CMN 141: Exam #3

What is agenda setting?

-relationship between the degree of attention to an issue and salience among the public -what to think about -political issues become high priority political issues only if they first become high priority news for the media

What is polarization? What is affective polarization?

-scholars agree to disagree on the extent to which polarization is occurring -general agreement that American party elites are ideologically distinct and more internally homogenous -disagreement as to whether the mass electorate is more extreme/ideologically distinct -affective polarization: prdinary Americans are increaisngly disliking/distrusting supporters of opposing parties

What is belief persistence?

-some people may not believe in the correction, instead maintaining their belief in te false info(eg. is obama a muslim?) -resistance to corrections driven largely by motivated reasoning, partisans unwilling to accept new info that runs counter to their views, including corrective interventions -me: does not believe in correction at all

What is media literacy?

-the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and communicate messages in a variety of forms -encouraging critical thinking regarding media content and practices

Is fake news prevalent?

-the average american encountered between one and 3 stories from known publishers of fake news during the month before the 2016 election -false info on twitter is typically tweeted by many more people and far more rapidly that true info, especially when the topic is politics -fb has estimated that manipulation by malicious actors accounted for less that one tenth of civic content share on the platform

Are Americans living in echo chambers and filter bubbles?

Gentzknow and Shapiro: most people go to centrist websites for news 2014 study: 50% people go to diverse and non-partisan websites -previous work may have overestimated the degrees of ideological segregation in social media usage -Americans are not living in echo chambers and filter bubbles but they are still becoming increasingly polarized

What happens to people when they are confronted with their own mortality?

-polarization occurs: liberals become more liberal and conservatives become more conservative -boomerang effect: messages that inadvertently make people think about their own mortality, can backfire --makes people think of dying, they instinctively cope by validating the idea that what they believe is in correct-even if that is the thing that makes them think about dying(eg. anti-smoking psa)

Effects of media literacy education

-promotion of understanding of the systemic and structural conditions that shape racial conditions in society but also... -inadvertently reinforce perceived distinctions between ingroups and outgroups -promote the misplaced notion of a colorblind ideology that assumes racism is a condition of the past

What are the outcomes of framing?

-activation of relevant cognitions -attitudinal effects(changes how you feel about a topic) -affective and behavioral outcomes(changes in your emotions or behaviors surrounding a topic

What is terror management theory?

-all humans suffer from thinking about out inevitable death -we cope in 2 ways: -by believing that our view of the world is correct -by believing that we are a valuable member of a cultural group

What augments the spread of fake news?

-automated bots --btwn 9 and 15% active twitter accounts and bots --fb estimated that as many as 60 million bots are on its platform --bots were responsible for a substantial portion of political content posted during 2016 campaign

What can/should be done?

-efforts addressing racial/ethnic stereotypes(and other media effects) and targeting outcomes such as criticism, consideration of realism, and fostering of knowledge -employing non-stereotypical media exemplars that provide White audiences with a positive intergroup experience

Why does the proliferation of social media outlets matter?

-increased selectivity -interest based preference for entertainment vs news --decreased audience for news(2/3 household in 1935,1/5in 2005) --35% choose news when having other fun options -partisan preference for pro-attitudinal vs. neutral or oppositional content --1/3 partisans use only like minded sources --when possible, people tend to select like minded content --greater exposure to like minded sites without avoiding dissimilar ones -echo chambers and filter bubbles emerge

Is media literacy intervention effective?

-media literacy can produce immediate outcome such as critical viewing skill, heightened awareness of media influence, and decreased in perceived realism of media test -media literacy interventions with longer or more sessions->larger effect sizes -interventions with multiple components(eg. analysis of media clips, activities, hands on media production)->smaller effects

What are belief echoes?

-misinformed beliefs continue even after exposure to corrected misinfo that was effective -journalists and fast checker attempts to design effective correction are based on the assumption that when corrections work, the misinfo will cease to work -me: believes correction but questions the topic, attitude is changed -psychology-the effects of false info can linger, ie. people who make inferences based on a piece of evidence retain at least some of those inferences even when the evidence is shown to be false

Limitations of Bail et al Study

-non-Twitter users? -other parts of the world

What are the causes of affective polarization?

-partisan media -online media

What is some evidence of affective polarization?

-people are warm to supporters of the inparty -outgroup feelings are decreasing

What is misinformation/disinformation/fake news?

-we define :fake news: to be fabricated into info that mimics news media content in form but not in organizational process or intent -fake news media outlets in turn lack the news media's editorial norms and processes for ensuring teh accuracy and credibility of info -fake news overlaps with other info disorders such as misinfo(false or misleading info) and disinfo(false info that is purposefully spread to deceive people) -my opinion: misinfo is a mistake while communicating but disinfo is on purpose

What are two diff approaches to media literacy discussed in the reading?

1. favoring the role of pleasured and creative expression; assuming an active audience(focusing on what we do with media) 2.considering media literacy education as an intervention in media influence(focusing on what media does to us and what can be done about that)->media literacy as an intervention -1. underlying assumption->there is a relationship between media use and some(undesirable) outcome that needs to be addressed

What are potential political interventions?

2 categories: -those aimed at empowering individuals to evaluate (mis)information and (fake) news sources they encounter -structural changes aimed at preventing exposure of individuals to fake news in the first instance

The Scharrer and Ramasubramanian paper

Assumption: -media have the potential to promote or to call into question stereotypical views of social groups, including those defined by race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual identity Key questions: -Can media consumers' examination of the principles and practices behind media production, media content, and media reception facilitate critical analysis of media's treatment of social groups and other matters? -Might media literacy education help to increase knowledge and/or shape attitudes about media's role and practices pertaining to race and ethnicity? metanalysis of 51 quantitative studies of the influence of a "structured media literacy intervention" media literacy has a positive role in interventions -media literacy interventions with longer or more session->larger effect sizes -interventions with multiple components->smaller effects

Thorsen

Experiment 1 Do belief echoes exist? Does exposure to corrected minsinfo shape attitudes in the context of a delayed but effective correction(about a candidate accepting campaign donations from a convicted felon?)? -122 participants randomly assigned to read 2 articles --1. uncorrected misinfo(misinfo, no correction) --2.corrected misinfo(misinfo, correction) --3.control(no misinfo, no correction) -after reading --1.evaluating candidates discussed in the article --2. rateing as T/F various info to see if attitudes change Results: -in order to ensure that attitudinal effects are due to belief echoes rather than belief persistence, the correction must revert people back to their initial belief -if exposure to corrected misinfo created belief echoes, those who saw corrected misinfo should evaluate the candidate less pos than the control grp, despite the correction's effectiveness Experiment 2: Partisanship Results: -if exposure to the corrected misinfo created belief echoes, people in the "corrected misinfo" condition should evaluate the candidate more negatively than the control -participants who received corrected misinfo-lower evaluations despite being certain that the misinfo was false -in each group-lower evaluations of the candidate when he was of the opposing party

Implications of the Thorsen findings

Fact checking organizations increase the reach of corrected misinfo, fact checking integreated into mainstream journalism

Holbert et al.

How can media messages and images influence our thoughts about the president and the presidency? -West Wing: shows that displays president well --if individuals see pos images of the pres then they will have pos mental images about pres which will influence attitudes toward current pres How? -completed measures in the morning, and then watched an episode of West Wing in the evening then did the measures again -rated pres on character traits and how important they were Results -Barlet = more principled, engaging, and common than Bush and Clinton -Clinton: more principled after -Bush: more common after -Barlet percieved more positively than bush or clinton -perceptions of importance of being engaging to pres success after watching -viewing west wing primes mor epos images of the us presidency that subsequently influences individual level perception of those individuals most directly associated with this office

Valkenburg et al.

How do diff types of frames influence an individual's recall of news stories? frames analyzed: conflict, human interest, responsibility, economic consequence analyzed: crime and the euro introduction(crime is more salient while euro is less) 187 undergrad assigned to diff versions of the stories, all containing the same core of info but varying in their opening and closing paragraphs in accordance with the frame employed after reading, student would write down all thoughts and feelings they had while reading the story Results: more likely to remember info for control in crime -least likely to remember info in human interest frame for crime no sig info recall for euro intro

Session 19

Media Literacy

Jang

Study 1 Does exposure to coverage of mass shootings act as a mortality prime? -either viewd news stories about mass shooting or animals -measure of death related thoughts: COF_ _ -mass shootings condition: 2.09; control 1.52 -results: coverage of mass shootings prime individuals to think about death Study 2: Does priming one's mortality strengthen one's preexisting attitude about gun control? -mortality prime-2 open ended questions, which served to prime thoughts of death(what emotions arise about death, what do you think happens when you die?) -results --gun control: repub decrease in attitude towards control, dem increase but not as much --open carry: repub increase towards open carry, dem decrease but not as much --heightened morality salience will lead to extreme levels of partisan gun policy attitudes Study 3 -researchers measured gun attitudes, partisanship, demographics -participants read about a shooting or about animals completed word fragment completion -attitudes toward gun control and open carry were measured results -death thoughts: r increase, d decrease -gun control: r decrease -open carry: r increase, d decrease -mortality salience will mediate the effects of exposure to mass shooting stories news exposure to shooting will remind individuals of their death thoughts which then reinforces predisposed attitudes toward gun policies -gun thoughts=mediator -partisanship=moderator

Bail et al.

Wil exposing people to dissimilar views minimize polarization? Hypothesis: -disrupting selective exposure to partisan info will decrease political polarization -exposure to those with opposing views may create backfire effects that exacerbate political polarization -backfire effects will be more likely to occur among conservatives than liberals Procedure -r and d who visit twitter at least 3 times a week -1. 2 10 min surveys: meausre outcome variable(change in political ideology via 10 item attitude measure on range of statements about policy issues) -2. respondents report their twitter id used to check online behavior -3. 1 week later-random assignment to treatment condition($11 to follow Twitter bot that would retweet 24 messages/day/1 mo) --a liberal twitter bot an docnservative bot created-retweeted tweet from officials(up to $18) to complete weekly survey -4. 64.9% dems and 57.2% repubs accepted each invitation: 62% able to answer all questions about the content of messages retweeted each week Results: -repubs who followed a liberal Twitter bot became substantially more conservative -dems exhbitied slight increases in liberal attitudes after following conservative twitter bot, although these effects are not statistically sig

Sims and Diffs between agenda setting and framing?

agenda setting: an issue covered in the news becomes more salient/accessible; it is the media coverage that has the effect framing: the description of an issue matters; it is the interpretation/words that have the effect theoretical premises: -agenda setting = accessibility; only salient issues will be accessible in individual's minds -framing = applicability; each individual will have their own interpretation based on how applicable the message is to their way of thinking

What are strategies? When are media literacy interventions the most effective?

audience centered strategies: -motivational approach by developing media literacy and critical viewing and thinking skills among audiences(eg. an expert encourage a negative view of stereotyping by appealing to audience's cog processing) --emphasis on self-enhancement goals, and motivation to appear non-prejudiced can curb prejudice message centered strategies: -exposure to counter stereotypes(eg. media featuring a depictions that runs counter to a common stereotype)=an alternative that requires less mental effort than motivational strategies media literacy interventions are most effective when used with message-centered approaches such as exposure to counter stereotypic media exemplars

How would belief echoes emerge?

automatic or deliberative process -automatic/byproduct of online processing-initial misinfo has a stronger affective evaluation that does its correction --misinfo may generate a strong and automatic affective response whereas correction may not generate a response of equal and opposite magnitude --people with amnesia still came back and chose same candidate bc they remembered how they felt about them the first time --me: feeling based -deliberative --conscious reasoning in which learning about a false claim leads someone to reason that other neg info about a candidate or policy is true --me: assumption based --

What were some examples discussed?

children's tv programs -white nursery school watch multiracial inserts from Sesame street->greater willingness to want to play w nonwhite children exposure to counter stereotypic exemplars can have a positive effect on intergroup relations -exposure to positive vs negative aa celebs increase support for affirmative action -exposure to counterstereotypes compared to stereotypic examples in news stories about aa associated w lower prejudice and increased support for affirmative action

What about qualitative studies?

films depicting Latinos as stereotypically unsuccessful students, unengaged parents, and as violent or hypersexual-> students responded with... -confrontation-challenging the stereotypes they saw in the media clips -motivation-sparking desire to prove the stereotypes wrong -navigation-specific plans to enact roles directly opposed to the stereotypes they encountered BUT-2 week media literacy course for hs students in white suburb in midwest -some students understood link btwn systemic social issues and racial stereotypes in teh media -others showed defensive or deflective views: --reinforced ingroups and outgroups(us vs them) --suggested the issue was germane only to "other people"

What are some sociopolitical implications of new media?

the intro of whatever new medium into society(starting with books) leads observers to be either very optimistic or very catastrophic about its impact -same with the internet

What is framing?

the process by which the words used or the constitution of a message affects the interpretation of the receiver