Journal of Communication

Grady, Sara M; Tamborini, Ron; Eden, Allison; Van Der Heide, Brandon

doi: 10.1093/joc/jqac026pmid: N/A

A heuristic model aims to organize and synthesize the substantial body of work examining the social influences that shape media selection, experiences, and effects. The Social Influences and Media Use (SIMU) model describes three broad social forces (users’ internal social needs, their social environment, and the social affordances of media) and their recursive association with media use. This article (a) brings together diverse subdisciplines interested in the social factors and functions of media use, (b) discusses the micro–macro nature of social phenomena and its potential role in future inquires, and (c) illustrates how the model might foster new developments by applying it in a specific area of study. The model may help us identify cohesive patterns (and points of divergence or uniqueness) among existing findings as well as inform future work examining these relationships across a variety of social contexts and media channels.

Fu, Jiawei Sophia; Cooper, Katherine R

doi: 10.1093/joc/jqac024pmid: N/A

Increasing evidence reveals that social media visibility produces paradoxes in which actors simultaneously confront contradictory, even mutually exclusive, conditions. Yet limited research has explored how actors perceive these paradoxes and manage resulting tensions in a politically repressive context. Ubiquitous government oversight, information control, and Internet censorship may uniquely complicate paradoxes of visibility in non-Western environments. To address this gap, this research reconsiders the paradox(es) of visibility in politically restrictive contexts. Interview data from 50 social entrepreneurs and two field experts in China reveal the antecedents to visibility paradoxes, and suggest three novel forms of paradoxes: resource investment, public attention, and social change. We also show these paradoxes are interdependent such that one may be amplified or attenuated by the other paradoxes. Further, we identify three strategies for responding to these paradoxes and suggest implications for vulnerable actors in maintaining a public profile, especially in sensitive sociopolitical environments.

Usher, Nikki; Carlson, Matt

doi: 10.1093/joc/jqac022pmid: N/A

As part of contemporary racial reckoning, institutions are acknowledging their historical legacies of racism and discrimination. Media institutions, given their role in the social construction of reality, have been called to account by racial justice activists for perpetuating the white-dominant status quo. We develop a framework for recognizing and interpreting efforts at historical repair work in journalism, second draft of history journalism (SDOH), whereby contemporary consciousness about racial injustice, structural inequality, and exclusionary practices inside and outside journalism prompt news organizations to revisit the historical record. Through case study exemplars at U.S. newspapers, we define the three main modes—active, reflective, and active/reflective, and four key characteristics of SDOH journalism—discursive consciousness, institutional consciousness, moral consciousness, and past orientation. We address the contested boundaries of journalism’s cultural authority as journalists negotiate between SDOH journalism’s moral advocacy in pursuit of social justice and journalists’ professional journalistic norms of objectivity and neutrality.

Lyons, Benjamin A

doi: 10.1093/joc/jqac021pmid: N/A

Although positioned as a cognitive bias, third-person effect research has relied on self-reported difference scores that fail to capture bias appropriately. I use pre-registered and exploratory analyses of three nationally representative surveys (N = 10,004) to examine perceptions of susceptibility to false news and behavioral measures of actual susceptibility. Americans consistently exhibit third-person perception. However, some of this perceptual gap may be “earned.” I show that 62–68% of those exhibiting TPP are in fact less susceptible than average. Accordingly, I construct a performance-derived measure of true overconfidence. I find domain-involvement correlates of TPP tend not to hold for actual overconfidence. I also find significant differences in potential behavioral outcomes suggesting the traditional measure may often reflect genuine differences in self and others’ susceptibility to media, rather than a self-serving bias of presumed invulnerability. These results have important implications for our understanding and measurement of perceptual biases in communication research.

Gil de Zúñiga, Homero; Cheng, Zicheng; González-González, Pablo

doi: 10.1093/joc/jqac025pmid: N/A

Prior literature on political filter bubbles suggests an overall positive association between social media use and political networks diversification. Sometimes, this might not be the case. This study argues that the News Finds Me perception (NFM) or the belief that “one” can be well-informed about public affairs without actively seeking information as news will find “me” through “my” networks, tend to nurture a positive attitude toward algorithmic news gatekeeping. Likewise, NFM’s news over-reliance on one’s social network support the development of homogeneous information and discussion political networks in social media (political homophily). Results based on a variety of ordinary least squares regression models (cross-sectional, lagged, and autoregressive) from a U.S. representative panel survey, as we all as autoregressive structural equation model tests, indicate that this is indeed the case. This study serves to specifically clarify when and how social media and the NFM facilitate politically homogeneous filter bubbles.

Carnahan, Dustin; Ulusoy, Ezgi; Barry, Rachel; McGraw, Johnny; Virtue, Isabel; Bergan, Daniel E

doi: 10.1093/joc/jqac023pmid: N/A

Research on misinformation and misperceptions often investigates claims that have already reached a critical mass, resulting in little understanding of why certain claims gain widespread belief while others fall into obscurity. Here we consider how various message features factor into why certain claims are more likely to be believed, perceived as credible, and shared with others. Using a conjoint experiment, we randomly assigned participants (N = 1,489) to receive an experimentally manipulated message describing an allegation of political misconduct. Results suggest that partisan cues play a significant role in influencing both belief and perceived credibility. Furthermore, message specificity, language intensity, and whether other users’ comments on the post refute or endorse the post also influenced belief judgment and credibility assessments. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical importance of these findings for understanding and combating the threat of misinformation.