Social Media News Use and Political Cynicism: Differential Pathways Through “News Finds Me” Perception
- Author(s)
- Hyunjin Song, Homero Gil de Zuniga, Hajo Boomgaarden
- Abstract
As citizens inadvertently "encounter" news and political information through digital media and social networking sites, they might perceive themselves to be well informed about politics without actively seeking political information, which has been labeled as the "News Finds Me" (NFM) perception. We attempt to explicate and further advance the conceptualization and corresponding measurement of "News Finds Me" perception. Using a nationally representative survey conducted in Austria, our analysis shows that social media news use may contribute to cynicism towards politics, and that such a relationship is critically mediated through NFM perceptions, but to a differential degree depending on specific sub-dimensions of NFM perceptions.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Communication
- Journal
- Mass Communication and Society
- Volume
- 23
- Pages
- 47-70
- No. of pages
- 24
- ISSN
- 1520-5436
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2019.1651867
- Publication date
- 01-2020
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 508012 Media impact studies
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/4cbe592a-7195-4489-b2f2-d87ec9e9a730