3 functions of mass media
- surveillance
- transmission of social heritage
- correlation (=aligning different positions by not only portraying the diversity of opinions but also diminishing these differences to a certain extent)
the hostile media effect
people’s tendency to perceive news coverage as one-sided and unfair in favor of their opposing side (HME)
- affects 2 fundamental features
1. the public’s ’trust
2. the media’s influence
experiment: hostile media effect with mass media
2 (partisan position: pro or against) x 2(reach: USA today or essay) x 2 (source)
conclusion: HME is supported, source matters: article significant effects, essay less significant
third person perspective
people attribute greater power to the media when they are asked about its effect on others than when they are asked about media influence on themselves
self categorization theory
- every person is a member of different social groups
- social identities aren’t all present in the foreground at the same time
- if a certain category (teacher, worker, supporter) is activated, the accompanying social identity becomes salient
social identification theory
- we classify people according to social categories (depends on the context)
- separation between we and them accentuation effect:
- we overestimate
- the similarities of members within the group and the differences between members between the groups
hypotheses and RQ article hartmann & tanis: HME & intergroup phenomenon: the role of ingroup identification and status
- HME
- the more pro-choice and pro-life identify with their ingroup, the more they experience HME
- if member consider the status of their ingroup low → HME, if high no HME
results:
- high identification: higher HME
- pro-choice had higher scores than pro-life
- high status: less HME
- so all hypotheses are confirmed
RQ and results article schulz et al: social identity approach to populist citizens false consensus and hostile media perceptions
- are populist attitudes related to
- false consensus perceptions (= overestimating the differences between groups, especially when the ingroup is under threat.
- hostile media perceptions - what is the theoretical explanation behind this? can social identity theory provide insights? (us = populist supporters or politicians, them = homogeneous elite running the government)
how is misinfo spread?
inadvertently
1. Media
- pressure from competition and 24/7 news cycle (less opportunity for fact-checking)
- false balance coverage even in the absence of balanced evidence
2. Social media
- fact-checking difficulties
- echo chambers and filter bubbles
on purpose
- repeating disinformation is persuasive
- disinformation campaigns designed to confuse, overwhelm, fatigue, disengage etc
- cognitive warfare → idk
why would people belief disinfo?
- people like info that is in line with their previous ideas (and dislike counterintuitive info)
- people want to understand casualties, because if you understand what causes events, you can better prevent it from re-occuring. Especially with
- unusual events
- negative events - the absence of good explanations opens the door for misinformation
→ conclusion: people build mental models of the world and they prefer complete models and models that are in line with pre-existing beliefs
why is memory called reconstructive
- not like a recording advice (to be able to listening it back)
- not like a whiteboard (able to erase tings)
- it has a fallible memory (capable of making mistakes or being wrong)
just tell people the simple solution of misinfo (info deficit model)
- doesn’t work
- simple retractions of misinfo are ineffective
once communicated and processes by the individual, - it is no longer possible to just take it back
even when they understand and remember the retraction and have no reason to believe on version of the story or the other
5 ways of effective debunking + explanation
- create a gap → fill the gap with a factual alternative
- remove a myth leaves a gap (people hate gaps)
- removed misinfo is actually still in memory, and people use it even when they know it’s wrong
- unless, the gap can be filled with plausible alternative info - avoid familiarity backfire effect
- flag the myths, don’t repeat the myths and focus on the facts
- if you need to flag, give an explicit warning before - avoid overkill backfire effect
- focus on the best arguments and keep it simple - avoid communication barriers
- use graphs (or other means) a appropriate
- make sure the visuals are clear: simple graphs, not too much info, function over form - avoid worldview backfire effect
target the middle majority
- if people have strong attitudes and beliefs they will be less skeptical about attitude-congruent misinfo and its source
- they will defend their beliefs
- attempts to correct a dearly held misbelief can cause misbelief
- avoid aggressive, inflammatory language
- efforts are best targeted towards undecided majority
