scholarly journals Polarized platforms? How partisanship shapes perceptions of “algorithmic news bias”

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110341
Author(s):  
Mikhaila N. Calice ◽  
Luye Bao ◽  
Isabelle Freiling ◽  
Emily Howell ◽  
Michael A. Xenos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Social Media ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Media Bias ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
News Content ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
News Bias

The use of artificial intelligence-based algorithms for the curation of news content by social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter has upended the gatekeeping role long held by traditional news outlets. This has caused some US policymakers to argue that platforms are skewing news diets against them, and such claims are beginning to take hold among some voters. In a nationally representative survey experiment, we explore whether traditional models of media bias perceptions extend to beliefs about algorithmic news bias. We find that partisan cues effectively shape individuals’ attitudes about algorithmic news bias but have asymmetrical effects. Specifically, whereas in-group directional partisan cues stimulate bias perceptions for members of both parties, Democrats, but not Republicans, also respond to out-group cues. We conclude with a discussion about the implications for the formation of attitudes about new technologies and the potential for polarization.

scholarly journals IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON SALES FUNNELS IN B2C AND B2B SEGMENTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Kiselicki ◽  
Saso Josimovski ◽  
Lidija Pulevska Ivanovska ◽  
Mijalce Santa
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
World Population ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Republic ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Sales Funnel ◽  
Media Data

The research focuses on introducing social media platforms as either a complementary or main channel in the company sales funnel. Internet technologies and Web 2.0 continue to provide innovations in digital marketing, with the latest iteration being lead generation services through social media. Data shows that almost half of the world population is active on social media, with the new Generation Alpha being projected to be entirely online dependent and proficient in the use of new technologies. The paper provides an overview of the digitalization of sales funnels, as well as the benefits that social media platforms can offer if implemented correctly. Secondary data provides the basis for transforming sales funnels with social media, where previous research provides limited data on the effectiveness of these types of efforts. Primary data demonstrates that introducing social media platforms can provide improvements of up to 3 to 4 times in analyzed case studies, as well as the shorter time when deciding about purchase in use case scenarios. Social media advertising can also be utilized to shorten the sales funnel process and serve as a unified point of entrance and exit in the first few stages.

scholarly journals Demystifying Social Bots: On the Intelligence of Automated Social Media Actors

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630512093926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Assenmacher ◽  
Lena Clever ◽  
Lena Frischlich ◽  
Thorsten Quandt ◽  
Heike Trautmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Supportive Nature ◽  
Shed Light

Recently, social bots, (semi-) automatized accounts in social media, gained global attention in the context of public opinion manipulation. Dystopian scenarios like the malicious amplification of topics, the spreading of disinformation, and the manipulation of elections through “opinion machines” created headlines around the globe. As a consequence, much research effort has been put into the classification and detection of social bots. Yet, it is still unclear how easy an average online media user can purchase social bots, which platforms they target, where they originate from, and how sophisticated these bots are. This work provides a much needed new perspective on these questions. By providing insights into the markets of social bots in the clearnet and darknet as well as an exhaustive analysis of freely available software tools for automation during the last decade, we shed light on the availability and capabilities of automated profiles in social media platforms. Our results confirm the increasing importance of social bot technology but also uncover an as yet unknown discrepancy of theoretical and practically achieved artificial intelligence in social bots: while literature reports on a high degree of intelligence for chat bots and assumes the same for social bots, the observed degree of intelligence in social bot implementations is limited. In fact, the overwhelming majority of available services and software are of supportive nature and merely provide modules of automation instead of fully fledged “intelligent” social bots.

Partisan Affiliation and the Evaluation of Non-Prototypical Candidates

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-147
Author(s):  
Alexander W. Severson
Keyword(s):  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Consistent Relationship ◽  
Candidate Support ◽  
Nationally Representative

AbstractIdeologically impure candidates—RINOs and DINOs—risk losing the endorsement of their fellow copartisans. However, which copartisans? In this article, I assess how party affiliation and the strength of partisan affiliation condition the evaluation of ideologically impure, non-prototypical candidates. Using a nationally representative survey experiment, I present evidence that while partisans negatively evaluate non-prototypical copartisans, there is not a consistent relationship between strength of identification and the degree of punitiveness. Moreover, candidate non-prototypicality causes convergence in candidate support between Republicans and Democrats. My results provide evidence that nominal partisan affiliation is by itself insufficient to save an ideologically non-prototypical candidate from the rebuke of fellow copartisans and thus that the “in-name-only” charge holds some weight.

scholarly journals Role of Social Media in Shaping Local Youth Tourists' Behaviour Across the Sri Lankan Tourism Industry

2020 ◽  
pp. 15-22
Author(s):  
H. Shamini
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Online Reviews ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
The People ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Mind

The integration of social networking and new technologies has changed the way of communication and information sharing among the people, especially of young people is a fact. As well as, the development of Social Media (SM) has conveyed important changes in the behavioural pattern of tourists. Therefore, it is very essential to understand this new influential trending among the youth tourists, in order to accelerate the tourists’ arrival and contribute to the development of Sri Lanka tourism. Therefore, this research aims at providing an insight to the Tourism Industry in Sri Lanka with regards to how social media platforms influence youth tourists’ behavior. A sample of 103 youth tourists’ response attained through online. The data obtained from the online survey were analyzed with descriptive, reliability test, mean and regression analysis. Results from the survey have identified that Social Media does influence in the youth tourists’ behaviour.  In detail, eWOM and Online reviews/comments significantly influence in the behavior of youth tourists.  And also the study confirmed that in order to attract tourists to a destination mainly revolves in the ability to convey the information to create positive images in the mind of youth tourists via social media. Thereby this study has recommended many suggestions for the Tourism and authorities. Including tourist authority should make its social media pages more interesting, appealing, informative and interactive so the customers can enjoy their social media experiences and they could spread eWOM and online reviews. And also they need to focus on how to create a positive and satisfactory image to their social media users in many other ways.

scholarly journals Will the crowd game the algorithm? Using layperson judgments to combat misinformation on social media by downranking distrusted sources

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziv Epstein ◽  
Gordon Pennycook ◽  
David Gertler Rand
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Fake News ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Ranking Algorithms ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
High Level ◽  
Survey Responses

How can social media platforms fight the spread of misinformation? One possibility is to use newsfeed algorithms to downrank content from sources that users rate as untrustworthy. But will laypeople unable to identify misinformation sites due to motivated reasoning or lack of expertise? And will they “game” this crowdsourcing mechanism to promote content that aligns with their partisan agendas? We conducted a survey experiment in which N = 984 Americans indicated their trust in numerous news sites. Half of the participants were told that their survey responses would inform social media ranking algorithms - creating a potential incentive to misrepresent their beliefs. Participants trusted mainstream sources much more than hyper-partisan or fake news sources, and their ratings were highly correlated with professional fact-checker judgments. Critically, informing participants that their responses would influence ranking algorithms did not diminish this high level of discernment, despite slightly increasing the political polarization of trust ratings.

Chillin’ Effects of Fake News: Changes in Practices Related to Accountability and Transparency in American Newsrooms Under the Influence of Misinformation and Accusations Against the News Media

2021 ◽  
pp. 107769902098478
Author(s):  
Hong Tien Vu ◽  
Magdalena Saldaña
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Media Audiences ◽  
Role Conceptions ◽  
Nationally Representative

This study examines how newsroom work in the United States has changed in response to some of the latest developments in the news media environment. Using nationally representative survey data, we explore what professional routines American journalists have adopted to avoid spreading or being accused of publishing misinformation. Findings suggest that journalists have added new or intensified practices to increase accountability and transparency. In addition, role conceptions, perception of fake news, and responsibility for social media audiences impact the adoption of such practices. Journalists are more likely to embrace transparency than accountability, suggesting the emergence of new journalistic norms in today’s newsrooms.

scholarly journals The (non)use of likes, comments and shares of news in local online newspapers

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-217
Author(s):  
Mona Kristin Solvoll ◽  
Anders Olof Larsson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
Audience Engagement ◽  
Online Newspapers ◽  
Local Newspapers ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Social Media Presence ◽  
Nationally Representative

This paper utilizes a nationally representative survey to gauge the ways in which media users engage with their local newspapers by using features that allow for sharing, liking, and commenting. The main results indicate that significant predictors for different types of news engagement vary, but that age and education emerge as two of the more interesting varieties. Implications are discussed—for instance, how both psychological and behavioral experiences constitute the concept engagement and how our results challenge the technology-optimistic argument that social media presence on a newspaper website promotes audience engagement in the journalistic process.

Making mirrors, making albums and making documentaries: the music of Gotye and negotiating Bourdieu's field of cultural production

Popular Music ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 669-684
Author(s):  
Pat O'Grady
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Music Production ◽  
The Past ◽  
Equipment Production ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Independent Musicians

AbstractRecent popular music and film studies have revealed the political functions of documentaries about musicians. These studies suggest that such documentaries make powerful interventions into the field of music production as they construct the value of their subjects and their work. Owing to the expense and complexity of broadcast equipment, production companies have tended to favour documentaries about artists and work considered to be popular and historically significant. Over the past 15 years, however, new technologies have allowed musicians to make documentaries themselves, which they can release at the same time as their song or album. Using the example of Gotye and his album Making Mirrors, this article argues that these developments have led to powerful and distinct interventions into debates and themes within home music production for independent musicians. It also argues that the use of this technology on social media platforms challenges the relationships between text and process.

scholarly journals Overconfidence in news judgments is associated with false news susceptibility

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (23) ◽  
pp. e2019527118
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Lyons ◽  
Jacob M. Montgomery ◽  
Andrew M. Guess ◽  
Brendan Nyhan ◽  
Jason Reifler
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Real World ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
Relative Ability ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
False News ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
News Headlines

We examine the role of overconfidence in news judgment using two large nationally representative survey samples. First, we show that three in four Americans overestimate their relative ability to distinguish between legitimate and false news headlines; respondents place themselves 22 percentiles higher than warranted on average. This overconfidence is, in turn, correlated with consequential differences in real-world beliefs and behavior. We show that overconfident individuals are more likely to visit untrustworthy websites in behavioral data; to fail to successfully distinguish between true and false claims about current events in survey questions; and to report greater willingness to like or share false content on social media, especially when it is politically congenial. In all, these results paint a worrying picture: The individuals who are least equipped to identify false news content are also the least aware of their own limitations and, therefore, more susceptible to believing it and spreading it further.

scholarly journals Durably Reducing Americans’ Dehumanization of Rival Partisans

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Landry ◽  
Jonathan Schooler ◽  
Robb Willer ◽  
Paul Seli
Keyword(s):  
Negative Affect ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
The Other ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
Informational Intervention ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Democrats And Republicans

Dehumanization, the belief that other people are less than fully human, dampens empathy, increases animosity, and catalyzes conflict between groups. Research has revealed that a troubling number of American partisans blatantly dehumanize members of the other party. Nonetheless, this research has also found that partisans substantially overestimate the extent to which members of the rival party dehumanize them. Here, we predict that partisans’ perceptions of being dehumanized by rival partisans (or meta-dehumanization) leads them to respond with reciprocal dehumanization. By implication, partisans’ own dehumanization of rival partisans could be reduced by correcting their exaggerated meta-dehumanization. We test this hypothesis in a pre-registered, nationally-representative survey experiment of Democrats and Republicans (N = 2,127). We find that a brief, informational intervention correcting partisans’ exaggerated perceptions of how much rival partisans dehumanize them reduced levels of partisan dehumanization by 45%, and this effect persisted in a follow-up survey conducted approximately one week later. We also investigated the effects of our intervention on additional outcomes, finding that it reduced desire for social distance from, and negative affect toward, rival partisans, and that these effects also persisted a week later. Together, these results suggest that correcting inaccurate perceptions of the extent of partisan dehumanization can be a tool for durably mitigating partisan enmity.

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