Why Are “Others” So Polarized? Perceived Political Polarization and Media Use in 10 Countries

Jung Hwan Yang; Hernando Rojas; Magdalena Wojcieszak; Toril Aalberg; Sharon Coen; James Curran; Kaori Hayashi; Shanto Iyengar; Paul K. Jones; Gianpietro Mazzoleni; Stylianos Papathanassopoulos; June Woong Rhee; David Rowe; Stuart Soroka; Rodney Tiffen

doi:10.1111/jcc4.12166

Why Are “Others” So Polarized? Perceived Political Polarization and Media Use in 10 Countries

Jung Hwan Yang, Hernando Rojas, Magdalena Wojcieszak, Toril Aalberg, Sharon Coen, James Curran, Kaori Hayashi, Shanto Iyengar, Paul K. Jones, Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Stylianos Papathanassopoulos, June Woong Rhee, David Rowe, Stuart Soroka, Rodney Tiffen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

85 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study tests the associations between news media use and perceived political polarization, conceptualized as citizens’ beliefs about partisan divides among major political parties. Relying on representative surveys in Canada, Colombia, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States, we test whether perceived polarization is related to the use of television news, newspaper, radio news, and online news media. Data show that online news consumption is systematically and consistently related to perceived polarization, but not to attitude polarization, understood as individual attitude extremity. In contrast, the relationships between traditional media use and perceived and attitude polarization is mostly country dependent. An explanation of these findings based on exemplification is proposed and tested in an experimental design.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	349-367
Number of pages	19
Journal	Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Volume	21
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12166
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2016

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Yang, J. H., Rojas, H., Wojcieszak, M., Aalberg, T., Coen, S., Curran, J., Hayashi, K., Iyengar, S., Jones, P. K., Mazzoleni, G., Papathanassopoulos, S., Rhee, J. W., Rowe, D., Soroka, S., & Tiffen, R. (2016). Why Are “Others” So Polarized? Perceived Political Polarization and Media Use in 10 Countries. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 21(5), 349-367. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12166

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title = "Why Are “Others” So Polarized? Perceived Political Polarization and Media Use in 10 Countries",

abstract = "This study tests the associations between news media use and perceived political polarization, conceptualized as citizens{\textquoteright} beliefs about partisan divides among major political parties. Relying on representative surveys in Canada, Colombia, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States, we test whether perceived polarization is related to the use of television news, newspaper, radio news, and online news media. Data show that online news consumption is systematically and consistently related to perceived polarization, but not to attitude polarization, understood as individual attitude extremity. In contrast, the relationships between traditional media use and perceived and attitude polarization is mostly country dependent. An explanation of these findings based on exemplification is proposed and tested in an experimental design.",

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Yang, JH, Rojas, H, Wojcieszak, M, Aalberg, T, Coen, S, Curran, J, Hayashi, K, Iyengar, S, Jones, PK, Mazzoleni, G, Papathanassopoulos, S, Rhee, JW, Rowe, D, Soroka, S & Tiffen, R 2016, 'Why Are “Others” So Polarized? Perceived Political Polarization and Media Use in 10 Countries', Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 349-367. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12166

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AU - Wojcieszak, Magdalena

AU - Aalberg, Toril

AU - Coen, Sharon

AU - Curran, James

AU - Hayashi, Kaori

AU - Iyengar, Shanto

AU - Jones, Paul K.

AU - Mazzoleni, Gianpietro

AU - Papathanassopoulos, Stylianos

AU - Rhee, June Woong

AU - Rowe, David

AU - Soroka, Stuart

AU - Tiffen, Rodney

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Why Are “Others” So Polarized? Perceived Political Polarization and Media Use in 10 Countries

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