of social media use and entertainment content on social media may be associated with political attitudes and social norms (Delli Carpini, 2019; Gerbner & Gross, 1976; Matthes et al, 2023). This work is increasingly important as people now tend to receive more political messages from non-political sources than from political sources online (Wojcieszak et al, 2023). As fewer people regularly consume news media, lifestyle influencers creating aspirational content have the potential to reach a broad range of individuals, particularly younger and less politically engaged audiences who are often overwhelmed by news media and rely on trusted influencers for political information (Cotter & Thorson, 2022; Harff, 2022; Schmuck et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Opinion leaders tend to be more politically knowledgeable, engaged, and consume more news and political information, amplifying their views and opinions to their less engaged peers (Katz & Lazarsfeld, 1955; Lazarsfeld et al, 1948). As individuals are increasingly avoiding news in favor of entertainment-oriented content (Prior, 2007; Villi et al, 2022), people have come to rely on trusted opinion leaders to convey political information (Turcotte et al, 2015; Weeks et al, 2017; Wojcieszak et al, 2023). Social media facilitate connection to and the visibility of opinion leaders, making it easy to see the beliefs and preferences of those with whom we have affinity and find credible, who can then influence exposure to political information, attitudes, and behaviors (Carlson, 2019; Margetts et al, 2016; Thorson & Wells, 2016).…”

Section: Aspirational Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Political Influence of Lifestyle Influencers? Examining the Relationship Between Aspirational Social Media Use and Anti-Expert Attitudes and Beliefs

Hasell,

Chinn

2023

Social Media + Society

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As social media are increasingly integrated into our lives, scholars have examined how social media use can inform beliefs about politics and science. This study considers the political implications of following lifestyle influencers and their aspirational content in social media. Aspirational social media use may shape political attitudes and beliefs, even when not explicitly political. Using a two-wave survey of American adults ( N = 1,421), this study examines whether aspirational use of social media is associated with anti-expert attitudes and inaccurate beliefs about politicized science. Data indicate that aspirational social media use is associated with anti-intellectualism and holding more inaccurate beliefs, but not with overall distrust of science. These relationships are moderated by political affiliation, so that the attitudes and beliefs of Democrats and Republicans are similar at high levels of aspirational social media use. The results highlight the need to better understand the political implications of different types of social media use, including seemingly apolitical social media.

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“…The median number of video visits per person was 76 (SD 1,165). The details on the large-scale project, including extensive informed consent and IRB approvals are reported in (16,50). the increase in percentage of news recommendations is higher 188 ‡ In short, our measure of news recommendations and exposures encompasses all news videos, consistent with past work (36,44), and our measure of political videos encompasses all videos that were not part of news channels.…”

mentioning

confidence: 87%

Nudging the Recommendation Algorithm Increases News Consumption and Diversity on YouTube

Haroon,

Yu,

Menchen-Trevino

et al. 2023

Preprint

Self Cite

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Recommendation algorithms profoundly shape users' attention and information consumption on social media platforms. This study introduces a computational intervention aimed at mitigating two key biases in algorithms by influencing the recommendation process. We tackle interest bias, or the tendency of the algorithm to recommend non-news, non-political information to the majority of users, and ideological bias, or the algorithm directing the politically interested and more strongly partisan users to one-sided congenial content. Employing a sock-puppet experiment alongside a month-long randomized experiment involving 2,142 frequent YouTube users, we investigate if nudging the algorithm by playing videos from quality, verified, and ideologically balanced news channels in the background increases recommendations to and consumption of quality news content. We additionally test if providing balanced news input to the algorithm promotes diverse and cross-cutting news recommendations and consumption. We find that nudging the algorithm significantly and sustainably enhances both recommendations and consumption of news and also successfully minimizes ideological biases in recommendations and consumption, particularly among conservative users. In fact, recommendations have stronger effects on users’ exposure than users’ exposure has on subsequent recommendations. In contrast, nudging the users themselves has no observable effects on news consumption. Increased news consumption, however, has no effects on democratic attitudes (e.g., knowledge, participation, polarization, misperceptions), adding to growing evidence of limited effects of on-platform exposure. The intervention does not adversely affect user engagement on YouTube, showcasing its potential for real-world implementation. These findings underscore the profound influence wielded by platform recommender algorithms on users' attention and information exposure.

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Non-news websites expose people to more political content than news websites: Evidence from browsing data in three countries

Cited by 3 publications

References 61 publications

Headlines, Pictures, Likes: Attention to Social Media Newsfeed Post Elements on Smartphones and in Public

Headlines, Pictures, Likes: Attention to Social Media Newsfeed Post Elements on Smartphones and in Public

The Political Influence of Lifestyle Influencers? Examining the Relationship Between Aspirational Social Media Use and Anti-Expert Attitudes and Beliefs

Nudging the Recommendation Algorithm Increases News Consumption and Diversity on YouTube

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