Democratic Consequences of Incidental Exposure to Political Information: A Meta-Analysis

Nanz, Andreas; Matthes, Jörg

doi:10.1093/joc/jqac008

Cited by 29 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Theoretically, our paper contributes to work on incidental exposure (Tewksbury et al, 2001) by showing that incidental exposure does not automatically induce behavior change, and that observing actual downstream media behaviors is essential to assess the impact of the incidental exposure. Incidental exposure to news is thought to generally have small effects (Nanz & Matthes, 2022) on political knowledge (Feezell & Ortiz, 2021) and political participation (Lee & Xenos, 2022). However, because most prior work does not examine the fine details of people's behaviors after incidental exposures, it may be missing the true consequences of incidental exposure, which our findings illustrate are highly heterogeneous.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

The private life of QAnon: A mixed methods investigation of Americans’ exposure to QAnon content on the web

Dahlke¹,

Moore²,

Forberg³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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In an increasingly polarized political environment, heightened focus has been placed on the potentially devastating effects of misinformation on democracy. Emblematic of this concern is the viral conspiracy theory QAnon, which began during the Trump presidency and evolved to become a frequent distributor of misinformation. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which Americans are exposed to QAnon, in what contexts, and to what effect. To do so, we employ a mixed methods review of 21 million website visits from a nationally representative sample of 1,238 U.S. adults collected during the 2020 presidential election. We find that: (1) exposure to QAnon is limited and stratified by political affiliation and news consumption; (2) exposure tends to occur within right-wing media ecosystems that align with QAnon beliefs; and (3) mixed methods approaches to analyzing digital trace data can provide rich insights that contextualize quantitative techniques.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

The private life of QAnon: A mixed methods investigation of Americans’ exposure to QAnon content on the web

Dahlke¹,

Moore²,

Forberg³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Results on the relationship between incidental news exposure and objective knowledge are mixed (Nanz & Matthes, 2022a, 2022bOeldorf-Hirsch, 2017). Elaboration is essential in generating knowledge in media contexts, yet no direct effect of incidental news exposure on elaboration has been found, potentially explaining the lack of effect in some studies ( Oeldorf-Hirsch, 2017).…”

Section: Which Forms Of Social Media News Use Affect Knowledge Gains?mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Incidental and Intentional News Exposure in Social Media Relate to Political Knowledge and Voting Intentions

Dreston¹,

Neubaum²

2022

Preprint

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Citizens are expected to make informed voting decisions. However, research indicates that political knowledge gained through media use does not relate to political participation such as voting. In times of decreasing voter turnout and increasing consumption of news via social media, it is important to study how these two relate. Recent research underscores the fact that, in reality, social media does not increase objective political knowledge, but rather the metacognition of subjective knowledge. In turn, this metacognition might foster political participation. Nevertheless, we do not know which forms of social media use foster users’ perception of being politically knowledgeable. A pre-registered, cross-sectional, pre-election survey (N = 1,223) showed that active forms of social media news use relate more strongly to subjective knowledge than incidental exposure. All forms of usage showed no or even negative associations with objective political knowledge. While none of the forms of social media news use exerted any direct effect on voting intentions, both subjective and objective knowledge are related to increased voting intentions. This study corroborates that social media does not affect political participation directly, but rather through metacognitive processes such as estimating one’s knowledge. However, both objective and subjective knowledge are essential for one’s voting intentions. By showing that active and passive forms of social media use affect knowledge differently, this study provides preliminary and nuanced insights into the ultimate role these technologies can play in democratic processes.

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“…The potential for such inadvertent exposure is yet greater in the online environment, as demonstrated by the burgeoning literature on incidental exposure online and on social media (Nanz & Matthes, 2022;Tewksbury et al, 2001). Web portals, social media, or search engines are key avenues to news online, facilitating it for users to encounter public affairs information, and directing traffic to news websites (Stier et al, 2022;Wojcieszak, Menchen-Trevino, Goncalves, & Weeks, 2021).…”

Section: News News Avoidance Incidental Exposurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, many users report encountering politics online by chance, such as when going online for trivia or romance (Wojcieszak & Mutz, 2009) or connecting with friends and family on social media (Valeriani & Vaccari, 2016). These incidental exposures to politicswhether in televised infotainment (Andersen, 2019;Baek & Wojcieszak, 2009;Baum, 2003;Baum & Jamison, 2006;Moy, Xenos, & Hess, 2005) or online (Feezell, 2018;Heiss & Matthes, 2019;Kwak et al, 2020;Weeks, Lane, & Hahn, 2022) are cross-sectionally and -to a lesser extent -causally related to news use, political knowledge, participation, and political discussion, among other outcomes (Nanz & Matthes, 2022).…”

Section: News News Avoidance Incidental Exposurementioning

confidence: 99%

Non-news websites expose people to more political content than news websites: Evidence from browsing data in three countries

Wojcieszak¹,

Menchen-Trevino²,

Hohenberg³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Most scholars focus on the prevalence and democratic effects of (partisan) news exposure. This focus misses large parts of online activities of a majority of politically disinterested citizens. Although political content also appears outside of news outlets and may profoundly shape public opinion, its prevalence and effects are under-studied at scale. This project combines three-wave panel survey data from three countries (total N = 6,892) with online behavioral data from the same participants (119.7M visits). We create a multi-lingual classifier to identify political content both in news and outside (e.g. in shopping or entertainment sites). We find that news consumption is infrequent: just 3.4% of participants’ online browsing comprised visits to news sites. Only between 14% (NL) and 36% (US) of these visits were to hard news. The overwhelming majority of participants' visits were to non-news sites. Although only 1.6% of those visits related to politics, in absolute terms, citizens encounter politics more frequently outside of news than within news. Out of every 10 visits to political content, 3 come from news and 7 from non-news sites. Furthermore, non-news exposure to political content had the same – and in some cases stronger - associations with key democratic attitudes and behaviors as news exposure. These findings offer a comprehensive analysis of the online political (not solely news) ecosystem and demonstrate the importance of assessing the prevalence and effects of political content in non-news sources.

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Democratic Consequences of Incidental Exposure to Political Information: A Meta-Analysis

Cited by 29 publications

References 52 publications

The private life of QAnon: A mixed methods investigation of Americans’ exposure to QAnon content on the web

The private life of QAnon: A mixed methods investigation of Americans’ exposure to QAnon content on the web

How Incidental and Intentional News Exposure in Social Media Relate to Political Knowledge and Voting Intentions

Non-news websites expose people to more political content than news websites: Evidence from browsing data in three countries

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