Getting attention online in election coverage: Audience selectivity in the 2012 US presidential election

Abstract

This study investigates how citizens select election news online. Voluntary national samples (n = 372) browsed a news website featuring four types of election news (horserace, candidates' issue positions, campaign trails, and voters). Their online activities, including article selection and the length of exposure, were unobtrusively measured by behavior tracking software. The results revealed that participants tended to choose issue-based election coverage but avoided news stories about campaign trails. The horserace was not more popular than the other types of election news. The findings also supported negative bias by showing that participants preferred election news headlines that contained negative words.

Negativity Bias or Backlash: Interaction With Civil and Uncivil Online Political News Content

“…Negativity in the form of incivility, rather than prompting engagement (Baumeister et al, 2001; Jang & Oh, 2016; Meffert et al, 2006), discouraged interaction with news. We were able to replicate this effect across different types of online behaviors.…”

“…Three studies to date have examined whether people choose negative political information in textual settings. Two of the studies investigated whether individuals selected headlines with relatively mild negative words like “accuse,” “oppose,” and “criticize” compared with relatively mild positive words like “praise,” “hail,” and “support” (Meffert et al, 2006, p. 34; see also, Jang & Oh, 2016). Both studies found that people gravitated toward negative headlines.…”

“…Negativity bias is the well-documented phenomenon that negative information weighs more heavily on individuals’ minds than positive information (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer, & Vohs, 2001; Ito, Larsen, Smith, & Cacioppo, 1998; Rozin & Royzman, 2001). News selection scholars have argued that, because negativity attracts attention, it should increase the likelihood that news users will interact with negative news (Jang & Oh, 2016; Meffert, Chung, Joiner, Waks, & Garst, 2006; Mutz, 2015).…”

The Consequences of Strategic News Coverage for Democracy: A Meta-Analysis

“…The three main reasons for the prominence of strategic and horse race frames in the news are as follows. First, they correspond with news values such as drama, negativity, and personal focus (Aalberg et al, 2012; Galtung & Ruge, 1965), which generally attract audience attention (Iyengar, Norpoth, & Hahn, 2004; Jang & Oh, 2016; Trussler & Soroka, 2014). Second, the professionalization of political campaigns over the years has led journalists to constantly try to uncover politicians’ hidden strategies of image building and media managing (Patterson, 1993).…”

Digital political infographics: A rhetorical palette of an emergent genre

“…Over the Past decades, political discourse has shifted its rhetorical focus from parties and issues to candidate-oriented narratives (Bennett, 2012), which emphasize the personality and the charisma of politicians (Balmas and Sheafer, 2010). This does not mean that issue-centered campaigns are without merit or effect; studies have shown that certain issue-based strategies can affect exposure when combined with the right candidate persona (Jang and Oh, 2016). Infographics may introduce a shift to this trajectory, as they are, in essence, issue-oriented rather than candidate—or party—centered.…”