Online news creation, trust in the media, and political participation: Direct and moderating effects over time

Journalism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 611-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu ◽  
Catherine M Hooker ◽  
Homero Gil de Zúñiga

This article explores the role of trust in professional and alternative media as (a) antecedents of citizen news production, and (b) moderators of the effect of citizen news production on political participation. Using two-wave panel survey data collected in the United States between December 2013 and March 2014, results show that trust in citizen media predicts people’s tendency to create news. In turn, citizen news production is a positive predictor of both offline and online participation. More importantly, trust in the media moderates the effect of citizen news production over online political participation. Overall, this article highlights the importance of trust in the media with respect to citizen news production and how it matters for democracy. Thus, this study casts a much-needed light on how media trust and citizen journalism intertwine in explaining a more engaged and participatory citizenry.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0259473
Author(s):  
Marrissa D. Grant ◽  
Alexandra Flores ◽  
Eric J. Pedersen ◽  
David K. Sherman ◽  
Leaf Van Boven

The present study, conducted immediately after the 2020 presidential election in the United States, examined whether Democrats’ and Republicans’ polarized assessments of election legitimacy increased over time. In a naturalistic survey experiment, people (N = 1,236) were randomly surveyed either during the week following Election Day, with votes cast but the outcome unknown, or during the following week, after President Joseph Biden was widely declared the winner. The design unconfounded the election outcome announcement from the vote itself, allowing more precise testing of predictions derived from cognitive dissonance theory. As predicted, perceived election legitimacy increased among Democrats, from the first to the second week following Election Day, as their expected Biden win was confirmed, whereas perceived election legitimacy decreased among Republicans as their expected President Trump win was disconfirmed. From the first to the second week following Election Day, Republicans reported stronger negative emotions and weaker positive emotions while Democrats reported stronger positive emotions and weaker negative emotions. The polarized perceptions of election legitimacy were correlated with the tendencies to trust and consume polarized media. Consumption of Fox News was associated with lowered perceptions of election legitimacy over time whereas consumption of other outlets was associated with higher perceptions of election legitimacy over time. Discussion centers on the role of the media in the experience of cognitive dissonance and the implications of polarized perceptions of election legitimacy for psychology, political science, and the future of democratic society.


Author(s):  
Elliot Friedman ◽  
Beth LeBreton ◽  
Lindsay Fuzzell ◽  
Elizabeth Wehrpsann

By many estimates the majority of adults over age 65 have two or more chronic medical conditions (multimorbidity) and are consequently at increased risk of adverse functional outcomes. Nonetheless, many older adults with multimorbidity are able to maintain high levels of function and retain good quality of life. Research presented here is designed to understand the influences that help ensure better functional outcomes in these older adults. This chapter presents findings that draw on data from the Midlife in the United States study. The independent and interactive contributions of diverse factors to multimorbidity and changes in multimorbidity over time are reviewed. The degree that multimorbidity increases risk of cognitive impairment and disability is examined. The role of inflammation as a mediator is considered. Multimorbidity is increasingly the norm for older adults, so better understanding of factors contributing to variability in multimorbidity-related outcomes can lead to improved quality of life.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110252
Author(s):  
Sebastián Valenzuela ◽  
Daniel Halpern ◽  
Felipe Araneda

Despite widespread concern, research on the consequences of misinformation on people's attitudes is surprisingly scant. To fill in this gap, the current study examines the long-term relationship between misinformation and trust in the news media. Based on the reinforcing spirals model, we analyzed data from a three-wave panel survey collected in Chile between 2017 and 2019. We found a weak, over-time relationship between misinformation and media skepticism. Specifically, initial beliefs on factually dubious information were negatively correlated with subsequent levels of trust in the news media. Lower trust in the media, in turn, was related over time to higher levels of misinformation. However, we found no evidence of a reverse, parallel process where media trust shielded users against misinformation, further reinforcing trust in the news media. The lack of evidence of a downward spiral suggests that the corrosive effects of misinformation on attitudes toward the news media are less serious than originally suggested. We close with a discussion of directions for future research.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Ellis

Representations of war in the media have changed drastically over time. Like the media representations of war, the American public's view of wars has also shifted over time; this is often a result of the media portrayals of war events. This paper examines the role of newspaper, yellow journalism, and sensationalism writing during the Spanish-American War on the American public's support for the war and juxtaposes this with television media accounts of the American war in Vietnam and how this created public disapproval for the war. Both had everlasting effects on US war policy for the future.


Journalism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt ◽  
Motti Neiger

This article develops the concept of temporal affordances as a framework for understanding and evaluating the relationship between news technologies and journalistic storytelling practices. Accordingly, temporal affordances are defined as the potential ways in which the time-related possibilities and constraints associated with the material conditions and technological aspects of news production are manifested in the temporal characteristics of news narratives. After identifying six such affordances – immediacy, liveness, preparation time, transience, fixation in time, and extended retrievability – we examine manifestations of temporal affordances in different journalistic cultures over time, based on a content analysis of Israeli and US news narratives in different technological eras (from 1950 to 2013). The findings point to a consistent pattern of inter-media differences, in accordance with the distinct affordances of print and online news, alongside cross-cultural and cross-organizational variations in the use of these affordances. In addition, we detect complex patterns of stability and change in the use of temporal affordances in print media over time. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.


Abstract.—In 2003, more than 69 million people participated in recreational boating in the United States. The tenet that boating activity leads to higher aquatic stewardship ethics is often assumed since heightened environmental sensitivity has been correlated with significant positive contact with the outdoors. However, a direct link between boating and stewardship has not been substantiated. A review of current outreach efforts suggests that measures of boating-related stewardship could include preventing petroleum-based pollution, reducing marine debris, reducing sewage discharges, reducing air pollution, reducing habitat disturbance and physical destruction, and utilizing less harmful chemicals for boating activities. Measures of positive stewardship could also include boater’s involvement in, and support of, government programs and funding that promote these on-the-water behaviors. While these behaviors could be considered outward signs of good stewardship ethics, the motivation behind them would be more difficult to assess, thereby complicating the distinction between actual stewardship and behavior motivated by other forces. However, to the natural resources manager, motivation may not be as important as the resulting behavior, as long as the desired behaviors are sustained over time. A review of behaviors being promoted by the boating community (and applied examples), their utility as measures of aquatic stewardship, and the role of motivations are discussed.


Author(s):  
Pruthikrai Mahatanankoon

This exploratory study aims to examine the moderating effect of novelty seeking and spontaneity on the relationship between asynchronous and synchronous personal electronic communication at work. Hierarchical moderated regression analyses were used to analyze a survey of 110 white-collar employees working in the midwestern region of the United States. Data analysis revealed the moderating effects of spontaneity and novelty seeking on the transition from personal asynchronous to synchronous communication, emphasizing the role of novelty seeking and spontaneity as the precursors to higher media synchronicity—a transition from conveyance to convergence processes as observed in various hedonic settings. Strategies for workplace communication management are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 436-441
Author(s):  
Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes ◽  
Jose R. Bucheli

An increasingly diverse population in the United States has given rise to a growing body of literature that analyzes the causes and consequences of descriptive representation. Using individual-level representative data on registration and voting for the entire United States over the 2008-2018 decade, we find that diversity in the candidate pool promotes the registration and voting of eligible-to-vote individuals, particularly those belonging to the youngest generations of voters, those located in swing states, and growing minorities, as in the case of Hispanic voters. Given the changing electorate, increasing candidate diversity might prove crucial in promoting political and electoral engagement.


2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHEN E. BENNETT ◽  
RICHARD S. FLICKINGER ◽  
STACI L. RHINE

Data from Great Britain and the United States from the late 1950s to the early 1990s show relatively little change in the frequency with which citizens engage in political discussions, with whom they are likely to speak, and the variables that shape their propensity to engage in political talk. In addition, analyses of the data show that discussing politics enhances citizens' knowledge of public affairs, even net of other variables known to affect political knowledge. Students of political behaviour and those interested in strengthening democracy need to treat political discussions as an important form of political participation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert N. Lupton ◽  
Steven M. Smallpage ◽  
Adam M. Enders

The correlation between ideology and partisanship in the mass public has increased in recent decades amid a climate of persistent and growing elite polarization. Given that core values shape subsequent political predispositions, as well as the demonstrated asymmetry of elite polarization, this article hypothesizes that egalitarianism and moral traditionalism moderate the relationship between ideology and partisanship in that the latter relationship will have increased over time only among individuals who maintain conservative value orientations. An analysis of pooled American National Election Studies surveys from 1988 to 2012 supports this hypothesis. The results enhance scholarly understanding of the role of core values in shaping mass belief systems and testify to the asymmetric nature and mass public reception of elite cues among liberals and conservatives.


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