How Does Multi-Platform Social Media Use Lead to Biased News Engagement? Examining the Role of Counter-Attitudinal Incidental Exposure, Cognitive Elaboration, and Network Homogeneity
Using an online panel survey in the United States, this study examines how multi-platform social media use impacts news engagement on social media. Results show that multi-platform social media use prompts incidental exposure to counter-attitudinal news and further encourages people to cognitively e...
Saved in:
Published in | Social media + society Vol. 8; no. 4; p. 205630512211291 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London, England
SAGE Publications
01.10.2022
Sage Publications Ltd SAGE Publishing |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | Using an online panel survey in the United States, this study examines how multi-platform social media use impacts news engagement on social media. Results show that multi-platform social media use prompts incidental exposure to counter-attitudinal news and further encourages people to cognitively elaborate on the counter-attitudinal information, which in turn contributes to news engagement on social media. However, news engagement is performed in a biased way that is supportive of like-minded content and non-supportive of counter-attitudinal content. Furthermore, the indirect effect of multi-platform social media use on biased news engagement becomes stronger when one’s network is more homogeneous. Although studies have pointed to the democratic prospects of multi-platform social media use as it leads to cross-cutting exposure, our results suggest that it could lead users to engage with news in ways that confirm their pre-existing attitudes and disconfirm counter-attitudinal ones. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 2056-3051 2056-3051 |
DOI: | 10.1177/20563051221129140 |