News Alerts, Apps, Websites, and Social Media: The Differential Effects of Modes on Attitude Changes

• In Event: Advances in Selective Exposure Research: Patterns of News Media Use Around the Globe

Abstract

This paper focuses on the effect of different modes of online news use within complementary news diets on the development of political attitudes. Especially young news users follow online news simultaneously via the 'traditional' web interface, via links on social network sites, news apps and news alerts. These modes differ in terms of selectivity, user control, and peer influence. Based on a 4 wave panel survey of N = 747 (4th wave) young adults in the Netherlands, we show that mode of news use influences the shift of attitudes about the EU during an EU election campaign. Using fixed effect longitudinal modeling, we find that the mode of social media and web browser lead to significant changes in attitudes, whereas reading news on apps is unrelated to attitude change over time. The results are substantiated with content analysis data of the main Dutch online news source collected during the election campaign.

Authors

• Judith Möller, U of Amsterdam

• Damian Trilling, U of Amsterdam