The degree of heterogeneity of news consumption in Germany—Descriptive statistics and relations with individual differences in personality, ideological attitudes, and voting intentions

This study aimed to examine the degree of homogeneity versus heterogeneity of individuals’ political information environments across offline and online media types and relations with sociodemographic variables, personality, and political attitudes. In two online surveys, German participants (sample 1: N = 686; sample 2: N = 702) provided information on sociodemographic variables, consumption of political news, and voting intentions, and completed the Big Five Inventory and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) scales. Results revealed that absolutely homogeneous political news consumption was evident for a small proportion of individuals (2.04% and 0.43%). Openness (positively) and Agreeableness (negatively) exhibited significant associations with the degree of heterogeneity of political information environments across samples. No consistent patterns of relations with either the ideological attitudes of RWA and SDO or voting intentions were observed. The findings shed light on the existence of absolutely homogeneous political information environments and “who” might be prone to a more homogeneous versus more heterogeneous information environment.

Social Psychological Predictors of Belief in Fake News in the Run-Up to the 2019 Hungarian Elections: The Importance of Conspiracy Mentality Supports the Notion of Ideological Symmetry in Fake News Belief

Accessing information online is now easier than ever. However, also false information is circulated in increasing quantities. We sought to identify social psychological factors that could explain why some people are more susceptible to false information. Specifically, we investigated whether psychological predispositions (social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, system justification beliefs (SJB), openness, need for closure, conspiracy mentality), competencies (scientific and political knowledge, interest in politics) or motivated reasoning based on social identity (political orientation) could help explain who believes fake news. Hungarian participants (N = 295) judged political (anti- and pro-government) and non-political news. The Hungarian context—characterized by low trust in media, populist communication by the government and increasing polarization—should be fertile ground for the proliferation of fake news. The context in making this case particularly interesting is that the major political fault line in Hungary runs between pro- and anti-government supporter groups and not, for instance, between conservative and liberal ideology or partisanship. We found clear support for the motivational reasoning explanation as political orientation consistently predicted belief in both fake and real political news when their contents aligned with one’s political identity. The belief in pro-government news was also associated with higher SJB among pro-government supporters. Those interested in politics showed better capacity to distinguish real political news from the fake ones. Most importantly, the only psychological predisposition that consistently explained belief in all types of fake news was a conspiracy mentality. This supports the notion of ideological symmetry in fake news belief—where a conspiracy mentality can be found across the political spectrum, and it can make people susceptible to disinformation regardless of group-memberships and other individual differences.

Attention to News Media, Emotional Responses, and Policy Preferences about Public Health Crisis: The Case of Fine Dust Pollution in South Korea

This study examines how attention to science and political news may influence the way people feel about an environmental risk, and how this in turn impacts policy preferences. Using an online survey conducted on the issue of fine dust pollution in South Korea, this study found that science news attention was associated with greater anxiety and anger about the issue, whereas political news attention was associated with fear and sadness/depression (as well as anxiety and anger). Furthermore, mediation analysis showed that science news attention indirectly influenced support for preventive policy through anxiety, whereas political news attention indirectly influenced punitive policy support through anger and fear. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.

Media Agenda Against Bernie Sanders? Examining the Emotional Tone of US Political News Articles

The emotional tone of news articles (N = 120) on Democratic Party primary candidates was examined to determine if the media has bias towards Bernie Sanders. Using the Dictionary of Affect (Whissell, 2009), article words (N = 115,569) in the first 60 days of 2020 were measured for their pleasantness, activation, and imagery by candidate - Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Mike Bloomberg. Significant differences between Bernie Sanders and the other candidates were found for article pleasantness (p = .000), article imagery (p = 0.003) and headline activation (p = 0.23). Articles written on Bernie Sanders were less pleasant and more active in tone, as well as being more abstract (low in imagery). <br><br>

Media Agenda Against Bernie Sanders? Examining the Emotional Tone of US Political News Articles

The emotional tone of news articles (N = 120) on Democratic Party primary candidates was examined to determine if the media has bias towards Bernie Sanders. Using the Dictionary of Affect (Whissell, 2009), article words (N = 115,569) in the first 60 days of 2020 were measured for their pleasantness, activation, and imagery by candidate - Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Mike Bloomberg. Significant differences between Bernie Sanders and the other candidates were found for article pleasantness (p = .000), article imagery (p = 0.003) and headline activation (p = 0.23). Articles written on Bernie Sanders were less pleasant and more active in tone, as well as being more abstract (low in imagery). <br><br>

Suscripción a la prensa digital como contención a los discursos de odio

User discussions on digital media usually include offensive comments. This kind of content has become more frequent and intense because of political polarization and the health and economic crises associated with Covid-19. Little is known about the journalists who moderate these forums, how they approach this task in such difficult circumstances, and their opinion about their role in the democratic public debate. To improve understanding of this phenomenon, we carried out 12 semistructured open interviews with moderators from several types of Spanish digital newspapers: generalist, local, and sports. The aim was to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of moderation filters against hate speech in readers’ comments. The results show that the introduction of paywalls in many Spanish newspapers has reduced the intensity of such hate speech, although it has not completely disappeared. These moderation systems are limited mainly to ruling out insults and swearing. There is consensus among the interviewed journalists that most hate speech comments relate to political news. The most frequent topics are racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and homophobia. Several journalists presented the banning of offending users as a possible solution. However, others see this as a business opportunity and proposed solutions ranging from creating specialized moderators to controlling the activity history or trying to educate those users how to participate in a democratic forum. This research contributes to the ongoing debate about moderation systems among media professionals. Resumen Los comentarios de los usuarios en los medios digitales contienen con frecuencia alusiones incívicas, que se han incrementado por la polarización política y las crisis sanitaria y económica provocadas por la Covid 19. Se sabe poco sobre cómo los periodistas encargados de moderar estos foros se enfrentan a esta situación y cuál es su punto de vista acerca de los mismos y de su importancia en el debate democrático. Se han realizado doce entrevistas abiertas de tipo semiestructurado a estos responsables de la prensa digital española: generalista, regional y deportiva. Se analizan estos materiales para valorar las fortalezas y las debilidades de los sistemas de moderación de los discursos de odio que afloran en los comentarios de los lectores. Los resultados muestran que la introducción de la suscripción en la mayoría de los periódicos digitales ha reducido la presencia de comentarios con odio, aunque no han desaparecido. Los sistemas empleados para controlar estos comentarios filtran básicamente insultos y palabras soeces. Los entrevistados coinciden en señalar que una parte muy importante de los comentarios de odio se produce en la sección de política. El racismo, la xenofobia, la misoginia y la homofobia se citan como los temas más recurrentes en estos discursos. Algunos periodistas plantean la eliminación de la participación de los usuarios. Otros ven ventajas desde el punto de vista del negocio y proponen desde crear equipos especializados para ejercer la moderación, controlar a los autores a través del historial de sus actividades o sencillamente educarles para intervenir en foros democráticos. Estos resultados muestran que el debate sobre los sistemas de moderación permanece abierto entre los profesionales.

VAGUENESS AND DISSOCIATION IN ENGLISH POLITICAL NEWS DISCOURSE

The main goal of this paper is to indicate the importance of the issues of vagueness and dissociation in discourse interpretation. The discourse that is taken into consideration is the discourse of political news written in the English language. This particular discourse is widely available to readers and deals with important political issues, which is why the choice of words and phrases should ideally be unbiased and accurate. If not, the readers may misinterpret the discourse and have a wrong impression of the political issue. In this research, newspaper articles are taken as an example of political news discourse. All articles analyzed were written in online British and American broadsheet and tabloid newspapers and they all dealt with the migrant crisis and 2019 Hong Kong protests. By taking into consideration the political context and the theoretical framework used in this research, 44 instances considered to be examples of vagueness and dissociation were identified, which were found in 14 newspaper articles.

Question design and the construction of populist stances in political news interviews

This paper focuses on the relationship between journalism and right wing populist discourses in the context of broadcast news interviews. We analyse a specific feature of question design in which the public is invoked as a source of opinionated positions in adversarial interviewing. Analysing data from a range of socio-political contexts, we identify a shift in adversarial questioning along a scale of ‘soft’ populism, that is the attribution of views and concerns to a generic public ‘in crisis’, to ‘hard’ populism, where interviewers construct hypothetical scenarios in which populist positions are attributed to ‘some people’. We argue that the democratic role of journalists as public watchdogs, holding politicians and public figures accountable on behalf of the public, is challenged by this normalisation of populist moral order discourses in a routine journalistic practice, both drawing on and contributing to the propagation of populist agendas and anti-democratic populist rhetoric.