The Influence of Unknown Media on Public Opinion: Evidence from Local and Foreign News Sources

Abstract

In the Internet era people can encounter a vast array of political news outlets, many of which they are unfamiliar with. These unknown media outlets are notable because they represent potential sources of misinformation and coverage with a distinctive slant. We use a large survey experiment to consider how source familiarity influences political communication. While this demonstrates the public is averse to consuming news from unfamiliar media, we show that—conditional on exposure to them—unknown local and foreign media sources can influence public opinion to an extent similar to established mainstream news outlets on the same issues. This comparable effectiveness stems from the public’s charitable evaluations of the credibility of unfamiliar news sources and their relatively low trust in familiar mainstream media. We find avoidance of unknown news outlets, not resistance to their coverage, is the key factor limiting their political influence.