How News Type Matters

Abstract

Abstract. Today, citizens have the possibility to use many different types of news media and participate politically in various ways. This study examines how use of different news types (hard and soft TV news as well as printed and online versions of broadsheet and tabloid newspapers) indirectly affects changes in offline and online political participation through current affairs knowledge and internal efficacy during nonelection and election time. We use a four-wave national panel survey from Denmark (N = 2,649) and show that use of hard TV news and broadsheets as well as online tabloids positively affects changes in both offline and online political participation through current affairs knowledge and internal efficacy. Use of soft TV news and printed tabloids has a negative indirect effect. These results are more pronounced for online political participation and during election time. However, use of soft TV news also has a positive direct effect on changes in political participation, which suggests a positive impact via other processes.

Algorithmic social media use and its relationship to attitude reinforcement and issue-specific political participation – The case of the 2015 European immigration movements

“…People who held strong political opinions about immigration, however, were less likely to become active in fostering policy changes. Political participation, which is closely related to the concept of political efficacy (Andersen, Bjarnøe, Albaek, & De Vreese, 2016), could have a cathartic effect in such cases. However, we see that using algorithmic social media prevents relief from holding the stronger political attitudes that it creates in the first place.…”

Social network sites and acquiring current affairs knowledge: The impact of Twitter and Facebook usage on learning about the news

“…With the increasing centrality of social media in citizens' media diet, however, it is important to know whether these online platforms also contribute to current affairs knowledge. This is of great societal relevance, because knowledge acquisition is a crucial driver of citizens' participation in the political process (Andersen, Bjarnøe, Albaek, & De Vreese, 2016;Schudson, 1998). Hence, acquiring knowledge could be one of the mediating mechanisms explaining the already established relationship between social network usage and civic engagement (Gil de Zúñiga, Jung, & Valenzuela, 2012).…”

Predicting The Behavior of Young Voters in Elections: A Case Study of Governor Election in Jakarta, Indonesia

“…There is a positive correlation between seeking information on social media with political participation and the decision to vote (De Zuniga et al, 2012). Users who were looking for and viewing the political information in the media have better knowledge than those who did not, and political knowledge became an important link between media usage and political participation (Aarts & Semetko, 2003;Andersen et al, 2016). Exposure to media contents make users know, understand, and remember the object, situation, or event.…”