Is Facebook making us dumber? Exploring social media use as a predictor of political knowledge
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 95(2), 404-424. doi:10.1177/1077699018770447
Abstract: With social networking site (SNS) use now ubiquitous in American culture, researchers have started paying attention to its effects in a variety of domains. This study explores the relationships between measures of Facebook use and political knowledge levels using a pair of representative samples of U.S. adults. We find that although the mere use of Facebook was unrelated to political knowledge scores, how Facebook users report engaging with the SNS was strongly associated with knowledge levels. Importantly, the increased use of Facebook for news consumption and news sharing was negatively related to political knowledge levels. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.
When Good People Make Fake News Go Viral: The Role of Anger in Fake News Sharing on Social Media
Abstract: Sharing fake news on social media has become a serious social issue. The aim of the current study was to investigate (a) how reading fake news might induce anger and, in turn, fake news sharing via social media and (b) the extent to which reading uncivil comments might moderate this relationship. By employing the […]
Living at the speed of mobile: How users evaluate social media news posts on smartphones
Abstract: A growing body of research suggests that differences between smartphones and desktop computers influence information processing outcomes. A within-subjects (N = 64) smartphone eye-tracking experiment replicates a 2018 desktop-based study of users’ visual attention to and engagement with social media news posts. The results show that users spend less time viewing social media news posts on […]
