Examining The Relationships Between News Expectations, News Behaviors and Political Views
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Mentor Information
Dr. Sandra Schneider-Wright
Description
How can assessments about the news relate to interest and expectations about what we read? We explore the relationships between how political bias and news topics may relate to expectations about accuracy of the news content, and how this perceived accuracy, alongside interest, correlates with likelihood to read about a given topic. We presented participants with 80 news headlines with different news topics and measured their assessments of if the headlines were for articles that are fact-based and realistic as well as their interest in reading and likelihood to read the potential article contents. We measured participants’ reported political affiliation and how often they read the news. A correlational analysis will examine whether political views and news consumption frequency can predict news expectations, and whether these news expectations about accuracy can predict likelihood to read news content. We predict that political outlook and news frequency will correlate with assessments about the headlines, and that these assessments about factual content will correlate with likelihood to read alongside interest across headline topics. Reported news consumption frequency and news evaluations are also predicted to differ based upon political outlook and topic. The pattern of results is discussed. Results could give insight about how political outlook and frequency of news consumption might relate to the predictions about article accuracy and the news content consumed, and how these predictions of accuracy function compared to interest in news topics.
Examining The Relationships Between News Expectations, News Behaviors and Political Views
How can assessments about the news relate to interest and expectations about what we read? We explore the relationships between how political bias and news topics may relate to expectations about accuracy of the news content, and how this perceived accuracy, alongside interest, correlates with likelihood to read about a given topic. We presented participants with 80 news headlines with different news topics and measured their assessments of if the headlines were for articles that are fact-based and realistic as well as their interest in reading and likelihood to read the potential article contents. We measured participants’ reported political affiliation and how often they read the news. A correlational analysis will examine whether political views and news consumption frequency can predict news expectations, and whether these news expectations about accuracy can predict likelihood to read news content. We predict that political outlook and news frequency will correlate with assessments about the headlines, and that these assessments about factual content will correlate with likelihood to read alongside interest across headline topics. Reported news consumption frequency and news evaluations are also predicted to differ based upon political outlook and topic. The pattern of results is discussed. Results could give insight about how political outlook and frequency of news consumption might relate to the predictions about article accuracy and the news content consumed, and how these predictions of accuracy function compared to interest in news topics.
