J201 Online Lectures - Lecture notes 8-12 PDF

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Professor Hernando Rojas...

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Journalism and Public Life - 3/23 Politics and Journalism ● In the US coverage of politics is the coverage of elite conflict ● This makes politics one of the most difficult boats ● Where objectivity is most critical and unbalance more noticeable ● But remember the hostile media phenomenon Journalism and Public Life Part 2 - 3/25 Polarization ● Because news tends to highlight conflict ● Cover politics like a “horse race” ○ What matters is who is ahead and not issues ○ Divides us into us vs. them ● New media may create ideological cocoons ○ Only following media that supports your views ○ Isolate from contending views, making you more affirmed in your existing views ● Is the US becoming more politically polarized? Political Polarization ● What is polarization? ○ Increased issue extremity ■ On any given issue, people have opinions that move towards the extremes instead of being in the center ○ Political alignment ■ Whether people consistently have positions similar to their ingroup ● Having all of the positions your political party has ○ Affective phenomena ■ Even if we don’t change opinions about issues, we can still dislike people that have differing opinions than us Issue Extremity ● Abortion ● Graph from 1975 - 2019 ● Doesn’t seem to be growing political polarization ○ Most people are in the middle (it should be legal in some circumstances) ○ Percentage of people stays relatively the same over the time period ● Origin of human beings

● Graph from 1983 - 2019 ○ See a lot of consistency over time with what people believe ○ Doesn’t seem to be increasing political polarization in this issue ● Immigration ● Graph from 1968 - 2019 ○ View used to be more extreme in the 90s than today ○ 65% of people said it should be decreased, but today only 35% of people have that view Political Alignment ● In 1994, the median democrat and the median republican tended to have more or less the same values ○ There was a lot overlap between people who have different political ideologies ● In 2004, the mean is pretty close but we see the curve is starting to pan out ○ People are starting to move away from shared values ● In 2014, the means are separated and the space for overlap has shifted ● Growing gap between republicans and democrats is increasing ○ They are becoming more aligned with people in their own party (internal party alignment) ● 7% gender gap, 36% gap in party identity ● More and more people are reporting as independent ○ Could stem from the fact that they have some values that align with each party so they feel that they don’t fit in with democrats or republicans ○ More people who are recurring to the center which is why polarization seems to remain stable Affective Polarization ● From 1994 to 2014, the amount of democrats who dislike republicans and vice versa has increased a lot ● People are concerned with their children marrying someone of a different political party New Media Environment ● Deliberative potential of “new media” ● Echo chambers (sunstein) ○ Extreme views become more extreme ○ Groups drift far away from each other ○ He looked at judges and who they were nominated under (a democrat or republican president) and analyzed their decision

○ If you’re in a liberal court, over time your decisions become more liberal and same with conservatives ■ If this happens to judges, this is bound to happen to citizens and in a much stronger way ● Increased choice ● Selective exposure ● Partisan media Perceived Political Polarization ● We’re not becoming more polarized but we think that we are ● In 9/10 countries, if you get your news online you think your country is more polarized ○ This could be because when we share stories online, we share them because they’re extreme Journalism and Public Life Part 3 - 3/27 Media Malaise Hypothesis ● Because of negativity, coverage of conflict news foster political cynicism and make people less engaged ● Creates detachment from public life ○ Participating less ○ Trusting the government less ● Media malaise: media content generating cynicism in the way in which we look at the world ● Ex of cynicism: story of a politician who’s corrupt so we assume all politicians are corrupt ○ We generalize things Sentiment Analysis of Overall Content ● Sentient: negative and positive words ● Has a limitation because it only examines words ○ Can use a negative word, but in a positive way ● For both CNN and Fox, their content is very negative in a regular year, not just during an election period ○ News coverage is mostly about negative things Cynicism - Trust in Government ● In the 60s, over 70% of the population thought that the government was doing the right thing most or all of the time

● Now only 20% of people believe this ● Overall, we see a pattern of decreased trust in government Cynicism - Trust in Institutions ● School systems, supreme court, newspapers, big business, etc ● Same overall pattern of decreased trust Cynicism - Trust in Others ● Similar pattern of declining trust ● Particularly for people who are young (18-39) this trust has decreased a lot Cynicism - Participation ● Civic engagement: attending a public meeting, serving on a committee, etc ● Overall in the past 20 years, there has been a decline in civic engagement ○ People are less involved in community organizations Trust + Positive Coverage ● As positive coverage diminishes, people’s trust in government also diminishes ● Does being exposed to the news make people less trusting and engaged? US 2018 Study by Rojas ● People who consume more news, are much more likely to trust the government (correlation) ● Evidence that being engaged with traditional journalism, results in / is related with trusting the government more ○ If journalism were causing this distrust, we wouldn’t see this pattern ● Measure of political efficacy: the sense that we can make a difference in our community ● The people who consume more news feel they can have a stronger impact on their community ● Measure of participation ● People who attend political rallies watch more news than people who don’t ● Being informed by social media is also positive correlated with government trust, efficacy, and participation ○ The strength of this correlation is smaller however ○ Correlation with reading a newspaper is much stronger ○ While different forms of news exposure are correlational, platforms do matter Role of News ● News consumption doesn’t result in cynicism and detached citizens

● It increases trust, efficacy, and participation ● Despite the intuitive appeal of the media malaise hypothesis, the results contradict that hypothesis Social Networks - 3/30 Diffusion of Innovations ● The numbers of people using social media are growing exponentially ● Facebook is the dominant social platform in the world ○ Followed by youtube and whatsapp News Trends ● TV is the main source of news in the US, but the importance of the Internet has escalated significantly ● Social media is ahead of newspapers as a source of news Network Concepts ● Networks are nodes and relationships between those nodes ● Connecting lines show there’s a relationship ● Tie can be bidirectional: relationship benefitting both people, they both agree they have a relationship ● Tie can be multifaceted: people can be more than one thing to you ● Weak ties: you have a relationship with the person, you know the person, but you’re not that close ● Strong ties: close relationships ● Technology has made maintaining weak ties very easy ○ We keep these broad networks of people ● Weak ties are more likely to help you find a job ○ They have novel information Network Concepts - Size ● How big can a social network be? ○ Having a larger social network is better than a smaller social network ■ There’s more people you can access for resources ■ By being connected to people, you can extract resources from these people ○ Most people tend to have 15-20 strong ties ○ As your social network becomes bigger, the quality of the ties become weaker Network Concepts - Density

● Low density: connected by one tie ○ If you remove the central node, the other ties disappear ○ There are certain nodes that are critical and if you remove them it all falls apart ● High density: everyone is connected ○ If you remove the center node, all the other nodes stay connected and communication can continue to flow ○ Communication tends to refuse redundantly Network Concepts - Heterogeneity ● A network that is very diverse ○ Ex. liberals, conservatives, communists, etc ● Can be a resource ● You’ll be exposed to heterogeneous information as opposed to in a homogenous network ● This determines what type of information you’re exposed to Online Social Networks ● We have about 4 degrees of separation ● Youtube and facebook are the most popular platforms in the US Social Networks and News Distribution ● News has a place in social media ○ There are a higher percentage of Americans who are getting their news from social media sites ● Getting news on facebook is incidental ○ Mostly see news on facebook when you go to check your feed ○ News is a byproduct of social media, but it’s not the main reason we use it ● Range of news on SM is broad ○ A lot of it is about entertainment, community, and sports ● Engagement goes beyond exposure ○ Engagement used to be passive: you would subscribe to a newsletter and read it ○ Now, there are a lot of forms of engagement ■ You can share a post, discuss a post, take and post pictures of an event ○ When people post about news, they put their own spin on it so your social network is important in regards to how you see news from ties ● Online opinion vs general opinion ○ There might be a prevailing opinion online, but it’s not the general opinion of the US ● Online sentiment “changes” rapidly ○ This is a result of a shift of expression

○ People choose to express their views after something happens ● SNS news and time on news websites ○ If you go directly to a news website you spend about 4 minutes on it ○ If you get to a news website through facebook, you spend about 1.4 minutes on it ○ Arrive directly, read about 25 pages ○ Arrive through facebook, read about 4 pages New Actors and Transformation of News - 4/1 News and Entertainment ● 1960s: news portion was an interview ● Today: news includes sports, entertainment, politics, everyday life Rise of Infotainment ● Focuses on how you get people’s attention ● There is a change over time between 1977-1997 in the amount of stories that traditional media carried about hard news ○ 66% in 1977 ○ 48% in 1997 ● Opposite trend in celebrity and entertainment coverage ● Increasingly we have more celebrity, entertainment, and lifestyle stories Infotainment ● Dumbing down or expanding news coverage to everyday life ● Goes beyond the news (docudramas, reality TV, talk shows) ● Commercialism and competition. Public orientation vs audience orientation (more space, less time, cost efficiency) ○ Attention is a scarce resource so TV has to figure out how to capture it ● News from cognitive reactions to emotional reactions ○ Move from facts and hard news to things we want to react to Entertainment that is Newsworthy ● News formatted in an entertaining way ● 12% of people online cite the Daily Show as a place they get their news ● Particularly the young ● However: ○ We learn from infotainment ○ We become more politically cynical ○ We are less tolerant of the positions of others

Supply / Demand Gaps in Journalism ● Supply-demand gap in low vs high competition environment ● In low competition environments the gap was “tolerable” and let news organization fulfill public-service as a byproduct of their business ● In a high competition environment, it’s harder for media to fill the public service goal because it’s easier for viewers to go to another channel if they don’t like what other is talking about ● Gap between what people are viewing and what reporters consider the most important thing ○ It’s not that citizens avoid public affair news altogether ○ Not just in the US, it’s across the world ● People have a different preference than journalists ● However, these gaps shrink in times of heightened political activity ○ Ex. an election Issues with Supply / Demand Gaps in Journalism ● Will the media continue to fulfill their agenda setting function? ○ If we’re making choices about what’s important, we have an impact on what’s covered and distributed ● Is the public mission of commercial mainstream media sustainable? ○ You don’t have to watch big news stations to get entertaining news, there are other channels that can fulfill that need in a better way ● Is the democratic function of news in jeopardy? ○ Could be in jeopardy because of financing ○ We had an independent press because they could finance themselves ○ But in the new media environment, it makes it harder for traditional news producers to finance their news operations ○ Critical for regional media ● Change in our conception of citizenship? (from informed citizens to monitorial citizens that scan the media environment and become involved only if they perceive a problem) ○ Rather than having people who are well informed about multiple topics, we have people who only become involved, instead of permanently involved, when they see a problem ● Opens citizens to persuasion and manipulation? ○ Monitorial citizens opens us up to manipulation because we don’t know that much about a topic ● Journalism is struggling to find sources of revenue ○ But they are experimenting to try to find ways to get money

Local Experiments ● Voice of San Diego ○ Investigative, expensive journalism ○ Trying to be funded through philanthropy ● Wisconsin watch ○ Take months creating these stories and provide it for free to news outlets ○ Investigative reporting for Wisconsin ● Madison commons ○ Trains citizens and students to become reporters ○ Focus on covering things in their neighborhood ○ Relies on crowdsourcing ● Bloggers and citizen journalists ○ Someone that’s hyperspecialzied in a certain topic and people pay to be subscribed to the newsletter Misinformation - 4/3 Misinformation Regarding Covid-19 ● Who is responsible for the virus? ● Is it man made? ● Is it a weapon? ● Many news platforms posting information like that and putting out many conspiracy theories ○ Sometimes they even correct mistakes they make that they find out to be false ● Also misinformation about the health side of the virus Fake News as Parody ● Creating content that mimics fake news but is meant to be parody for the people who have knowledge ● Make social commentary from humor ● Could lose the sense that it’s parody and it can be transmitted like it’s actual news Traditional Media as Fake News ● Our President refers to traditional media and its content as fake news Click Baiting in Moldova ● Making statements that are going to emotionally engage the public ● This makes the public click on the story which brings them to a page with advertisements ● Generate ad revenue from people clicking on links

Perspective on Fake News ● Fabricated stories mimicking as news reports for political gain ● 7 types of misinformation ○ Satire or parody: not meant to harm but can fool the public ○ Misleading content: misleading use of information to frame and event ○ Imposter content: when genuine sources are impersonated ○ Fabricated content: 100% false content designed to deceive ○ False connection: when headlines, visuals, or captions don’ support the content ○ False context: when genuine content is shared with false contextual information ○ Manipulated content: when genuine information or imagery is manipulated to deceive Audience Perspective on Fake News ● Satire: not seen as news, parody / funny ● Poor journalism: superficial, inaccurate ● Propaganda: hyperpartisan content, politicians lying ● Some advertising: ads and pop ups, sponsored content ● False news: not seen as news, for-profit fabrication ● Something is fake when it counters what they believe ● ¼ of the population defines fake news in political terms How Much Fake News is There? ● By election day, fake news outplays real news ● During a time of heightened news activity, fake news outperforms real news ● People are aware that they are exposed to a lot of fake news How Does Fake News Travel ● 50% of top news sites audience comes from direct browsing ○ People going to website to read the news ● 42% of fake news sites audience comes from social media ○ Traffic mostly comes from social media ○ Only 10% of top news sites audience comes from social media Fake News vs. Real News ● Diffusion of all the verified 017 true and false news stories distributed on Twitter from 2006-2017 ● Falsehood diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than truth in all categories of information ○ Reaches more people

○ Spreads quicker ● Speculate that this is because there is a sense of novelty to it ○ You don’t want to transmit things that everyone knows so you choose to share the story that’s difference than the rest because it’s false ○ We have a social role to play when it comes to containing the spread of fake news Are We Good at Recognizing Fake News ● See the third person effect at play ● We think we’re better at recognizing fake news than other people What’s New About Fake News ● Speed of the diffusion ● Social media generates content that is fake ○ People can easily put opinions on things online ● New technology that can change what people are saying on an audio ● New technology that can change what it looks like people are saying Issues Arising From Fake News ● Fake news consumption: ○ Reduces political knowledge ○ Increases political polarization ○ It might be increasingly harder to distinguish fake news from real news Principles of Persuasion - 4/6 Journalism vs. Strategic Communications ● The main point of journalism is to inform people in order to make decisions about their everyday life, politics, etc. ● The main point of strategic communication is to persuade us and make us see the world in a certain light Persuasion ● Process of attitude formation and/or change and modification / confirmation of behavior based upon attitude change / reinforcement ○ Not all persuasive content is about change ● Success of a persuasive campaign depends on: ○ Transmitted communication is effective in changing / preserving attitudes in a desired way ○ Modified / preserved attitudes influence people’s behavior in the expected way

● Persuasion is a two stage process: change in attitude → change in behavior ● Attitude: way of thinking of the world in which there’s valence which is relatively stable Persuasion vs. Manipulation ● Persuasion: ○ Best available info ○ Collective interest: ex. trying to get the public not to vape ○ Rational? ● Manipulation: ○ Selected info: chose info that best fit their narrative ○ Self interest: ex. trying to get people to smoke, doing this because you benefit from the tobacco industry ○ Emotional? Persuasion Principles ● Decision triggers (stop processing and say yes) 1. Authority. Recognizing someone’s expertise on an issue / object and believing that they are trustworthy a. If you see people with authority talking about something / giving a message, you’re more likely to be persuaded by it b. Ex. smoking commercial saying that thousands of doctors smoke camels (brand of cigarette) which makes you think it’s okay to smoke since doctors are c. Ex. toothpaste commercial where many dentists are saying that sensodyne is the best toothpaste for sensitive teeth 2. Likability. Flows from positive connections (similarities, compliments, and cooperative endeavors) a. When we like someone, we’re more likely to be persuaded by that person b. Ex. air jordan commercial, michael jordan is a very liked person so it makes you want to buy his shoes, also using authority because a professional player should know what equipment is the best c. Ex. budweiser commercial using a puppy, using the positive feeling towards puppies to promote their brand, link the feeling of positivity with their brand 3. Social proof. Particularly by people who are just “like you” a. We are convinced by other people and what works for them b. Ex. realtor.com commercial where different types of families are saying how well it worked for them in finding a home c. Ex. weight watchers commercial showing different...