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 smartphones than desktop, and report lower levels of pleasure and arousal in response to the posts. However, the study found no significant difference between devices in intent to click to read the story and intent to share the post. The findings are discussed with regard to implications for the role of device and attention in communication theory, as well as practical implications for news organizations and other social media content producers.
Topic: news
Intergroup Contact, COVID-19 News Consumption, and the Moderating Role of Digital Media Trust on Prejudice toward Asians in the U.S.: A Cross-Sectional Study
Abstract: Background: The perceived threat of a highly contagious virus may lead people to be distrustful of immigrants and outgroups. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the salient politicized discourses of blaming Chinese people for the virus have fueled over 2,000 reports of anti-Asian racial incidents and hate crimes in the U.S..
Objective: This study investigates relationships between news consumption, trust, intergroup contact, and prejudicial attitudes toward Asians and Asian Americans residing in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. We compare how traditional news, social media use, and biased news exposure cultivate racial attitudes, as well as the moderating role of media use and trust on prejudice against Asians.
Conclusions: Experiencing racial prejudice among the Asian population during a challenging pandemic can result in poor psychological outcomes and exacerbate health disparities. Our findings suggest that conservative ideology, personal COVID-19 infection history, frequency of intergroup contact, traditional news exposure, and trust in social media emerge as positive predictors of prejudice against Asians and Asians Americans, whereas people who get COVID-19 news from left-leaning and balanced outlets show less prejudice. For those with higher trust in social media and digital news, frequent use of these two sources is associated with lower levels of prejudice. Our findings highlight the need to reshape traditional news discourses and utilize social media/mobile news apps to develop credible messages for combating racial prejudice against Asians during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Perceptions of media roles in Serbia and Croatia: Does news orientation have an impact?
Abstract: This study examined the perceptions of media roles among journalism students in Serbia and Croatia (N=401). The results showed that the most important were citizen-oriented and watchdog roles and that they were positively predicted by hard news orientation, whereas consumer and loyal roles were least important. Consumer role was positively predicted by the soft news orientation, whereas the best predictor for the perceptions of the loyal media role was political orientation (right of the center). This is the first study that comparatively analyzed students’ views in two countries of the former Yugoslavia using national samples.