Social media use and support for populist radical right parties: assessing exposure and selection effects in a two-wave panel study

Schumann, Sandy; Boer, Diana; Hanke, Katja; Liu, James H.

doi:10.1080/1369118x.2019.1668455

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…For example, when focusing on voting behavior, it was shown that more frequent passive social media use predicts a higher likelihood to endorse Donald J. Trump, who was considered as the second-most populist candidate in the 2016 US presidential election (Groshek & Koc-Michalska, 2017). A longitudinal study in Germany conceptually replicated the latter results (Schumann, Boer, Hanke, & Liu, 2019). Importantly, belief-congruent behavior sustains the salience of the relevant attitude or identityover time, media and selection effects fuel each other.…”

Section: Attitude Maintenance or Shift To More Extreme Positionsmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…The findings do not allow us to conclude that social media use encourages those who somewhat support populism to take a strongermore extremestance. However, consuming news on social media appears to serve as a means to uphold existing opinions, which could be reflected in consistent voting patterns (Schumann et al, 2019) and the persistence of a climate of mistrust in mainstream media and political actors (Bergh, 2004;Fawzi, 2019;Schulz et al, 2020).…”

Section: General Discussion and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Maintenance or change? Examining the reinforcing spiral between social media news use and populist attitudes

Schumann

Thomas

Ehrke

et al. 2021

Information, Communication & Society

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Citizens around the world increasingly express support for populism. Here, we apply the reinforcing spirals model to examine whether, and how, social media news use shapes populist attitudes over time. Specifically, we assess if using social media as a news source serves to maintain existing populist attitudes or facilitates a shift in attitudes to a more extreme position. A cross-sectional survey (N 1 = 195) highlighted a positive correlation between social media news use and populist attitudes. A four-wave longitudinal survey (N 2 = 386) further showed that this relationship reflects media and selection effects. Over a period of three months, more frequent social media news use predicted stronger populist attitudes at subsequent measuring points. In addition, higher levels of populist attitudes were related to more frequent social media news consumption in the following waves. However, the frequency of social media news use did not change over time and populist attitudes did not become stronger during the study period. Taken together, the findings indicate that social media news use contributed to the maintenance of populist attitudes at a stable level. There is no evidence to suggest social media news use predicted more extreme populist attitudes. We discuss these results with respect to the (potentially continued) rise of populism; we also critically reflect on the phenomenon of attitude polarization online.

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Section: Attitude Maintenance or Shift To More Extreme Positionsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: General Discussion and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maintenance or change? Examining the reinforcing spiral between social media news use and populist attitudes

Schumann

Thomas

Ehrke

et al. 2021

Information, Communication & Society

Self Cite

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“…Populists tend to hold an anti-elitist attitude towards the political and media systems. Social media gives them a platform to consume, articulate and circulate their own messages (Engesser et al, 2017;Schumann et al, 2021). Therefore, it stands to reason that the populists may be more likely to rely on their peers to stay informed about public affair news, rather than simply relying on governmental, mainstream news sources or other 'elitists' out-groups beyond 'the people' (Gerbaudo, 2018).…”

Section: Nfm Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin and evolution of the News Finds Me perception: Review of theory and effects

Zúñiga

Cheng

2021

EPI

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Research revolving social media and democracy has exploded. For almost two decades, scholarship has offered new theories, revisited some old ones, and provided empirical evidence that helped cast a strong light on social media effects over people’s social life, and democracy at large. Thanks to social media, citizens consume news, express their political views, discuss political matters, and participate in political activities. However, social media also cultivates the dissemination of fake news and misinformation, exposure to hate speech, media fragmentation, and political polarization. In short, social media seems to simultaneously be a springboard for encouraging and undesirable outcomes that foster and challenge democracies alike. One of these phenomena that stems from social media news use is the News Finds Me perception (NFM), which takes place when individuals feel they do not have to actively seeks news any more to be well-informed about public affairs, as they expect to receive relevant news and information by relying on their peers in social media. This article traces back the origin of the theory, its evolution, and the set of effects found in the literature. It also presents guidelines for future research and potential challenges as the scholarship centering on NFM continues to grow.

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“…Even online news articles in mainstream media relaying a politician's or a journalist's populist statement generate more comments (Blassnig et al, 2019). In addition, there is evidence that exposure (rather than self-selection) Julián Durazo Herrmann, Tania Gosselin and Allison Harell DOI: 10.25200/BJR.v17n3.2021.1487 to social media can increase the likelihood of supporting a populist radical right-wing party (Schumann et al, 2021).…”

Section: A Media-relevant Definition Of Populismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Populism, Media and Journalism

Durazo-Herrmann

Gosselin

Harell

2021

BJR

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The articles in this special issue on populism, media and journalism build on, but also contribute to the extensive literature on the nature and consequences of populism. Among the questions raised are those about the gap between populism’s radical democratic discourse and actual practice, the destructive effects of populism on the structure and dynamics of various social fields, the importance of context in determining the actual nature of populist discourse and practice, as well as the role of globalization as it interacts with local context. Anti-elitism, anti-pluralism, polarization, charismatic leadership are not new tropes in studies of populism, yet they gain new tones when its effects on media and journalism are assessed. All in all, the study of populism in media and journalism raises important questions about its specificity in the context of new forms of communication and connection, how crises can create opportunities for its emergences, and how difference political systems engage with, or are resistant to, populist critiques. This special issue contributes to these questions and suggests new avenues for future research.

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Social media use and support for populist radical right parties: assessing exposure and selection effects in a two-wave panel study

Cited by 22 publications

References 56 publications

Maintenance or change? Examining the reinforcing spiral between social media news use and populist attitudes

Maintenance or change? Examining the reinforcing spiral between social media news use and populist attitudes

Origin and evolution of the News Finds Me perception: Review of theory and effects

Populism, Media and Journalism

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