Birds of a Feather Make Us Remember Better: Predicting Factual News Knowledge by Recipients’ Similarity to News Protagonists and Postexposure Discussion Quality

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session III
  In Interactive Paper Session: Mass Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

News exposure and interpersonal discussion of the news have often been referred to as the two areas of knowledge acquisition. The current study addressed both areas with regard to two particular patterns. Participants’ similarity to a news protagonist (high/low) and subsequent interpersonal discussion (topic-related/topic-unrelated) were varied systematically. Interpersonal discussion quality was determined via a quantitative content analysis. As hypothesized, exposure to news featuring a protagonist who was similar to the participant resulted in higher news knowledge than exposure to news featuring a dissimilar protagonist. Interpersonal discussion quality predicted news knowledge. Knowledge was highest after high-quality topic-related discussions, followed by topic-unrelated discussions, and finally by low-quality topic-related discussions. The similarity of news protagonists predicted knowledge only when discussion quality was high.

Authors

• Josephine Schmitt, University of Hohenheim

• Laura Loy, U of Hohenheim

• Sabine Trepte, U of Hohenheim