Partisan Selective Exposure to Fake News Content

Rahkman Ardi

doi:10.7454/hubs.asia.1160219

Abstract

Selective exposure to political news in social media in Indonesia is escalating along with the increasing polarization of Indonesian people. This research aims to investigate: 1) differences in selective exposure to fake news content among incumbent and opposition supporters; 2) the association between critical thinking ability and partisans’ selective exposure. Repeated measures design was employed as the experiment design. Respondents were student activists of extra-campus organizations with particular political ideologies, who have pro-incumbent or pro-opposition preference. Seventy-one respondents were recruited, consisting of 34 incumbent (Jokowi) supporters and 37 opposition (Prabowo) supporters. Data was analyzed using independent t-test, a paired sample t-test, and correlational analysis. Results show that the opposition side was more inclined to demonstrate selective exposure by believing in fake news about their political enemy, compared to the incumbent supporters. This is shown by their tendency to believe and spread discrediting news about their political opponents rather than doing so for news which discredits their side. No association between critical thinking and partisan selective exposure was found. The implication of these results is that the critical point in debiasing is not necessarily predicated merely on analytical thinking ability but might also rest on one’s ability to think open-mindedly.

Highlights

Research on selective exposure to news coverage shows a relatively consistent finding that individuals tend to only select and validate news which confirms their existing beliefs, and to avoid unwanted news (Frey, 1986; Hart, Albarracín, Eagly, Brechan, Lindberg, & Merrill, 2009; Metzger, Hartsell, & Flanagin, 2015; Hogg & Vaughan, 2017)
In the political years ahead of the presidential election in Indonesia, selective exposure of political news was indicated by the increasing spread of news which demonstrated polarization between supporters of the presidential candidates
The opposition supporters showed a difference in responding to fake news, in which they tended to demonstrate trust in fake news regarding their opponent, compared with fake news about their own side (t (36) = −5.62, p < 0.01, d = 0.929)

Summary

Introduction

Research on selective exposure to news coverage shows a relatively consistent finding that individuals tend to only select and validate news which confirms their existing beliefs, and to avoid unwanted news (Frey, 1986; Hart, Albarracín, Eagly, Brechan, Lindberg, & Merrill, 2009; Metzger, Hartsell, & Flanagin, 2015; Hogg & Vaughan, 2017). 2019 1⁄2Vol. 23 1⁄2 No. avoid dissonant information. This occurs in three subprocesses (Klapper, 1960): 1) selective exposure, i.e., they avoid communicating with anything that is incongruent with their attitude; 2) selective perception, i.e., when confronted with unpleasant things, they will ignore this information or make it conform with their initial opinion; and 3) selective retention, i.e., tending to forget attitude-incongruent information. In the political years ahead of the presidential election in Indonesia, selective exposure of political news was indicated by the increasing spread of news which demonstrated polarization between supporters of the presidential candidates. Mietzner (2015) states, “no election since the end of authoritarianism had presented such stark alternatives as Prabowo and Jokowi.”. Contention between the two has been ongoing since the 2014 presidential election, and was extended up until the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election, in which Ahok, the -governor of Jakarta, was seen as a representation of support for Jokowi, and Anies Baswedan, the current governor of Jakarta, was seen as support for Prabowo (Lim, 2017)

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