Uninformed or Misinformed in the Digital News Environment? How Social Media News Use Affects Two Dimensions of Political Knowledge

IF 4.6 1区社会学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Political Communication Pub Date : 2023-06-15 DOI:10.1080/10584609.2023.2222070

Atle Haugsgjerd, Rune Karlsen, Kari Steen-Johnsen

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines how the use of social media for news affects citizens’ knowledge about politics and current affairs. We employ a two-dimensional perspective on political knowledge and investigate how factual political knowledge, confidence in that knowledge, and misinformation, understood as the mismatch between factual political knowledge and confidence in knowledge, are related to social media news consumption. While earlier studies have suggested a negative relationship between social media news consumption and factual knowledge, there are indications that social media use may give people a general sense of being informed, even when they are not. Such general subjective knowledge might, however, differ from confidence in retrieved facts. Drawing on a two-wave panel study from Norway, we find evidence of a negative relationship between social media news consumption and both dimensions of knowledge. Notably, however, we do not find that social media news use leads to confidence in incorrect beliefs, suggesting that the digital media environment produces an uninformed, but not an overconfident, misinformed news audience.

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数字新闻环境下的不知情还是误报？社交媒体新闻使用如何影响政治知识的两个维度

摘要本文探讨了社交媒体对新闻的使用如何影响公民的政治和时事知识。我们对政治知识采用二维视角，调查事实政治知识、对该知识的信心和错误信息（被理解为事实政治知识和对知识的信心之间的不匹配）与社交媒体新闻消费之间的关系。虽然早期的研究表明，社交媒体新闻消费与事实知识之间存在负面关系，但有迹象表明，使用社交媒体可能会让人们普遍感到知情，即使他们没有知情。然而，这种普遍的主观认识可能与对检索到的事实的信心不同。根据挪威的一项两波小组研究，我们发现社交媒体新闻消费与知识的两个维度之间存在负面关系的证据。然而，值得注意的是，我们没有发现社交媒体新闻的使用会导致人们对错误信念的信心，这表明数字媒体环境产生了一个不知情但不是过度自信的错误信息新闻受众。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Political Communication Multiple-

CiteScore

13.90

自引率

2.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： Political Communication is a quarterly international journal showcasing state-of-the-art, theory-driven empirical research at the nexus of politics and communication. Its broad scope addresses swiftly evolving dynamics and urgent policy considerations globally. The journal embraces diverse research methodologies and analytical perspectives aimed at advancing comprehension of political communication practices, processes, content, effects, and policy implications. Regular symposium issues delve deeply into key thematic areas.