Jieun Shin, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Telecommunication assistant professor, is the author of “How Do Partisans Consume News on Social Media? A Comparison of Self-Reports with Digital Trace Measures” published in Social Media + Society on Dec. 18.

Shin examined if social media exacerbates the selective exposure of audience members to content that supports their political views. The study involved partisan selective exposure of a sample of Twitter users by combining survey data with digital trace data.

She found that selectivity bias was present in all types of data, including self-reported media consumption (survey), media following (Twitter), and indirect exposure to media (Twitter).

According to Shin, “The study found some differences between self-reports and digital measures such that the overlaps in media diets between partisan groups were much larger based on the digital trace data than the self-reported data. In addition, the study observed an asymmetric pattern of selective exposure between conservatives and liberals in the digital trace data, but not in the self-reported data. The implications of these findings are discussed with reference to the contemporary news environment, hostile media effects, and normative assumptions of selective exposure.”

Posted: January 6, 2021
Category: College News
Tagged as: Jieun Shin