scholarly journals A Sadness Bias in Political News Sharing? The Role of Discrete Emotions in the Engagement and Dissemination of Political News on Facebook

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630512110597
Author(s):  
Ernesto de León ◽  
Damian Trilling
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Negativity Bias ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Discrete Emotions ◽  
Political News ◽  
News Sharing

In this study, we address the role of emotions in political news sharing on Facebook to better understand the complex relationship between journalism, emotions, and politics. Categorizing Facebook Reactions (particularly, the Sad, Angry, Love, and Wow Reactions) according to the discrete emotions model, we evaluate how positive versus negative political content relates to emotional responses, and how this consequentially influences the degree to which articles are shared across social media in the context of an election. We focus on the landmark 2018 Mexican elections to enable a nuanced conversation on how cues of user emotion predict the far-reaching dissemination of news articles on Facebook during a moment of heightened political attention. Our findings demonstrate a negativity bias in news sharing and engagement, showing an outsized prevalence of anger in response to political news. In addition, we provide evidence of a novel sadness bias in the sharing of political coverage, suggesting that emotions considered as deactivating should be reevaluated in the context of social media.

scholarly journals Actors, Partisan Inclination, and Emotions: An Analysis of Government Shutdown News Stories Shared on Twitter

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110088
Author(s):  
Colin Agur ◽  
Lanhuizi Gan
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Responses ◽  
The United States ◽  
Online Information ◽  
News Frames ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
News Stories ◽  
News Sharing ◽  
Government Shutdown

Scholars have recognized emotion as an increasingly important element in the reception and retransmission of online information. In the United States, because of existing differences in ideology, among both audiences and producers of news stories, political issues are prone to spark considerable emotional responses online. While much research has explored emotional responses during election campaigns, this study focuses on the role of online emotion in social media posts related to day-to-day governance in between election periods. Specifically, this study takes the 2018–2019 government shutdown as its subject of investigation. The data set shows the prominence of journalistic and political figures in leading the discussion of news stories, the nuance of emotions employed in the news frames, and the choice of pro-attitudinal news sharing.

Emotional Responses to Disturbing Political News: The Role of Personality

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Ryan ◽  
Matthew S. Wells ◽  
Brice D. L. Acree
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Response ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
National Sample ◽  
The Political ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Political News ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Need For Affect

AbstractRecent scholarship in political science identifies emotions as an important antecedent to political behavior. Existing work, however, has focused much more on the political effects of emotions than on their causes. Here, we begin to examine how personality moderates emotional responses to political events. We hypothesized that the personality trait need for affect (NFA) would moderate the emotions evoked by disturbing political news. Drawing data from a survey experiment conducted on a national sample, we find that individuals high in NFA have an especially vivid emotional response to disturbing news—a moderating relationship that has the potential to surpass those associated with symbolic attachments.

scholarly journals The Role of Agents of Political Socialization in the Use of Social Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 48-74
Author(s):  
Savas TOKSOZ
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Political Socialization ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Political News ◽  
The Family ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Use Of Social Media

This study aims to reveal the role of the agents of political socialization in the use of social media as a tool for receiving political news and political participation. The research findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between the use of social media as a tool for receiving political news and the agents of political socialization, namely, the family, friend groups, school, and traditional media. Similarly, a statistically significant relationship has been found between the use of social media as a tool for political participation and family, friend groups, school, and traditional media.

Attitude change toward the Chinese during the US-China trade conflict: examining the roles of social media news sharing and perceived news feed performance

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicky Chang Bi ◽  
Yanqin Lu ◽  
Louisa Ha ◽  
Peiqin Chen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Attitude Change ◽  
Content Type ◽  
News Consumption ◽  
China Trade ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Impact ◽  
News Sharing

PurposeSocial media have become an increasingly important source for people to learn about politics and public affairs. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of social media news sharing as a reasoning process of the O-S-R-O-R model and the moderation role of social media news performance on the association between news consumption and attitudinal changes.Design/methodology/approachA national survey was conducted in the US. The researcher recruited participants in the Qualtrics national panel by following the census adult demographic breakdown.FindingsThis study finds that social media news consumption on the US-China trade conflict is likely to lead Americans to change attitudes toward Chinese, and this relationship is mediated by social media news sharing. In addition, the indirect relationship via news sharing is found particularly strong among individuals who perceive social media news fair and balanced.Originality/valueThis study extends the literature by examining social media news engagement on the ongoing trade conflict between the US and China. It reveals that the impact of social media news consumption on people's attitudinal and behavioral changes depends on people's perceived news quality on these platforms. Theoretical contribution to the O-S-R-O-R model and practical implications to social media news are discussed in terms of the role that social media platforms play in attitude change.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-05-2020-0178

scholarly journals From social network to firm performance

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 680-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aluisius Hery Pratono
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Firm Performance ◽  
Social Capital Theory ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
The Social

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to develop a structural equation model to explain the complex relationship between social network and firm performance by introducing the mediating role of trust, selling capability and pricing capability.Design/methodology/approachThe research model with hypothesis development was derived based on the literature. To provide empirical evidence, this study carried out a survey in which the data were equated with a list of questionnaires with a random survey of 380 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Indonesian context.FindingsThis study indicates that the use of social media in management process will not affect the increasing firm performance, unless the firms build trust upon social networks. The social network with trust allows the firms to gain a pricing capability and a selling capability, which brings a positive impact on firm performance. The results also show that the selling and the pricing capabilities become essential following the utilizing the social media, which concerns on trust building.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focused on the small-to-medium context, which has conventionally provided an exemplary site for the development of social capital theory but raises issues of generalizability across different contexts.Practical implicationsTo the managers, it is advisable to encourage their employees to consciously exploit the selling capability by enhancing the business networks via social media to achieve the firm performance.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the social capital theory by explaining the mediating role of trust in the complex relationship between social network and firm performance. This study provides evidence that trust plays a pivotal role in social networks, which enable the observed firms to achieve the performance.

scholarly journals Audiences as Medium: Motivations and Emotions in News Sharing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Dafonte-Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Business Model ◽  
Uses And Gratifications Theory ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
Financial Feasibility ◽  
Model Understanding ◽  
News Sharing

Although social media is still not the mainstream option to disseminate news for the population as a whole, social media usage for this purpose increases every year. In particular, it has become widespread among young people, and it is expected to be of paramount importance in the future. This practice alters the way news is distributed and consumed, and it directly affects the media’s business model. Understanding this phenomenon is crucial to ensure the media’s financial feasibility. This article uses the uses and gratifications theory to present what we know so far about the motivations behind why users share news on social media, with special reference to the role of emotion in the process.

The role of social media platforms in revolutionising the orthodox African electoral process and outcomes

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-23
Author(s):  
Joshua Ebere Chukwuere ◽  
Chijioke Francis Onyebukwa ◽  
Ifeanyi Mbukanma
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political News ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Voting Decisions

This research looks into social media platforms' role in revolutionising African electoral processes and outcomes in the digital era. The study applied the descriptive literature review research method through the lens of ―Uses and Gratifications Theory‖ and ―Media Ecology Theory‖. The usage of social media platforms keeps revolutionising human interactions and political communication in the digital age. Individuals, government, and non-governmental entities keep up with the trends presented by social media platforms in carrying out different political functions such as an election. The advent of social media platforms makes it easier for electorate, political actors, parties and electoral commissions to engage and exchange information, views and ideas during the pre and postelection periods. This study found that social media platforms positively and negatively influence the African continent's election processes and outcomes. It found that political news and information on social media influence people's voting decisions and the political actor/s and parties to follow. The study further shows that electorate behaviours keep changing due to information available on social media platforms. The platforms help them define their views about a particular party, political actors, and their reaction to an election outcome.

Everybody Follows the Crowd?

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Obermaier ◽  
Thomas Koch ◽  
Christian Baden
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Bandwagon Effect ◽  
Political News ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Opinion Polls ◽  
Electoral Preferences

Abstract. Opinion polls are a well-established part of political news coverage, especially during election campaigns. At the same time, there has been controversial debate over the possible influences of such polls on voters’ electoral choices. The most prominent influence discussed is the bandwagon effect: It states that voters tend to support the expected winner of an upcoming election, and use polls to determine who the likely winner will be. This study investigated the mechanisms underlying the effect. In addition, we inquired into the role of past electoral performances of a candidate and analyzed how these (as well as polls) are used as heuristic cues for the assessment of a candidate’s personal characteristics. Using an experimental design, we found that both polls and past election results influence participants’ expectations regarding which candidate will succeed. Moreover, higher competence was attributed to a candidate, if recipients believe that the majority of voters favor that candidate. Through this attribution of competence, both information about prior elections and current polls shaped voters’ electoral preferences.

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