Structural Influences on the News Finds Me Perception: Why People Believe They Don’t Have to Actively Seek News Anymore

Strauß, Nadine; Huber, Brigitte; Zúñiga, Homero Gil de

doi:10.1177/20563051211024966

Cited by 18 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…This finding implies that when individuals reach higher stages of educational level they are less prone to follow such attitudes. This finding goes in line with previous research about precedents of 'News Finds Me' perception (Strauß, Huber & Gil de Zúñiga, 2021) and might be not surprising as more , educated citizens might consider social media and social links as less accurate sources of information and rely on more traditional media.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Alternative approaches to news: the role of media distrust, perceived network homophily, and interests in news topics

Segado‐Boj

Hung

2021

RCom

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This study focuses on three contemporary alternative users' attitudes to news previously detetected in the literature: 'News finds me', 'The information is out there' and 'I don't know what to believe. It analyzes the role of users' media distrust and social network homophily perception as predictors of each considered attitude. Secondly, the study also considers the effect of the mentioned attitude on user's interests in different news topics. Last, it compares the reciprocal influence of the aforementioned attitudes among them. A survey (n = 279) was developed among Spanish Facebook users. Data was analysed through multiple regression test. Results show that media distrust positively predicted “The Information Is Out There” but was not relevant in the cases of “News Finds Me” and “I Don’t Know What To Believe”. “News Finds Me” negatively predicted interest in hard news (domestic, international politics, and economy), and “The Information Is Out There” predicted interest in lifestyle news and stories about celebrities. Perceived network homophily was not predicted by any of the observed attitudes. A reciprocal influence was detected between “The Information Is Out There” and “News Finds Me” but no influence was identified from or to “I Don’t Know What To Believe”. We conclude that “The Information Is Out There” may have the same negative effects on political knowledge and participation that “News Finds Me” as it drives users away from hard news item and towards softer topics.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Alternative approaches to news: the role of media distrust, perceived network homophily, and interests in news topics

Segado‐Boj

Hung

2021

RCom

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“…This phenomenon has been identified as “news finds me” perception (Gil de Zúñiga et al, 2017). Young people, heavy social media users, and those who often encounter news while using social media for other activities are more likely to develop this “news finds me” perception than others (Strauß et al, 2021). Social media users expect to be updated and informed through their social feeds.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Incidental news consumption has been studied in the context of how it can change media practices (Boczkowski et al, 2018), affect political outcomes (Kim et al, 2013; Morris & Morris, 2017), potentially narrow the gap between those who are engaged and those who are not (Heiss & Matthes, 2019; Kim et al, 2013; Valeriani & Vaccari, 2016; Wojcieszak & Mutz, 2009), and how it can develop a sense of “news finds me” perception where people think they are informed without actively seeking news (Gil de Zúñiga et al, 2017; Strauß et al, 2021). These studies mainly focus on the consequences of incidental news exposure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incidental News Exposure on Facebook and Its Relation to Trust in News

Park

Lee

2023

Social Media + Society

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There has been a growing interest in the impact of incidental news exposure on audiences as using social media as a source of news is becoming increasingly common practice. This article examines how this may have an impact on the trust in news through an analysis of Facebook news users in three countries—Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States ( n = 1,296). While trust in general news is no different between those who access news intentionally or incidentally, incidental exposure has a negative relationship to the trust in news on social media. This finding is more prominent among those who use social media as their primary source of news. Among social media news users, those who actively access news have a much higher trust in news they find on social media compared with incidental news users. This gap implies that there are a variety of contexts in which a social media user is exposed to news and a nuanced understanding of the context of incidental versus intentional exposure is needed to fully explain how incidental exposure to news may affect audiences’ trust in news.

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“…To analyse the effects of social media use, studies often measure the total frequency of use (e.g. Müller et al, 2016;Strauß et al, 2021). However, the frequency of use does not map how people use these platforms and what they see on them.…”

Section: Which Forms Of Social Media News Use Affect Knowledge Gains?mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Incidental and Intentional News Exposure in Social Media Relate to Political Knowledge and Voting Intentions

Dreston¹,

Neubaum²

2022

Preprint

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Citizens are expected to make informed voting decisions. However, research indicates that political knowledge gained through media use does not relate to political participation such as voting. In times of decreasing voter turnout and increasing consumption of news via social media, it is important to study how these two relate. Recent research underscores the fact that, in reality, social media does not increase objective political knowledge, but rather the metacognition of subjective knowledge. In turn, this metacognition might foster political participation. Nevertheless, we do not know which forms of social media use foster users’ perception of being politically knowledgeable. A pre-registered, cross-sectional, pre-election survey (N = 1,223) showed that active forms of social media news use relate more strongly to subjective knowledge than incidental exposure. All forms of usage showed no or even negative associations with objective political knowledge. While none of the forms of social media news use exerted any direct effect on voting intentions, both subjective and objective knowledge are related to increased voting intentions. This study corroborates that social media does not affect political participation directly, but rather through metacognitive processes such as estimating one’s knowledge. However, both objective and subjective knowledge are essential for one’s voting intentions. By showing that active and passive forms of social media use affect knowledge differently, this study provides preliminary and nuanced insights into the ultimate role these technologies can play in democratic processes.

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Structural Influences on the News Finds Me Perception: Why People Believe They Don’t Have to Actively Seek News Anymore

Cited by 18 publications

References 66 publications

Alternative approaches to news: the role of media distrust, perceived network homophily, and interests in news topics

Alternative approaches to news: the role of media distrust, perceived network homophily, and interests in news topics

Incidental News Exposure on Facebook and Its Relation to Trust in News

How Incidental and Intentional News Exposure in Social Media Relate to Political Knowledge and Voting Intentions

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