Search citation statements
Paper Sections
Citation Types
Year Published
Publication Types
Relationship
Authors
Journals
In today's high-choice media environment, the relations between news consumption and (extreme) political views receive extensive attention. While social media and news aggregators are often blamed for political polarization, theories from media psychology highlight the importance of additional aspects of news consumption, aside from the media types used, in impacting the formation of political views and thereby, for instance, polarization. However, these aspects are typically studied in isolation, neglecting the heterogeneity in where and how news can be consumed. Based on this observation, the present work investigated the conjoint relations of various aspects of news consumption across media types with political views and their extremity. Study 1 included two samples of N = 714 (sample 1) and N = 721 (sample 2) participants completing an online survey assessing political news consumption habits and general political views, namely, ideology and affective polarization. Study 2 included two samples of N = 725 (sample 3) and N = 713 (sample 4) participants completing scales on issue-specific political views, namely, attitudes on war and the war against Ukraine. Latent Profile Analyses revealed four mostly media type-specific news consumer profiles replicated across samples, indicating that individuals choose one media type, like social media, aggregators, or print media, and devote considerable time to consuming political news from various sources, including attitude-incongruent news and diverse perspectives, from the same selected media type. While these profiles differed on sociodemographic and personality variables, few significant relations were found between these profiles and political views. These findings highlight the complexity of these relations and challenge the assumption that only certain media types, and news consumption via them, drive political extremity.
In today's high-choice media environment, the relations between news consumption and (extreme) political views receive extensive attention. While social media and news aggregators are often blamed for political polarization, theories from media psychology highlight the importance of additional aspects of news consumption, aside from the media types used, in impacting the formation of political views and thereby, for instance, polarization. However, these aspects are typically studied in isolation, neglecting the heterogeneity in where and how news can be consumed. Based on this observation, the present work investigated the conjoint relations of various aspects of news consumption across media types with political views and their extremity. Study 1 included two samples of N = 714 (sample 1) and N = 721 (sample 2) participants completing an online survey assessing political news consumption habits and general political views, namely, ideology and affective polarization. Study 2 included two samples of N = 725 (sample 3) and N = 713 (sample 4) participants completing scales on issue-specific political views, namely, attitudes on war and the war against Ukraine. Latent Profile Analyses revealed four mostly media type-specific news consumer profiles replicated across samples, indicating that individuals choose one media type, like social media, aggregators, or print media, and devote considerable time to consuming political news from various sources, including attitude-incongruent news and diverse perspectives, from the same selected media type. While these profiles differed on sociodemographic and personality variables, few significant relations were found between these profiles and political views. These findings highlight the complexity of these relations and challenge the assumption that only certain media types, and news consumption via them, drive political extremity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.