Titel
Populist Twitter Posts in News Stories
Autor*in
Raffael Heiss
Center for Social & Health Innovation, MCI Management Center Innsbruck
Autor*in
Christian von Sikorski
Department of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau
Abstract
Research in information processing suggests that the journalistic practice of embedding right-wing populist Twitter posts in news may stimulate political polarization. To test this notion, we conducted an online experiment (N = 379). We investigated how highlighted right-wing populist statements affected individuals from different ideological stances and whether potential effects were determined by Twitter-specific characteristics (Twitter frame, profile picture). We exposed participants to two articles, each including a statement by a politician of the Austrian Freedom Party. In the first group, the statements were not highlighted (control group). In the second and third group, the statements appeared as conventional block quotes either without (G2) or with (G3) a picture of the politician. In the fourth and fifth group, the statements were highlighted as Twitter posts, again either without (G4) or with (G5) a picture of the politician. Results revealed that all highlighting conditions increased statement recognition among left-wing individuals. However, the full Twitter post condition exerted the strongest effect. Higher recognition then decreased left-wing individuals’ anti-immigrant attitudes and sympathy toward the right-wing populist candidate. Thus, embedding right-wing populists’ Twitter posts may induce disconfirmation bias among left-wing voters and trigger a process in which they strengthen their initial attitudes.
Stichwort
Confirmation biasdisconfirmation biashybrid media systempolitical polarizationsocial mediapopulism
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:937268
Erschienen in
Titel
Journalism Practice
Seitenanfang
1
Seitenende
17
Verlag
Informa UK Limited
Erscheinungsdatum
2019
Zugänglichkeit
Rechteangabe
© 2019 The Author(s)

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