Open AccessDriving a Wedge Between Evidence and Beliefs: How Online Ideological News Exposure Promotes Political Misperceptions
Author(s) -
Garrett R. Kelly,
Weeks Brian E.,
Neo Rachel L.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of computer‐mediated communication
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.15
H-Index - 119
ISSN - 1083-6101
DOI - 10.1111/jcc4.12164
Subject(s) - ideology , presidential election , politics , fake news , news media , gatekeeping , political science , media content , social psychology , survey data collection , media coverage , presidential system , psychology , public relations , sociology , media studies , law , multimedia , statistics , mathematics , computer science
This article has 2 goals: to provide additional evidence that exposure to ideological online news media contributes to political misperceptions, and to test 3 forms this media‐effect might take. Analyses are based on representative survey data collected during the 2012 U.S. presidential election ( N = 1,004). Panel data offer persuasive evidence that biased news site use promotes inaccurate beliefs, while cross‐sectional data provide insight into the nature of these effects. There is no evidence that exposure to ideological media reduces awareness of politically unfavorable evidence, though in some circumstances biased media do promote misunderstandings of it. The strongest and most consistent influence of ideological media exposure is to encourage inaccurate beliefs regardless of what consumers know of the evidence.