SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the eople-crab-people-crab-people-crab-people-crab-people-crab-people-crab-people-crab-people-crab-peopl dept.
Submitted via IRC for FatPhil
Social media and internet not cause of political polarisation (new research suggests)
Using a random sample of adult internet users in the UK, researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute and the University of Ottawa examined people’s media choices, and how much they influenced their interaction with echo chambers, against six key variables: gender, income, ethnicity, age, breadth of media use and political interest. The findings reveal that rather than encouraging the use and development of echo chambers, the breadth of multimedia available actually makes it easier for people to avoid them.
Dr Grant Blank, co-author and research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, said: ‘Whatever the causes of political polarisation today, it is not social media or the internet.
‘If anything, most people use the internet to broaden their media horizons. We found evidence that people actively look to confirm the information that they read online, in a multitude of ways. They mainly do this by using a search engine to find offline media and validate political information. In the process they often encounter opinions that differ from their own and as a result whether they stumbled across the content passively or use their own initiative to search for answers while double checking their “facts”, some changed their own opinion on certain issues.’
[...] Dr Elizabeth Dubois, co-author and Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa, said: ‘Our results show that most people are not in a political echo chamber. The people at risk are those who depend on only a single medium for political news and who are not politically interested: about 8% of the population. However, because of their lack of political engagement, their opinions are less formative and their influence on others is likely to be comparatively small.’
The echo chamber is overstated: the moderating effect of political interest and diverse media, Elizabeth Dubois & Grant Blank in Information, Communication & Society. 2018 (DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2018.1428656)
(Score: 2, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 13 2019, @02:47AM (4 children)
Agreed. I'm reminded of a co-worker buddy. He's a fellow veteran, and we had a lot to talk about, a lot in common. But, when it came to the news, Dennis refused to watch or listen to much of anything outside of CBS&NBC. They perpetually confirmed his ideas about whatever issues ware in at the moment. Worse, he told me that he "have to vote Democrat" because he's a black man. He's a very smart guy, except he has placed his head into the echo chamber, he KNOWS he has done so, but refuses to pull his head out. His only source of news outside of the echo chamber seemed to be me, about once a week, telling him about issues outside the echo chamber.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 13 2019, @06:07AM
lawl
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday March 13 2019, @06:42AM (1 child)
Pull yer haid out, Runaway! Pull it out! I told you keeping it up yer arse for too long would induce permanent brain damage, did i not? Oh, crap, Runaway, you have done it now! Reduced yer IQ by forty points, started watching Fox News, and reading ONN, and other islamophobic and xenophobic and liberalophobic websites, all to the detrimate of your intellect and social skills. Now, your head smells of shit, your posts on SN smell of shit, and your imagined narrative of having served in the US Military? Totally smells like shit. Russian agitprop Bot, for sure. Runaway, outside the bubble. Ha! Please! You are an idiot, Runaway, lacking in knowledge and education, bereft of good judgment, full of shit, and victim of early onset Fox Dementia Syndrome. Fucking Hillbilly Redneck Trump supporter, or a Russian operative of discordia. Either way, Runaway1965, you are an idiot. Plain and simple, but mostly simple, an idiot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 13 2019, @10:49AM
Brain? Hoodafuq cares about Runaways good fer nutin' brain?!
The damage to his arse is more ova pity, that one used to work ass nature intended before it was blocked by his haid.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nobuddy on Wednesday March 13 2019, @01:10PM
And how many of those 'issues' came out of your own echo chambers?