Effects of news sharing and discussion network heterogeneity on incidental exposure to counter-attitudinal political information on Facebook

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the mechanism underlying the process where individuals come across political disagreement in online communication networks. For that, this study focuses on two potential factors affecting incidental exposure to counter-attitudinal information (IXC) on Facebook: (1) news sharing behavior and (2) discussion network heterogeneity. A two-wave national survey was conducted during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaigns (Wave 1: Sept. 27– 13 October 2016, N = 1,623; Wave 2: Oct. 27– 8 November 2016, N = 637). The results indicate that news sharing and discussion network heterogeneity are both positively associated with IXC on Facebook, showing the critical roles played by these two variables in incidental exposure to political disagreement on social media. More importantly, news sharing and discussion network heterogeneity were found to sequentially mediate the positive relationship between overall use of Facebook and IXC, providing a more detailed mapping of the underlying mechanism in the basic relationship between general Facebook use and IXC. Implications of the findings are discussed.