Why Do Partisan Audiences Participate? Perceived Public Opinion as the Mediating Mechanism

Dvir-Gvirsman, Shira; Garrett, R. Kelly; Tsfati, Yariv

doi:10.1177/0093650215593145

Cited by 30 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…People with uncertain attitudes would thus seek out both pro-and counter-attitudinal information, which then bolsters political participation. Findings based on partisan selective exposure showed that like-minded information can engender political and electoral participation (Dilliplane, 2011;Dvir-Gvirsman et al, 2018;Wojcieszak et al, 2015) because such information can activate and reinforce partisan cues that motivate people to participate in politics. This does not mean that people avoid information that opposes their opinions because selective exposure does not equate to selective avoidance (Garrett, 2009).…”

Section: The Mediating Role Of Online Political Information Seekingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More specifically, we test two mechanisms that the aforementioned meta-analysis proposed that can influence the cross-cutting discussion and political participation relationship. The first is the mediating role of information seeking as encounters with political disagreement may lead to pro-attitudinal and counter-attitudinal information seeking (Levitan & Wronski, 2014) that can bolster political participation (Dvir-Gvirsman et al, 2018). The second is the moderating role of social accountability based on Mutz's (2002) assertion that discussion disagreement creates anxiety because it causes conflict among relationships and threatens social harmony, which dampen participation.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Cross-Cutting Discussion on Social Media and Online Political Participation: A Cross-National Examination of Information Seeking and Social Accountability Explanations

Chan

Chen

Lee

2021

Social Media + Society

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The question of whether cross-cutting discussion engenders or depresses political participation has offered mixed findings in the literature. Following recommendations from a meta-analysis, this study tests two competing arguments: the information seeking explanation for engendering participation and the social accountability explanation for attenuating participation. Probability surveys were conducted among young adults in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China, and analyses examined the relationship between cross-cutting discussion on social media and online political participation. For the Taiwan and Hong Kong samples, political information seeking positively mediated the relationship, but desire to avoid social conflict also attenuated the relationship. Neither mechanism was significant for the China sample. The findings suggest that the competing explanations are not mutually exclusive, and they highlight the importance of examining the variety of contingent conditions that influence the relationship between cross-cutting discussion and political participation in different national contexts.

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Section: The Mediating Role Of Online Political Information Seekingmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-Cutting Discussion on Social Media and Online Political Participation: A Cross-National Examination of Information Seeking and Social Accountability Explanations

Chan

Chen

Lee

2021

Social Media + Society

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“…Partisan cable television has been shown to contribute to both audience fragmentation and ideological rigidity in which extant biases (of all types) are confirmed (Levendusky, 2013; Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 2009). Yet, the ideologically divergent cable news outlets MSNBC and Fox News have been credited with the prosocial effect of increasing attention to and participation in politics (Dvir-Gvirsman, Garrett, & Tsfati, 2015).…”

Section: Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Mediating empathy: The role of news consumption in mitigating attitudes about race and immigration

Kaufhold

2019

Newspaper Research Journal

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Controversies over racism and xenophobia during and after the campaign of President Donald Trump contributed to big increases in media consumption—and racist incidents. This study examines whether and how much news media consumption mitigates perceptions of 12 measures of attitudes about race and immigration, using a national instrument of 64,600 cases. Selective exposure played an outsized role in media consumption during this election cycle and was highly predictive of partisan attitudes, which predicted attitudes on race and immigration. News media use—especially newspaper use—does soften attitudes about race and immigration, although it is not as predictive as party identification.

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“…Even though there are notable exceptions (see e.g. Weeks, Ardèvol-Abreu & Gil de Zúñiga, 2017;Dvir-Gvirsman, Garrett & Tsfati, 2018), there are still relatively few studies of social media participation taking psychological factors into account (Bimber, 2017). Even fewer studies focus on social psychological explanations to such activity, even though a number of studies of "offline" political behavior suggest that social incentives and personality features are important to take into account when analyzing group-oriented political activities (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A social safety net? Rejection sensitivity and political opinion sharing among young people in social media

Bäck

Bäck²,

Fredén

et al. 2018

New Media & Society

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One reason why people avoid using social media to express their opinions is to avert social sanctions as proposed by the spiral of silence theory. We here elaborate on individual-level sensitivity to social rejection in relation to voicing political opinions on social media sites. Given the uncertainty about sharing political views in social media, and the fact that social acceptance, or rejection, can be easily communicated through, for instance, likes, or a lack of likes, we argue that rejection sensitive individuals are less likely to share political information in social media. Combining an analysis of unique survey data on psychological characteristics and online political activity with focus group interviews with Swedish youth supports our argument, showing that rejection sensitive individuals are less inclined to engage politically in social media. The results extend on previous research by establishing the role of rejection sensitivity in political engagement in social media.

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Why Do Partisan Audiences Participate? Perceived Public Opinion as the Mediating Mechanism

Abstract: The bulk of current literature on partisan media explores its various detrimental influences on the democratic sphere. This study highlights a possible positive outcome of partisan media consumption: enhanced political participation. It is hypothesized that

Cited by 30 publications

References 77 publications

Cross-Cutting Discussion on Social Media and Online Political Participation: A Cross-National Examination of Information Seeking and Social Accountability Explanations

Cross-Cutting Discussion on Social Media and Online Political Participation: A Cross-National Examination of Information Seeking and Social Accountability Explanations

Mediating empathy: The role of news consumption in mitigating attitudes about race and immigration

A social safety net? Rejection sensitivity and political opinion sharing among young people in social media

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