Abstract
In the Internet era, people can encounter a vast array of political news outlets, many with which they are unfamiliar. These unknown media outlets are notable because they represent potential sources of misinformation and coverage with a distinctive slant. We use two large survey experiments to consider how source familiarity influences political communication. Although this demonstrates the public is averse to consuming news from unfamiliar media, we show that—conditional on exposure to them—unknown local and foreign media sources can influence public opinion to an extent similar to established mainstream news outlets on the same issues. This comparable effectiveness stems from the public’s charitable evaluations of the credibility of unfamiliar news sources and their relatively low trust in familiar mainstream media. We find avoidance of unknown news outlets, not resistance to their coverage, is the primary factor limiting their political influence.
Highlights
We first consider the left columns of the table, which display the effect of encountering unfamiliar news sources among respondents who indicated a preference for these outlets in the patient preference portion of the study
Our experiments show unknown local and foreign media sources can influence public opinion about local and national politics
Decades of research on persuasion emphasize the importance of source cues in making messages from familiar, trusted sources influential. Reconsidering this in contemporary politics, we find unfamiliar media sources without a preexisting reputation can effectively influence opinion to a degree similar to the influence of familiar mainstream media sources
Summary
We first consider the left columns of the table, which display the effect of encountering unfamiliar news sources among respondents who indicated a preference for these outlets in the patient preference portion of the study. In Studies 1, 3, 4, and when pooling the results, unfamiliar media influence opinion among this group as expected.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have