The social side of news: Attitude formation and expression in social networking sites under conditions of impression motivation

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Stephan Winter
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology ; Communication Sciences
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 272510960

Social media such as Facebook are increasingly used as sources of information and for discussions on political and societal topics. While these sites were originally seen as a tool for social contacts and private communication, recent studies recognized their role as primary platforms in which recipients are exposed to news and current debates, especially the younger parts of the population. The context of social media is characterized by a convergence of mass and interpersonal communication (e.g., with a juxtaposition of an article published by a news media organization and comments written by laypersons) as well as by a high level of visibility with regard to the actions of the individual user (e.g., when status updates and likes are visible for the entire contact list). Against this background, the proposed project investigates the mechanisms of attitude formation and expression in social networking sites (SNS) in comparison to previous forms of websites. Based on the heuristic-systematic model of information processing (Chaiken, Giner-Sorolla, & Chen, 1996) and the high importance of impression management in the context of SNS, it can be assumed that the evaluation of incoming information is already influenced more strongly by considerations of majority opinion and self-presentation, since SNS readers more frequently anticipate (public) discussions with others than readers of traditional news sources. Four laboratory experiments address the conditions under which SNS settings elicit this form of impression-motivated information processing and the question of how subsequent opinion expressions (e.g., via status update) and communication in the network consolidate the given attitude. As independent variables, the media context (SNS vs. "Web 1.0") and the type of presented information are manipulated. The first two studies investigate the process of attitude formation based on news articles (Study 1) and reader comments (Study 2). Study 3A and Study 3B deal with the consequences of public attitude expression for the private attitude and the effects of feedback that is given by other SNS users. On a theoretical level, the project aims at specifying the heuristic-systematic model for online and social media settings and at integrating the process of attitude expression. Furthermore, results will extend prior SNS research, which mainly focused on private contacts so far, and add to our knowledge on current media phenomena with regard to the dynamics of public opinion (which may lead to a focus on popular topics and opinions instead of a thorough consideration of the quality of arguments).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Netherlands