Development consensus in the Internet context: penetration, freedom, and participation in 38 countries

Lu, Jia; Luo, Chen

doi:10.1177/0266666919848815

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Increasing polarization was also linked to exposure to viewpoints opposed to one's own on social media feed [66,119]. Articles comparing several political systems found associations that were country-dependent [120], again highlighting the importance of political context [121]. Nevertheless, increased digital use was for the most part linked to increased polarization overall, although there was some evidence for balanced online discourse without pronounced patterns of polarization [122][123][124], as well as evidence for potentially depolarizing association with social media [125].…”

Section: Few Articles Have Shed Light On Causal Effects Between Social Media Use and Trust A Field Experiments In The Unitedmentioning

confidence: 96%

A Systematic Review of Worldwide Causal and Correlational Evidence on Digital Media and Democracy

Lorenz-Spreen¹,

Oswald²,

Lewandowsky³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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One of today's most controversial and consequential questions is whether the rapid, worldwide uptake of digital media is causally related to a decline in democracy. We conducted a systematic review of causal and correlational evidence (N=498 articles) on the link between digital media and different political variables, such as trust, polarization or news consumption. We further focused on the subset of articles that employed causal inference methods. Across methods, the articles report associations between digital media use and most political variables. Some associations, such as increases in political participation and information consumption, are likely to be beneficial for democracy and were often observed in the Global South and emerging democracies. Other consistently reported associations, such as declining political trust, advantages for populists, and growing polarization, are likely to be detrimental to democracy and were more pronounced in established democracies. We conclude that while the impact of digital media on democracy depends on the specific political variable and the political system in question, several variables show clear directions of associations. We believe that the evidence calls for further research efforts and vigilance by governments and civil societies to better understand and actively design the intimate interplay of digital media and democracy.

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Section: Few Articles Have Shed Light On Causal Effects Between Social Media Use and Trust A Field Experiments In The Unitedmentioning

confidence: 96%

A Systematic Review of Worldwide Causal and Correlational Evidence on Digital Media and Democracy

Lorenz-Spreen¹,

Oswald²,

Lewandowsky³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Increasing polarization was also linked to exposure to viewpoints opposed to one's own on social media feeds 69,123 . Articles comparing several political systems found associations that were country-dependent 124 , again highlighting the importance of political context 125 . Nevertheless, high digital media use was for the most part linked to higher levels of polarization, although there was some evidence for balanced online discourse without pronounced patterns of polarization [126][127][128] , as well as evidence for potentially depolarizing tendencies 129 .…”

Section: Established Democraciesmentioning

confidence: 98%

A systematic review of worldwide causal and correlational evidence on digital media and democracy

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One of today’s most controversial and consequential issues is whether the global uptake of digital media is causally related to a decline in democracy. We conducted a systematic review of causal and correlational evidence (N = 496 articles) on the link between digital media use and different political variables. Some associations, such as increasing political participation and information consumption, are likely to be beneficial for democracy and were often observed in autocracies and emerging democracies. Other associations, such as declining political trust, increasing populism and growing polarization, are likely to be detrimental to democracy and were more pronounced in established democracies. While the impact of digital media on political systems depends on the specific variable and system in question, several variables show clear directions of associations. The evidence calls for research efforts and vigilance by governments and civil societies to better understand, design and regulate the interplay of digital media and democracy.

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“…For media exposure at the individual level, borrowing prior experience (Lu and Luo, 2020; Lu et al, 2019), usage frequency of daily newspapers and television were combined into a scale to measure traditional media exposure. Internet use frequency was adopted to measure individual Internet exposure.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anderson et al (2010) further laid stresses on the potential of online environments to accumulate public knowledge about scientific issues. As a vital indicator, Internet penetration has been repeatedly mentioned in previous studies (Lu and Liu, 2018;Lu and Luo, 2020;Lu and Luqiu, 2019;Stoycheff and Nisbet, 2014). Internet penetration represents how the Internet alters the informational context by promoting a new information distribution approach.…”

Section: The Internet Context and Scientific Optimismmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Likewise, the school of media ecology emphasized media technologies’ powerful impacts on the whole social context, in which the scientific development is embedded (Scolari, 2012). Researchers have adopted the ‘Internet as a context’ idea to examine influences of Internet on national identity (Lu and Liu, 2018; Lu and Yu, 2019), public consensus (Lu and Luo, 2020), political trust (Cheng, 2020; You and Wang, 2020), and intolerance (Lu and Yu, 2020).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Internet as a context: Exploring its impacts on scientific optimism in China

Luo

Shang

Zhu

2020

Information Development

Self Cite

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The Internet brings new opportunities and challenges to scientific development and science communication. Previous studies overwhelmingly focused on individual-level Internet factors but overlooked the potential explanatory strength of Internet context. This study addresses the existing gap by examining how the Internet influences Chinese people’s scientific optimism from a comprehensive perspective (Internet as a medium and Internet as a context). Multilevel models were built based on individual-provincial merged data. The results indicate that (1) the Internet context impairs scientific optimism while Internet exposure has no significant effect. (2) The relationship between individual Internet exposure and scientific optimism varies by province. As a quantitative indicator of Internet context, Internet penetration mitigates the weakening effect of individual Internet exposure on scientific optimism. This research provides empirical evidence on scientific attitude formation in the non-Western environment and expands the analytic approach of public attitudes toward science.

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Development consensus in the Internet context: penetration, freedom, and participation in 38 countries

Cited by 6 publications

References 63 publications

A Systematic Review of Worldwide Causal and Correlational Evidence on Digital Media and Democracy

A Systematic Review of Worldwide Causal and Correlational Evidence on Digital Media and Democracy

A systematic review of worldwide causal and correlational evidence on digital media and democracy

Internet as a context: Exploring its impacts on scientific optimism in China

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