Sebastián Valenzuela
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 186081 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Sebastián Valenzuela |
| PRENOMES | Sebastián |
| SOBRENOME | Valenzuela |
| ASSINATURA | VALENZUELA S |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5991-7364 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 60 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 1089 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 60 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2009 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 14 |
Advancing Public Opinion Research Across Countries and Contexts
Unpacking the Relationship Between Algorithmic Literacy and Misinformation
Digital literacy is often proposed as a remedy for misinformation, yet empirical evidence regarding its effectiveness remains mixed. One reason for these inconsistencies lies in the multidimensional nature of both literacy and misinformation. This article focuses on algorithmic literacy, a distinct and increasingly central form of digital literacy in platform-mediated communication, and examines how its cognitive and behavioral dimensions relate …
The Effects of Generative AI in News on Media Credibility and Selectivity
The Threat of Misinformation on Journalism’s Epistemology
This study analyzes the discourse of reporters, editors and audiences in focus groups and in-depth interviews, examining the expectations on journalists when facing misinformation. While both groups agree that journalistic information is critical, how this expectation is met varies. On the one hand, the audience’s way of knowing involves diverse assessments regarding valuable information; also, they are dubious about journalists’ intentions. On t…
Advancing the Study of Political Misinformation Across Countries and Platforms—Introduction to the Special Issue
The global spread of political misinformation poses serious challenges to democracies, eroding trust and distorting public discourse. However, research has largely focused on WEIRD countries—Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic—limiting our understanding of how misinformation operates across diverse political, cultural, and technological contexts. This special issue addresses these gaps through comparative, cross-platform, and …
Dialogue on difference
Patterns of Persistence
In the realm of news consumption, individuals often establish recurrent patterns, integrating diverse sources into distinct repertoires. However, these patterns can change during unprecedented events like wars, political turmoil, and catastrophic incidents that alter daily routines. This study examines the potential of large-scale disruptions to transform news repertoires over the long run. Using survey data collected by the Digital News Report f…
The Missing Link
Digital platforms are transforming how governments deliver public services; however, many citizens still depend on third parties to access them. This article identifies and classifies these “digital intermediaries” drawing from a national survey in Chile—a country with high digitalization but deep digital inequality. We find two major types of intermediaries: “close” actors (family and peers) and “hierarchical” actors (politicians, bureaucrats, a…
The Meso News-Space as a Framework for Studying Mobile Instant Messaging Services
One of the most striking disconnects between the research and the practice of digital journalism is the divide between the platforms scholars study and the platforms people use. For example, as of
A Panel Study on the Dynamics of Social Media Use and Conspiracy Thinking
Studies exploring the association between social media use and belief in conspiracy theories have yielded mixed evidence. To address this inconsistency, we focus on conspiracy thinking – a predisposition to interpret events as products of secret, malevolent plots – for which contextual confounds can be better isolated. We posit that social media use and conspiracy thinking are positively related, and examine whether this relationship stems from s…
Cuando los algoritmos son editores
Esta es una versión editada de la charla magistral del autor en la inauguración de la Conferencia Académica por el Día Mundial de la Libertad de Prensa de UNESCO 2024 y que organizaron la Universidad de Chile y la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile el 4 de mayo de 2024 en Santiago
Local Government, Social Media and Management of Covid-19
Most research on governments' use of social media focuses on the national or federal level. We therefore know little about the way local authorities harness social media platforms to communicate with their constituencies. This paper studies the role structural and political variables played in Chilean mayors' political communication strategies during 2020–2021, a period of municipal elections marked by lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We e…
A Self-Righteous, Not a Virtuous, Circle
To explain the participatory effects of news exposure, communication scholars have long relied upon the 'virtuous circle' framework of media use and civic participation. That is, news consumption makes people more knowledgeable, and trustful toward institutions and political processes, making them active and responsible citizens, which then leads them to engage in various political activities. In a social media environment, however, the applicabi…
Politics and Media in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
Based on computerized and manual content analyses, we examined the theories, methods, topics, and authors’ backgrounds of the empirical articles revolving around politics and media published by Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (JMCQ) in its 100 years ( N = 424). The most common theories are agenda-setting, framing, and selective exposure, and quantitative methods prevail with single-country studies being more prevalent than comparative a…
Truth be told
When do users share fact-checks on social media? We describe a survey experiment conducted during the 2019 election in Argentina measuring the propensity of voters to share corrections to political misinformation that randomly confirm or challenge their initial beliefs. We find evidence of selective sharing—the notion that individuals prefer to share pro-attitudinal rather than counter-attitudinal fact-checks. This effect, however, is conditioned…
Studying the Downstream Effects of Fact-Checking on Social Media
Repeated exposure to misinformation not only reduces the accuracy of people's beliefs, but it also decreases confidence in institutions such as the news media. Can fact-checking-journalism's main weapon against misinformation-worsen or ameliorate distrust in journalists and the media? To answer this question, we conducted two pre-registered experiments in Chile (total N = 1,472) manipulating message and receiver factors known to regulate the pers…
Social Media and Belief in Misinformation in Mexico
Contrary to popular narratives, it is not clear whether using social media for news increases belief in political misinformation. Several of the most methodologically sound studies find small to nonexistent effects. However, extant research is limited by focusing on few platforms (usually Facebook, Twitter or YouTube) and is heavily U.S. centered. This leaves open the possibility that other platforms, such as those that rely on visual communicati…
Reactive and Asymmetric Communication Flows
Marked by both deep interconnectedness and polarization, the contemporary media system in the United States features news outlets and social media that are bound together, yet deeply divided along partisan lines. This article formally analyzes communication flows surrounding mass shootings in the hybrid and polarized U.S. media system. We begin by integrating media system literature with agenda setting and news framing theories and then conduct a…
Reflections on a Legacy
In response to Perloff's (this issue) essay examining the development and future of agenda setting, a series of scholars offer their own reactions to the essay and the broader issues it raises
For better and for worse
Public policies across the world are tackling Internet access inequality through mobile connections, which has led to an increase in mobile-only use. However, digital skills remain as a stumbling block to achieve digital inclusion. Using a two-wave panel survey on a representative sample conducted in Chile between 2018 and 2020, this study investigates how different mode of access (i.e. mobile-only vs mobile and computer) affects digital abilitie…
Medios de comunicación y confianza política en América Latina
Cuál es la asociación entre exposición a noticias y confianza política en Latinoamérica? ¿Hay diferencias según la libertad del sistema de medios y los niveles de polarización política? Para responder estas preguntas, este estudio analiza 10 países latinoamericanos incluidos en la última Encuesta Mundial de Valores (2017-2020) (N = 11.769), así como los índices de intervención gubernamental en el sistema informativo y polarización del proyecto V-…
Amplifying Counter-Public Spheres on Social Media
While much research exists on the role of digital media use in protest movements, few studies compare the long-term impact of protests on online use of alternative and mainstream digital media. This holds particularly true in countries of the global south. Our study addresses this knowledge gap by examining the massive demonstrations that occurred in Chile on 18 October 2019. Based on data from 1,221,487 Facebook posts from 31 media outlets colle…
The Personal Is the Political? What Do WhatsApp Users Share and How It Matters for News Knowledge, Polarization and Participation in Chile
Mobile instant messaging services (MIMs) are important gateways to news exposure and political conversations. Nevertheless, we still know little about the specific uses and consequences of using messaging apps on other aspects of democratic citizenship. This is especially true in Latin American countries, where usage of MIMs is more widespread than any other social media. Using a two-wave panel survey conducted in the context of the 2017 Chilean …
Competing Frames and Melodrama
The tension between health and economic considerations regarding COVID-19 has resulted in a framing contest, in which proponents and adversaries of strong containment measures hold oppositional frames about the pandemic. This study examines the effects of competing news frames on social media users' policy preferences and the moderation of framing effects played by melodramatic news treatment. Results from a pre-registered online survey experimen…
Rethinking the Virtuous Circle Hypothesis on Social Media
Despite early promise, scholarship has shown little empirical evidence of learning from the news on social media. At the same time, scholars have documented the problem of information ‘snacking’ and information quality on these platforms. These parallel trends in the literature challenge long-held assumptions about the pro-social effects of news consumption and political participation. We argue that reliance on social media for news does not cont…
Social Media Use for News and Individuals' Social Capital, Civic Engagement and Political Participation
Recently, scholars tested how digital media use for informational purposes similarly contributes to foster democratic processes and the creation of social capital. Nevertheless, in the context of today's socially-networked-society and the rise of social media applications (i.e., Facebook) new perspectives need to be considered. Based on U.S. national data, results show that after controlling for demographic variables, traditional media use offlin…
Is There Social Capital in a Social Network Site
This study examines if Facebook, one of the most popular social network sites among college students in the U.S., is related to attitudes and behaviors that enhance individuals' social capital. Using data from a random web survey of college students across Texas (n = 2,603), we find positive relationships between intensity of Facebook use and students' life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement, and political participation. While these fin…
Ties, Likes, and Tweets
Based on the theoretical concepts of social networks and technology affordances, this article argues that different social media platforms influence political participation through unique, yet complementary, routes. More specifically, it proposes that Facebook and Twitter are conducive to protest behavior through two distinct mechanisms: whereas the influence of Facebook use is more effective through communication with strong-tie networks, the im…
Social Networks that Matter
Journal Article Social Networks that Matter: Exploring the Role of Political Discussion for Online Political Participation Get access Sebastián Valenzuela, Sebastián Valenzuela 1School of Communications, Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile, and 2School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin, USA Sebastián Valenzuela (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is an assistant professor in the School of Communications at Catholic Universit…
Unpacking the Use of Social Media for Protest Behavior
Recent studies have shown a positive link between frequency of social media use and political participation. However, there has been no clear elaboration of how using social media translates into increased political activity. The current study examines three explanations for this relationship in the context of citizens' protest behavior: information (social media as a source for news), opinion expression (using social media to express political o…
We Face, I Tweet
This study advances a theoretical model centered on collective and internal efficacy to explain the separate pathways through which political sharing on Facebook and Twitter may influence individuals to engage in political activities. We test the model with data from a 2-wave panel survey conducted with an adult population in 2013 in Chile. We found that frequent usage of Facebook and Twitter for sharing political information is conducive to high…
A Call to Contextualize Public Opinion-Based Research in Political Communication
For those of us who regularly conduct public opinion research outside of the United States and Europe, it is customary to have to explain whether our findings are “real,” that is, generalizable rel
Motivations for Political Discussion
Scholarship on informal discussion of politics and current events has mainly focused on its cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral effects. In comparison, fewer studies have addressed the antecedents of political talk. Using 2-wave U.S. panel survey data, this study sheds light over 2 sets of motivations people may have for engaging in political conversation: civic-oriented and social-oriented goals; and their effects over civic participation. Us…
A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Cross-Cutting Exposure on Political Participation
Scholars have advanced many theoretical explanations for expecting a negative or positive relationship between individuals’ cross-cutting exposure—either through interpersonal or mediated forms of communication—and their political participation. However, whether cross-cutting exposure is a positive or negative predictor of participation is still an unsettled question. To help fill this gap, we conducted a meta-analysis of 48 empirical studies com…
Student and Environmental Protests in Chile
In 2011, Chile experienced two massive protest movements – one against the cost and quality of public education and another against the construction of power plants in Patagonia. This represented a unique opportunity to analyse and compare how Facebook and Twitter use were related to street demonstrations. Using a probabilistic face-to-face survey among urban youth (18–29 years old) conducted shortly after the protests, this study revealed a posi…
One Step, Two Step, Network Step? Complementary Perspectives on Communication Flows in Twittered Citizen Protests
The article analyzes the nature of communication flows during social conflicts via the digital platform Twitter. We gathered over 150,000 tweets from citizen protests for nine environmental social movements in Chile and used a mixed methods approach to show that long-standing paradigms for social mobilization and participation are neither replicated nor replaced but reshaped. In digital platforms, long-standing communication theories, like the 19…
Comparing Disaster News on Twitter and Television
Intermedia agenda setting predicts a high degree of convergence between news media agendas. However, the rise of social media forces a re-examination of this expectation. Using the 8.8-earthquake of February 27, 2010 in Chile as a case study, this article compares which topics were covered by professional journalists on broadcast news and Twitter, analyzing both cross-sectional and longitudinal trends. A positive, reinforcing influence was found …
Blogging as a journalistic practice
As blogs have become a fixture in today’s media environment, growing in number and influence in political communication and (mass) media discourse, research on the subject has proliferated, often emphasizing the high-profile conflicts and controversies at the intersection of blogging and journalism. Less examined, however, is the psychology of everyday citizen bloggers in this context. In studying a randomized sample of US bloggers, we attempt to…
Fake News Is Anything They Say!” — Conceptualization and Weaponization of Fake News among the American Public
This study examines the articulation of public opinion about so-called fake news using a national survey (N = 510) of U.S. adults conducted in 2018. We coded respondents’ open-ended answers about what is “fake news” and found that while some respondents adopted a politically neutral, descriptive definition, others provided a partisan, accusatory answer. Specifically, the weaponization of fake news was evident in the way respondents used the term …
Press Coverage and Public Opinion On Women Candidates
Because more women are running — and succeeding — in presidential races all over the world, it is important to analyze the way they are portrayed by the news media. Using Chile as a case study and agenda setting as a theoretical framework, the authors examined differences in press coverage of this country's first woman president, Michelle Bachelet, and her male contenders in the 2005/6 elections and compared them to public opinion. As expected, t…
Pride, Anger, and Cross-cutting Talk
Most work deals with the effects, not antecedents, of people’s exposure to disagreement within their social networks. Here, we elaborate on the role played by a major psychological driver of public opinion: emotions. Drawing from cognitive and appraisal theories, we explore the association between pride, anger, and disagreeable political talk. Three studies—based on cross-sectional and panel surveys conducted in electoral and nonelectoral setting…
Politics without Citizens? Public Opinion, Television News, the President, and Real-World Factors in Chile, 2000-2005
This study tests the generalizability of agenda-setting theory in less developed democracies by analyzing data on public opinion, television news coverage, presidential policy, and real-world indicators from Chile between 2000 and 2005. After tracking attention to five different issues—crime, unemployment, health, poverty, and education—we estimate both average and issue-specific agenda-setting effects using time-series, cross-sectional ordinary …
A Downward Spiral? A Panel Study of Misinformation and Media Trust in Chile
Despite widespread concern, research on the consequences of misinformation on people's attitudes is surprisingly scant. To fill in this gap, the current study examines the long-term relationship between misinformation and trust in the news media. Based on the reinforcing spirals model, we analyzed data from a three-wave panel survey collected in Chile between 2017 and 2019. We found a weak, over-time relationship between misinformation and media …
Materialism, Postmaterialism and Agenda-Setting Effects
Journal Article Materialism, Postmaterialism and Agenda-Setting Effects: The Values–Issues Consistency Hypothesis Get access Sebastián Valenzuela Sebastián Valenzuela University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA Sebastián Valenzuela (PhD, University of Texas at Austin, 2011; MA, University of Texas at Austin, 2007; BA, Catholic University of Chile, 2000) is assistant instructor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. H…
Amplifying Counter-Public Spheres on Social Media
While much research exists on the role of digital media use in protest movements, few studies compare the long-term impact of protests on online use of alternative and mainstream digital media. This holds particularly true in countries of the global south. Our study addresses this knowledge gap by examining the massive demonstrations that occurred in Chile on 18 October 2019. Based on data from 1,221,487 Facebook posts from 31 media outlets colle…
Truth be told
When do users share fact-checks on social media? We describe a survey experiment conducted during the 2019 election in Argentina measuring the propensity of voters to share corrections to political misinformation that randomly confirm or challenge their initial beliefs. We find evidence of selective sharing—the notion that individuals prefer to share pro-attitudinal rather than counter-attitudinal fact-checks. This effect, however, is conditioned…
Reactive and Asymmetric Communication Flows
Marked by both deep interconnectedness and polarization, the contemporary media system in the United States features news outlets and social media that are bound together, yet deeply divided along partisan lines. This article formally analyzes communication flows surrounding mass shootings in the hybrid and polarized U.S. media system. We begin by integrating media system literature with agenda setting and news framing theories and then conduct a…
For better and for worse
Public policies across the world are tackling Internet access inequality through mobile connections, which has led to an increase in mobile-only use. However, digital skills remain as a stumbling block to achieve digital inclusion. Using a two-wave panel survey on a representative sample conducted in Chile between 2018 and 2020, this study investigates how different mode of access (i.e. mobile-only vs mobile and computer) affects digital abilitie…
Studying incidental news
In light of concerns about decreasing news use, a decline in interest in political news or even active avoidance or resistance of news in general, the idea of ‘incidental news’ has been seen as a possible remedy. Generally, ‘incidental news’ refers to the ways in which people encounter information about current events through media when they were not actively seeking the news. However, scholars studying incidental news through different theoretic…
A Self-Righteous, Not a Virtuous, Circle
To explain the participatory effects of news exposure, communication scholars have long relied upon the 'virtuous circle' framework of media use and civic participation. That is, news consumption makes people more knowledgeable, and trustful toward institutions and political processes, making them active and responsible citizens, which then leads them to engage in various political activities. In a social media environment, however, the applicabi…
Being Immersed in Social Networking Environment
A Web survey of 1,715 college students was conducted to examine Facebook Groups users' gratifications and the relationship between users' gratifications and their political and civic participation offline. A factor analysis revealed four primary needs for participating in groups within Facebook: socializing, entertainment, self-status seeking, and information. These gratifications vary depending on user demographics such as gender, hometown, and …
Press Coverage and Public Opinion On Women Candidates
Because more women are running — and succeeding — in presidential races all over the world, it is important to analyze the way they are portrayed by the news media. Using Chile as a case study and agenda setting as a theoretical framework, the authors examined differences in press coverage of this country's first woman president, Michelle Bachelet, and her male contenders in the 2005/6 elections and compared them to public opinion. As expected, t…
Is There Social Capital in a Social Network Site
This study examines if Facebook, one of the most popular social network sites among college students in the U.S., is related to attitudes and behaviors that enhance individuals' social capital. Using data from a random web survey of college students across Texas (n = 2,603), we find positive relationships between intensity of Facebook use and students' life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement, and political participation. While these fin…
Citizen Journalism and Democracy
The contribution of professional journalism to democratic citizenship is well-established, but the proliferation of online user-generated news begs the question of whether citizen journalism plays a similar role. Use and trust of both professional and citizen journalism were investigated for their associations with political knowledge and participation. User-generated journalism was negatively related with knowledge of national political figures,…
Politics without Citizens? Public Opinion, Television News, the President, and Real-World Factors in Chile, 2000-2005
This study tests the generalizability of agenda-setting theory in less developed democracies by analyzing data on public opinion, television news coverage, presidential policy, and real-world indicators from Chile between 2000 and 2005. After tracking attention to five different issues—crime, unemployment, health, poverty, and education—we estimate both average and issue-specific agenda-setting effects using time-series, cross-sectional ordinary …
The Mediating Path to a Stronger Citizenship
Empirical studies of citizen communication networks and participation go as far back as the 1940s, with a bolder focus in political—not civic—activities. A consistent finding reveals that individuals with larger networks are more engaged than those with smaller networks. This article expands this line of work with a number of novel tests. First, it compares the predictive power of online versus offline network size on civic engagement. It then ex…
Materialism, Postmaterialism and Agenda-Setting Effects
Journal Article Materialism, Postmaterialism and Agenda-Setting Effects: The Values–Issues Consistency Hypothesis Get access Sebastián Valenzuela Sebastián Valenzuela University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA Sebastián Valenzuela (PhD, University of Texas at Austin, 2011; MA, University of Texas at Austin, 2007; BA, Catholic University of Chile, 2000) is assistant instructor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. H…
Social Networks that Matter
Journal Article Social Networks that Matter: Exploring the Role of Political Discussion for Online Political Participation Get access Sebastián Valenzuela, Sebastián Valenzuela 1School of Communications, Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile, and 2School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin, USA Sebastián Valenzuela (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is an assistant professor in the School of Communications at Catholic Universit…
Blogging as a journalistic practice
As blogs have become a fixture in today’s media environment, growing in number and influence in political communication and (mass) media discourse, research on the subject has proliferated, often emphasizing the high-profile conflicts and controversies at the intersection of blogging and journalism. Less examined, however, is the psychology of everyday citizen bloggers in this context. In studying a randomized sample of US bloggers, we attempt to…
Selective Exposure to Cable News and Immigration in the U.S.
In the past 2 decades, cable television and the Internet have greatly increased the availability of media content. The phenomenon has reinvigorated a longstanding debate about the effects of this media landscape, as people selectively get exposed to specific content. Based on U.S. national survey data, this article advances research in this area by analyzing the interplay between individuals' ideological predispositions, their selective exposure …
The Social Media Basis of Youth Protest Behavior
Protest activity has become a central means for political change in Chile. We examine the association between social media use and youth protest, as well as mediating and moderating mechanisms of this relationship, using survey data collected in Chile in 2010. We found that Facebook use was associated significantly with protest activity, even after taking into account political grievances, material and psychological resources, values, and news me…
Social Media Use for News and Individuals' Social Capital, Civic Engagement and Political Participation
Recently, scholars tested how digital media use for informational purposes similarly contributes to foster democratic processes and the creation of social capital. Nevertheless, in the context of today's socially-networked-society and the rise of social media applications (i.e., Facebook) new perspectives need to be considered. Based on U.S. national data, results show that after controlling for demographic variables, traditional media use offlin…
Unpacking the Use of Social Media for Protest Behavior
Recent studies have shown a positive link between frequency of social media use and political participation. However, there has been no clear elaboration of how using social media translates into increased political activity. The current study examines three explanations for this relationship in the context of citizens' protest behavior: information (social media as a source for news), opinion expression (using social media to express political o…
Agenda-Setting Theory
This chapter discusses contemporary directions of agenda-setting research. It reviews the basic concept of agenda setting, the transfer of salience from the media agenda to the public agenda as a key step in the formation of public opinion, the concept of need for orientation as a determinant of issue salience, the ways people learn the media agenda, attribute agenda setting, and the consequences of agenda setting that result from priming and att…
Historical Dramas, Current Political Choices
This study investigates the docudrama hypothesis—the idea that fiction based on real stories can influence audience members’ perception of political reality—in the context of current debates on partisan selective exposure and reinforcement effects. It doe
Pride, Anger, and Cross-cutting Talk
Most work deals with the effects, not antecedents, of people’s exposure to disagreement within their social networks. Here, we elaborate on the role played by a major psychological driver of public opinion: emotions. Drawing from cognitive and appraisal theories, we explore the association between pride, anger, and disagreeable political talk. Three studies—based on cross-sectional and panel surveys conducted in electoral and nonelectoral setting…
Student and Environmental Protests in Chile
In 2011, Chile experienced two massive protest movements – one against the cost and quality of public education and another against the construction of power plants in Patagonia. This represented a unique opportunity to analyse and compare how Facebook and Twitter use were related to street demonstrations. Using a probabilistic face-to-face survey among urban youth (18–29 years old) conducted shortly after the protests, this study revealed a posi…
Explicating the Values-Issue Consistency Hypothesis through Need for Orientation
The values-issues consistency hypothesis posits that when the issues covered in the news resonate with people’s values, the power of the news media in setting the public agenda is stronger. However, we know little about the process by which values influence the agenda-setting process. We argue that the need for orientation (NFO) is a key mediating variable of the relationship between values and issue salience. To test this proposition, we conduct…
Explicating the Values-Issue Consistency Hypothesis through Need for Orientation
One Step, Two Step, Network Step? Complementary Perspectives on Communication Flows in Twittered Citizen Protests
The article analyzes the nature of communication flows during social conflicts via the digital platform Twitter. We gathered over 150,000 tweets from citizen protests for nine environmental social movements in Chile and used a mixed methods approach to show that long-standing paradigms for social mobilization and participation are neither replicated nor replaced but reshaped. In digital platforms, long-standing communication theories, like the 19…
Motivations for Political Discussion
Scholarship on informal discussion of politics and current events has mainly focused on its cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral effects. In comparison, fewer studies have addressed the antecedents of political talk. Using 2-wave U.S. panel survey data, this study sheds light over 2 sets of motivations people may have for engaging in political conversation: civic-oriented and social-oriented goals; and their effects over civic participation. Us…
Behavioral Effects of Framing on Social Media Users
We hypothesize that generic frames influence what news people share on Facebook and Twitter through three different routes: emotions, motivations, and psychological engagement. Using a mixed-methods design, a content analysis of a representative sample of articles published in six Chilean outlets was combined with in-depth interviews with digital journalists. After controlling for issue, newsworthiness, informational utility, valence, and other c…
We Face, I Tweet
This study advances a theoretical model centered on collective and internal efficacy to explain the separate pathways through which political sharing on Facebook and Twitter may influence individuals to engage in political activities. We test the model with data from a 2-wave panel survey conducted with an adult population in 2013 in Chile. We found that frequent usage of Facebook and Twitter for sharing political information is conducive to high…
Comparing Disaster News on Twitter and Television
Intermedia agenda setting predicts a high degree of convergence between news media agendas. However, the rise of social media forces a re-examination of this expectation. Using the 8.8-earthquake of February 27, 2010 in Chile as a case study, this article compares which topics were covered by professional journalists on broadcast news and Twitter, analyzing both cross-sectional and longitudinal trends. A positive, reinforcing influence was found …
Ties, Likes, and Tweets
Based on the theoretical concepts of social networks and technology affordances, this article argues that different social media platforms influence political participation through unique, yet complementary, routes. More specifically, it proposes that Facebook and Twitter are conducive to protest behavior through two distinct mechanisms: whereas the influence of Facebook use is more effective through communication with strong-tie networks, the im…
Social Media and Politics (51 obras) · Political science (50 obras) · Sociology (38 obras) · Psychology (36 obras) · Politics (35 obras) · Public relations (23 obras) · Social Psychology (23 obras) · Media Studies and Communication (22 obras) · Social media (22 obras) · Law (20 obras)