The Influence of News Media on Stereotypic Attitudes Toward Immigrants in a Political Campaign

This study investigates media effects on stereotypic attitudes toward immigrants in a political campaign that dealt with the naturalization of immigrants. By combining a content analysis of the campaign coverage with a 2‐wave panel survey, the study found that negative news portrayals of immigrants increased stereotypic attitudes in the public in the course of the campaign. Additionally, the frequent exposure to positive news portrayals of immigrants reduced the activation of negative outgroup attitudes. However, these findings are contingent on people's issue‐specific knowledge. Only people with low to moderate knowledge were influenced by negative and positive news stories about immigrants in the campaign. Well‐informed people were resistant to the effects of positive and news portrayals of immigrants.     

Chasing the Bad News: An Analysis of 2005 Iraq and Afghanistan War Coverage on NBC and Fox News Channel

This study analyzes all stories aired on NBC Nightly News and Fox News Channel's Special Report With Brit Hume during 2005 about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and compares that coverage with real‐world indicators to address an important question: Did the news media over‐report bad news from these conflicts, as claimed by the Bush administration and as one might expect given research into the press' negativity bias? This study finds that while both channels focused a fair amount on negative storylines, overall the news actually underplayed bad news from both countries. Fox News was much more sympathetic to the administration than NBC, suggesting that scholars should consider Fox as alternative, rather than mainstream, media.     

Incumbency Bonus in Election News Coverage Explained: The Logics of Political Power and the Media Market

This article investigates the determinants of the incumbency bonuses in news coverage. Two main factors are identified: the distribution of political power and changes in the media market. To test these assumptions, a content analysis of the news coverage of 5 national election campaigns in Denmark was conducted (4,592 news stories). First, the more unevenly political power is distributed, the more visible the government is. Second, results suggest a trade‐off between the incumbency bonus and the coverage of nonsubstantive issues. Third, changes in news coverage seem to be more driven by changes in the political system than by changes in the media market. Finally, it is discussed how future research can further our understanding of political imbalances in news coverage.     

Attracting Views and Going Viral: How Message Features and News‐Sharing Channels Affect Health News Diffusion

This study examined how intrinsic as well as perceived message features affect the extent to which online health news stories prompt audience selections and social retransmissions, and how news‐sharing channels (e‐mail vs. social media) shape what goes viral. The study analyzed actual behavioral data on audience viewing and sharing of New York Times health news articles, and associated article content and context data. News articles with high informational utility and positive sentiment invited more frequent selections and retransmissions. Articles were also more frequently selected when they presented controversial, emotionally evocative, and familiar content. Informational utility and novelty had stronger positive associations with e‐mail‐specific virality, whereas emotional evocativeness, content familiarity, and exemplification played a larger role in triggering social media‐based retransmissions.     

Political Correlates of Local News Media Use

Despite the crucial role that local news media play in studies of community and community integration, research on local media effects often is overshadowed by a concern with the effects of national media (Friedland & McLeod, 1999). This study examines the political correlates of attention to local news, focusing on evaluations of journalists and news media, political knowledge, and political participation. Analyses of survey data collected from a probability sample in Seattle, WA ( N = 456) indicate nuanced relationships between attention to local news and evaluations of journalists and news media. Attention to news on television and in newspapers enhanced perceptions of knowledge, but it was only attention to newspaper local news that promoted political participation. Of particular note is the fact that both positive and negative evaluations led to participation, suggesting that unfavorable views of the press can invigorate democracy.     

Who Cares About the Issues? Issue Voting and the Role of News Media During the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election

Analyzing data from the 2000 American National Election Study, we examined the role of news media in facilitating issue voting. We found that respondents who paid greater attention to news coverage of the election were more likely to hold specific opinions on campaign issues. Voters who devoted greater attention to news media were also more aware of where each candidate stood on various policy issues. These two political cognitions (issue opinionation and knowledge of candidate issue positions) were important conditions for issue voting. We found that those who devoted greater attention to news media were more concerned about the issues when making electoral choices. Beyond and above demographic predispositions, we conclude that issue voting is also a function of paying attention to news media.     

Deliberative Performance of Television News in Three Types of Democracy: Insights from the United States,Germany, and Russia

We show that television news is considerably more deliberative in established (United States, Germany) than in defective democracies (Russia) and slightly more deliberative in a power‐sharing political system (Germany) than in a power‐concentrating system (United States). We further demonstrate that public‐service channels, nonpartisan programs, and in‐depth news shows make stronger overall contributions toward deliberativeness than their respective counterparts. While national news cultures produce distinct national styles of mediated deliberation, individual channels in the United States (Fox, CNN) and Russia (REN) cut across these national patterns. The significance of deliberative media content for citizens and political elites is discussed.     

The Social Media Basis of Youth Protest Behavior: The Case of Chile

Protest activity has become a central means for political change in Chile. We examine the association between social media use and youth protest, as well as mediating and moderating mechanisms of this relationship, using survey data collected in Chile in 2010. We found that Facebook use was associated significantly with protest activity, even after taking into account political grievances, material and psychological resources, values, and news media use. The link between overall Facebook use and protest activity was explained by using the social network for news and socializing rather than when it was used for self‐expression. Postmaterialist values and political ideologies were not found to moderate the association between Facebook use and protest.     

Communication Content and Knowledge Content Matters: Integrating Manipulation and Observation in Studying News and Discussion Learning Effects

The present study reviews problems in the political learning literature, including ambiguous causality and a lack of specificity in linking communication content to learning outcomes. As a partial solution, our study of media and discussion influence incorporates both manipulated and observed aspects of mass and interpersonal communication. Results indicate that beyond (and often more important than) experimental manipulations, selection processes in news use and variations in the content of political discussions within exposure conditions matter for political knowledge. However, findings vary in predictable ways depending on the form of knowledge—overall factual knowledge, issue‐specific knowledge, or knowledge structure density. These results suggest that the process of political learning via communication is more complex than it is often treated empirically.     

News Media,Knowledge, and Political Interest: Evidence of a Dual Role From a Field Experiment

Political knowledge and political interest are generally positively influenced by news media exposure. Yet, at the same time, knowledge and interest are among the most important predictors of news media exposure in the first place. We conduct a field experiment (N = 393) as a test of this dual function of knowledge and interest in a realistic news media choice setting. We examine whether preexisting interest and knowledge predict which individuals can be encouraged to read an unfamiliar information-rich newspaper, and if using this newspaper, in turn, has effects on interest and knowledge. Results show that interest and knowledge are predictors of compliance in the experiment. While political knowledge shows some response to the additional news exposure, interest remains stable.     

Testing the Intramedia Interaction Hypothesis: The Contingent Effects of News

Various forms of news use not only have independent impacts on political knowledge, but also create interactive effects across different types of news outlets. In the present study, data from 2 surveys conducted in 2004 were used to test hypotheses about the contingent effects of news media use on political knowledge. The results supported the intramedia interaction hypothesis regarding use of multiple similar (in terms of content and form) news outlets. For instance, use of both cable news and network news produces diminishing returns. But, when print news is used in combination with audio–visual news sources, patterns of additive effects were observed.     

Information and Arena: The Dual Function of the News Media for Political Elites

How do individual politicians use the news media to reach their political goals? This study addresses the question by proposing an actor‐centered, functional approach. We distinguish 2 essential functions (and subfunctions) the mass media have for political elites. The media are a source of information; politicians depend on it for pure information and they can profit from the momentum generated by media information. The media also are an arena elites need access to in order to promote themselves and their issues. These 2 functions offer certain politicians a structural advantage over others and, hence, are relevant for the power struggle among political elites. A systematic functional account enables comparisons of the role of the media across politicians and political systems.     

Still an Agenda Setter: Traditional News Media and Public Opinion During the Transition From Low to High Choice Media Environments

This study analyzes whether the agenda-setting influence of traditional news media has become weaker over time—a key argument in the “new era of minimal effects” controversy. Based on media content and public opinion data collected in Sweden over a period of 23 years (1992–2014), we analyze both aggregate and individual-level agenda-setting effects on public opinion concerning 12 different political issues. Taken together, we find very little evidence that the traditional news media has become less influential as agenda setters. Rather, citizens appear as responsive to issue signals from the collective media agenda today as during the low-choice era. We discuss these findings in terms of cross-national differences in media systems and opportunity structures for selective exposure.     

Social Media,Network Heterogeneity,and Opinion Polarization

Employing a national probability survey in 2012, this study tests relationships between social media, social network service (SNS) network heterogeneity, and opinion polarization. The results show that the use of social media is a positive predictor of the level of network heterogeneity on SNSs and that the relationship is mediated by several news‐related activities, such as getting news, news posting, and talking about politics on SNSs. Testing the association between SNS network heterogeneity and polarization, this study considers 3 different dimensions of opinion polarization: partisan, ideological, and issue. The findings indicate that political discussion moderates the relationship between network heterogeneity and the level of partisan and ideological polarizations. The implications of this study are discussed.     

新媒体环境下电视新闻节目策划探究

电视新闻节目是电视节目类型中的一个重要组成部分,人们通过不同类型的电视新闻节目可以获取国内外的新闻资讯。如今随着新媒体的不断发展,传统意义上的电视新闻节目受到了一定的冲击,人们获取信息的渠道越来越多,形式也多种多样。面对新媒体带来的巨大冲击,电视新闻节目也面临极大的挑战,为此主要围绕新媒体环境下的电视新闻节目策划展开探究。     

Just Laugh! You Don't Need to Remember: The Effects of Entertainment Media on Political Information Acquisition and Information Processing in Political Judgment

This study investigates whether the entertainment media produce different patterns of political information acquisition and information processing (i.e., online- vs. memory-based information processing) in making political judgments (i.e., evaluation of a political actor) compared to the news media. Using an adult sample (aged 18–64 years), the study adopts an experimental design using the collections of real news and entertainment programs ( The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ) on the topic of the U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Chief Justice nomination processes in addition to a baseline group exposed to science documentaries. The results indicate that compared to news media, entertainment media are less effective in acquiring factual information, particularly in retaining issue and procedure knowledge. The study, for the first time, reveals that entertainment media facilitate online-based political information processing, whereas news media promote memory-based political information processing. The implications for the methodological and theoretical development of the impact of entertainment media and for citizen competence and participation in the recent changes in the political information environment are discussed.     

A Content Analysis of Print News Coverage of Media Violence and Aggression Research

We conducted a content analysis of news articles (N = 540) to examine whether news coverage of media violence accurately reflects scientific knowledge about exposure to media violence and its effects on viewer aggression. The analysis revealed that over the past 30 years, news articles generally suggested that a link between media violence and aggression exists. However, the tone shifted sharply back toward a neutral conclusion since 2000. This shift may be attributable to the type of medium discussed (e.g., television vs. video games), the number of unaffiliated sources that are cited in the news article, and the sex of the journalist. Implications for how this news coverage may influence news readers are discussed.     

Framing the Egyptian Uprising in Arabic Language Newspapers and Social Media

This study examines the framing of Egypt's January 2011 uprising in the country's state‐run, independent and social media using a unique dataset of Arabic language content from newspapers and key social media posts collected during the peak of protests. Semiofficial (governmental) newspapers framed the event as “a conspiracy on the Egyptian state,” warning of economic consequence and attributing blame and responsibility for the chaos on others. Social media posts used a human interest frame defining protests as “a revolution for freedom and social justice” and independent newspapers used a combination of these frames. Findings point toward the potential roles that news media will play in shaping public opinion and demonstrate why social media have wide appeal in times of political crisis.     

Selective Use of News Cues: A Multiple‐Motive Perspective on Information Selection in Social Media Environments

This study investigated the effects of message and social cues on selective exposure to political information in a social media environment. Based on the heuristic‐systematic model, we hypothesized that readers' selective consideration of specific cues can be explained by situational motivations. In an experiment (N = 137), subjects primed with motivational goals (accuracy, defense, or impression motivations, as well as a control group) were asked to search for information. Participants preferred attitude‐consistent information and balanced information over attitude‐inconsistent information, and also preferred highly recommended articles. Defense‐motivated partisans exhibited a stronger confirmation bias, whereas impression motivation amplified the effects of social recommendations. These findings specify the conditions under which individuals engage in narrow, open‐minded, or social patterns of information selection.     

Unemployment on the Agenda: A Panel Study of Agenda-Setting Effects During the 2006 Swedish National Election Campaign

The issue of unemployment and job creation dominated news coverage during the 2006 Swedish National Election campaign. The purpose of this study is to analyze individual-level agenda-setting effects in the 2006 Swedish National Election campaign. Apart from being one of the first agenda-setting studies conducted in Sweden, this study builds upon a panel survey with 1,007 respondents, which makes it possible to impose stricter control of the causal relationship between the media and public agendas. The overall findings show that agenda-setting effects were indeed present. Furthermore, attention to political news had stronger effects among people with low political interest compared with those who were highly interested. Education was not a contingent factor, though.