Alternative approaches to news: the role of media distrust, perceived network homophily, and interests in news topics

Francisco Segado-Boj; Elias Said-Hung

doi:10.26441/RC20.2-2021-A19

Autores/as

Francisco Segado-Boj Universidad Complutense de Madrid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7750-3755
Elias Said-Hung Universidad Internacional de La Rioja https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0594-5906

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26441/RC20.2-2021-A19

Palabras clave:

usuarios, noticias duras, noticias blandas, desconfianza mediática, homofilia percibida de la red

Resumen

Este estudio se centra en tres actitudes alternativas al consumo tradicional de noticias definidas previamente en las noticias: “Las noticias me encuentran”, “La información está ahí fuera” y “No sé Qué Creer”. Analiza el papel de la desconfianza de los usuarios respecto a los medios y la homofilia percibida de los contactos en sus redes sociales como predictores de cada una de estas actitudes. Por último, compara la influencia recíproca de las mencionadas actitudes entre sí. Los datos se extrajeron de una encuesta (n = 279) entre usuarios españoles de Facebook y se analizaron mediante pruebas de regresión lineal múltiple. Los resultados muestran que la desconfianza en los medios predijo positivamente “La información está ahí fuera” pero no resultó relevante en los casos de “Las noticias me encuentran” ni “No sé qué creer”. “Las Noticias Me Encuentran” predijo negativamente el interés en las noticias duras (política nacional, internacional y economía) y “La información está ahí fuera” predijo el interés en noticas de estilo de vida y sobre famosos. La homofilia percibida de la red no predijo ninguna de las actitudes observadas. Se detectó una influencia recíproca entre “La Información Está Ahí Fuera” y “Las noticias me encuentran” pero no respecto a “No sé qué creer”. Concluimos que “La Información Está Ahí Fuera” puede causar los mismos efectos negativos en la participación y conocimiento sobre política que “Las noticias me encuentran” en tanto que deriva a los usuarios de noticias duras hacia temas más blandos.

Métricas

Cargando métricas ...

Biografía del autor/a

Francisco Segado-Boj, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

PhD on Journalism granted by Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). He is currently an assistant professor at the Journalism and Global Communication Department in Universidad Complutense de Madrid. His research focuses on digital journalism, social media and scholarly communication.

Elias Said-Hung, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja

Ph.D. in Communication Sciences by Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). He is currently tenured lecturer at the Faculty of Education, member of the PROCOMM research group and Director of the University Master's Degree in Inclusive and Intercultural Education at the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja.

Citas

Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(2), 211–236. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.31.2.211 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.31.2.211

Adawi, M., Zerbetto, R., Re, T. S., Bisharat, B., Mahamid, M., Amital, H., ... & Bragazzi, N. L. (2019). Psychometric properties of the Brief Symptom Inventory in nomophobic subjects: insights from preliminary confirmatory factor, exploratory factor, and clustering analyses in a sample of healthy Italian volunteers. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 12, 145. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S173282 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S173282

Amaral, I., & Silveira, P. (2018). Young People and Their Practices of Access and Consumption of News in Social Media. In INTED2018 Proceedings (pp. 3500–3506). https://doi.org/10.21125/inted.2018.0675 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21125/inted.2018.0675

Araujo, T., Helberger, N., Kruikemeier, S., & de Vreese, C. H. (2020). In AI we trust? Perceptions about automated decision-making by artificial intelligence. AI and Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-019-00931-w DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-019-00931-w

Barrera, C. (2018). Las encrucijadas de los medios de comunicación en la crisis de 2008-2014: ¿declive o transformación del cuarto poder? Historia Actual Online, 47, 79–90.

Bergström, A., Strömbäck, J., & Arkhede, S. (2019). Towards rising inequalities in newspaper and television news consumption? A longitudinal analysis, 2000–2016. European Journal of Communication, 34(2), 175–189. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323119830048 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323119830048

Bobkowski, P. S. (2015). Sharing the News: Effects of Informational Utility and Opinion Leadership on Online News Sharing. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 92(2), 320–345. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699015573194 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699015573194

Bode, L., Vraga, E. K., & Troller-Renfree, S. (2017). Skipping politics: Measuring avoidance of political content in social media. Research & Politics, 4(2), 205316801770299. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168017702990 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168017702990

Boutyline, A., & Willer, R. (2017). The Social Structure of Political Echo Chambers: Variation in Ideological Homophily in Online Networks. Political Psychology, 38(3). https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12337 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12337

Cardenal, A. S., Galais, C., & Majó-Vázquez, S. (2018). Is Facebook Eroding the Public Agenda? Evidence From Survey and Web-Tracking Data. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edy025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edy025

Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas. (2018). Barómetro Julio 2018. Retrieved from http://www.cis.es/cis/export/sites/default/-Archivos/Marginales/3200_3219/3219/cues3219.pdf

Cohen, J. N. (2018). Exploring Echo-Systems: How Algorithms Shape Immersive Media Environments. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 10(2), 139–151. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23860/JMLE-2018-10-2-8

Dafonte-Gómez, A. (2018). News Media and the Emotional Public Sphere| Audiences as Medium: Motivations and Emotions in News Sharing. International Journal of Communication, 12, 2133–2152. https://doi.org/1932–8036/20180005

Edgerly, S., Vraga, E. K., Bode, L., Thorson, K., & Thorson, E. (2018). New Media, New Relationship to Participation? A Closer Look at Youth News Repertoires and Political Participation. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 95(1), 192–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699017706928 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699017706928

Elvestad, E., Phillips, A., & Feuerstein, M. (2018). Can Trust in Traditional News Media Explain Cross-National Differences in News Exposure of Young People Online? Digital Journalism, 6(2), 216–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2017.1332484 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2017.1332484

Feezell, J. T. (2018). Agenda Setting through Social Media: The Importance of Incidental News Exposure and Social Filtering in the Digital Era. Political Research Quarterly, 71(2), 482–494. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912917744895 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912917744895

Fink, K. (2019). The biggest challenge facing journalism: A lack of trust. Journalism, 20(1), 40–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884918807069 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884918807069

Gil de Zúñiga, H., & Diehl, T. (2019). News finds me perception and democracy: Effects on political knowledge, political interest, and voting. New Media & Society, 6(1), 1253–1271. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818817548 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818817548

Gil de Zúñiga, H., Diehl, T., & Ardèvol-Abreu, A. (2018). Assessing Civic Participation Around the World: How Evaluations of Journalists’ Performance Leads to News Use and Civic Participation Across 22 Countries. American Behavioral Scientist, 62(8), 1116–1137. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764218764239 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764218764239

Gil De Zúñiga, H., Huber, B., & Strauß, N. (2018). Social Media and Democracy. El Profesional de La Información, 27(6), 1172–1182. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.nov.01 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.nov.01

Gil de Zúñiga, H., Weeks, B., & Ardèvol-Abreu, A. (2017). Effects of the News-Finds-Me Perception in Communication: Social Media Use Implications for News Seeking and Learning About Politics. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 22(3), 105–123. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12185 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12185

Goyanes, M. (2019). Antecedents of Incidental News Exposure: The Role of Media Preference, Use and Trust. Journalism Practice, 14(6), 714–729. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2019.1631710 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2019.1631710

Halberstam, Y., & Knight, B. (2016). Homophily, group size, and the diffusion of political information in social networks: Evidence from Twitter. Journal of Public Economics, 143, 73–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JPUBECO.2016.08.011 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.08.011

Hampton, K., Rainie, L., Lu, W., Dwyer, M., Shin, I., & Purcell, K. (2014). Social Media and the ‘Spiral of Silence’ Summary of Findings. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2014/08/PI_Social-networks-and-debate_082614.pdf

Hermida, A. (2010). Twittering the news. Journalism Practice, 4(3), 297–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512781003640703 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512781003640703

Holt, K. (2018). Alternative media and the notion of anti-systemness: Towards an analytical framework. Media and Communication, 6(4), 49-57. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v6i4.1467 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v6i4.1467

Interactive Advertising Bureau. (2018). Estudio Anual Redes Sociales 2018. Retrieved from https://iabspain.es/wp-content/uploads/estudio-redes-sociales-2018_vreducida.pdf

Karnowski, V., Kümpel, A. S., Leonhard, L., & Leiner, D. J. (2017). From incidental news exposure to news engagement. How perceptions of the news post and news usage patterns influence engagement with news articles encountered on Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior, 76, 42–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.CHB.2017.06.041 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.06.041

Kümpel, A. S. (2019). The Issue Takes It All? Digital Journalism, 7(2), 165–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2018.1465831 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2018.1465831

Masip, P., Ruiz-Caballero, C., & Suau, J. (2019). Active audiences and social discussion on the digital public sphere. Review article. El Profesional de La Información, 28(2). https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2019.mar.04 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2019.mar.04

Matthes, J., Knoll, J., & von Sikorski, C. (2017). The “Spiral of Silence” Revisited: A Meta-Analysis on the Relationship Between Perceptions of Opinion Support and Political Opinion Expression. Communication Research, 45(1), 3–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650217745429 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650217745429

Mitchell, A., Simmons, K., Matsa, K. E., Silver, L., Shearer, E., Johnson, C., … Weisel, R. (2018). In Western Europe, Public Attitudes Toward News Media More Divided by Populist Views Than Left-Right Ideology (Vol. 14). Retrieved from https://www.journalism.org/2018/05/14/in-western-europe-public-attitudes-toward-news-media-more-divided-by-populist-views-than-left-right-ideology/

Newman, N., Fletchr, R., Schulz, A., Andi, S., Robertson, C. T. & Nielsen, R. K. (2021). Reuters Institute Digital News Report. Retrieved from: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2021-06/Digital_News_Report_2021_FINAL.pdf

Newman, N., & Fletcher, R. (2017). Bias, Bullshit and Lies. Reuters Digital News Project. Retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=3173579

Nielsen, R. K., & Ganter, S. A. (2018). Dealing with digital intermediaries: A case study of the relations between publishers and platforms. New Media & Society, 20(4), 1600–1617. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817701318 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817701318

Park, C. S. (2019). Does Too Much News on Social Media Discourage News Seeking? Mediating Role of News Efficacy Between Perceived News Overload and News Avoidance on Social Media. Social Media and Society, 5(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119872956 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119872956

Schultz, T., Jackob, N., Ziegele, M., Quiring, O., & Schemer, C. (2017). Erosion des Vertrauens zwischen Medien und Publikum? Media Perspektiven, 5, 246–259.

Serrano Puche, J., Fernández, C. B., & Rodríguez-Virgili, J. (2018). Political information and incidental exposure in social media: the cases of Argentina , Chile , Spain and Mexico. Doxa, 27, 19–42. https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n27a1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n27a1

Segado-Boj, F., Díaz-Campo, J., Navarro-Asensio, E., & Remacha-González, L. (2020). Influence of News-Finds-Me Perception on accuracy, factuality and relevance assessment. Case study of news item on climate change. Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación, 11(2), 85-103. https://www.doi.org/10.14198/MEDCOM2020.11.2.12 DOI: https://doi.org/10.14198/MEDCOM2020.11.2.12

Skovsgaard, M., & Andersen, K. (2020). Conceptualizing News Avoidance: Towards a Shared Understanding of Different Causes and Potential Solutions. Journalism Studies, 21(4), 459–476. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2019.1686410 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2019.1686410

Strauß, N., Huber, B., & Gil de Zúñiga, H. (2021). Structural influences on the News Finds Me perception: Why people believe they don’t have to actively seek news anymore. Social media+ society. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211024966 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211024966

Tandoc, E. C. (2019). Tell me who your sources are: Perceptions of news credibility on social media. Journalism Practice, 13(2), 178–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2017.1423237 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2017.1423237

The Social Media Family. (2018). IV Estudio sobre los usuarios de Facebook, Twitter e Instagram en España. Retrieved from https://www.abc.es/gestordocumental/uploads/internacional/Informe_RRSS_2018_The_Social_Media_Family.pdf

Thorson, K., & Wells, C. (2016). Curated Flows: A Framework for Mapping Media Exposure in the Digital Age. Communication Theory, 26(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12087 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12087

Thurman, N., Moeller, J., Helberger, N., & Trilling, D. (2019). My Friends , Editors , Algorithms , and I : Examining audience attitudes to news selection Examining audience attitudes to news selection. Digital Journalism, 7(4), 447–469. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2018.1493936 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2018.1493936

Toff, B., & Kalogeropoulos, A. (2020). All the News that’s Fit to Ignore: How the Information Environment Does and Does Not Shape News Avoidance. Public Opinion Quarterly, 84(S1), 366-390. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfaa016 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfaa016

Toff, B., & Nielsen, R. K. (2018). “I Just Google It”: Folk Theories of Distributed Discovery. Journal of Communication, 68(3), 636–657. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy009 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy009

Yates, S., & Lockley, E. (2018). Social Media and Social Class. American Behavioral Scientist, 62(9), 1291–1316. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764218773821 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764218773821