Katherine Ognyanova
Biographic Data
| ID | 2491975 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Katherine Ognyanova |
| GIVEN NAMES | Katherine |
| FAMILY NAME | Ognyanova |
| SIGNATURE | OGNYANOVA K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3038-7077 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 68 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Continuity and Change in Trust in Scientists in the United States: Demographic Stability and Partisan Polarization
Americans’ trust in scientists has been stable and high, relative to other political and social institutions, for the last half century (Krause, Brossard, and Scheufele 2019). Yet, underlying this stability lies a dramatic change such that a partisan gap has emerged, with Democrats exhibiting substantially more trust than Republicans. Fifty years ago, Republicans in fact exhibited more relative trust in scientists. This article explains this cont…
Depression, Populism, and Presidential Approval
Is there a relationship between depression and political evaluations? Building on existing work, we argue that experiencing depressive symptoms will positively correlate with supporting a populist politician and negatively correlate with supporting a nonpopulist officeholder. We evaluate these predictions with data from the United States, focusing on Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Our data are consistent with our hypotheses, and, as expected, we fin…
From Politics to Entertainment: Exploring "News Finds Me" Perceptions Across News Topics
The "News Finds Me" (NFM) perception captures the common belief that one can stay informed without actively seeking news. This study aims to extend previous research by comparing the widely used general NFM measure with topic-specific perceptions of entertainment, sports, politics, COVID-19, and climate change news. We assess the strength, predictors, and outcomes of NFM perceptions across those different thematic domains. Our findings show that …
Fact-Checking: Journalistic Strategies and Audience Outcomes in Diverse National Contexts
The quality of information consumed by citizens remains a crucial aspect of a working democracy. In recent years, fact-checking has emerged as an important safeguard against the spread of false and misleading content. This themed article offers an overview of notable recent studies on this topic published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. Included works examine the practices and effects of fact-checking across diverse national context…
Misinformation, Trust, and Use of Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19
In this survey study of US adults, endorsement of misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of trust in physicians or scientists, conspiracy-mindedness, and the nature of news sources were associated with receiving non-evidence-based treatment for COVID-19. These results suggest that the potential harms of misinformation may extend to the use of ineffective and potentially toxic treatments in addition to avoidance of health-promoting behav…
Using General Messages to Persuade on a Politicized Scientific Issue
Politics and science have become increasingly intertwined. Salient scientific issues, such as climate change, evolution, and stem-cell research, become politicized, pitting partisans against one another. This creates a challenge of how to effectively communicate on such issues. Recent work emphasizes the need for tailored messages to specific groups. Here, we focus on whether generalized messages also can matter. We do so in the context of a high…
Social Media Metrics in the Digital Marketplace of Attention: Does Journalistic Capital Matter for Social Media Capital
Drawing on Bourdieu’s field theory, this study investigated how the quality and reputation of news outlets were related to their social media capital. Social media capital is conceptualized as the resources that news organizations can generate via social media efforts, and measured by examining each outlet’s audience size and engagement metrics on Twitter. To triangulate findings, we used social media metrics extracted from (1) the entire populat…
Contagious Politics: Tie Strength and the Spread of Political Knowledge
This work explores the influence of social connections on young people’s political knowledge. Extending previous research on individual and interpersonal predictors of political learning, the study examines relational characteristics and their role in informed citizenship. Factors expected to affect social contagion in political behavior include conversation content, interaction frequency, relational closeness, mutual communication partners, and …
The role of race, religion, and partisanship in misperceptions about Covid-19
Concerns about misperceptions among the public are rampant. Yet, little work explores the correlates of misperceptions in varying contexts – that is, how do factors such as group affiliations, media exposure, and lived experiences correlate with the number of misperceptions people hold? We address these questions by investigating misperceptions about COVID-19, focusing on the role of racial/ethnic, religious, and partisan groups. Using a large su…
Misinformation in action: Fake news exposure is linked to lower trust in media, higher trust in government when your side is in power
One major concern about fake news is that it could damage the public trust in democratic institutions. We examined this possibility using longitudinal survey data combined with records of online behavior. Our study found that online misinformation was linked to lower trust in mainstream media across party lines. However, for moderates and conservatives, exposure to
The Incidental Pundit: Who Talks Politics with Whom, and Why
Informal discussion plays a crucial role in democracy, yet much of its value depends on diversity. We describe two models of political discussion. The purposive model holds that people typically select discussants who are knowledgeable and politically similar to them. The incidental model suggests that people talk politics for mostly idiosyncratic reasons, as by‐products of nonpolitical social processes. To adjudicate between these accounts, we d…
The Social Context of Media Trust: A Network Influence Model
Concerns about the low public trust in U.S. media institutions have recently deepened amid increasing partisan polarization, large-scale digital disinformation campaigns, and frequent attacks on the press from political elites. This study explored the social factors that shape our trust in mainstream news sources. An examination of longitudinal network data from 13 residential student communities highlighted the importance of interpersonal influe…
Contextualizing connectivity: How internet connection type and parental factors influence technology use among lower-income children
This project links research on digital inequality, which focuses on connection quality and its outcomes for under-connected individuals, and parental mediation, which focuses on the influence of parents on children’s technology experiences. We examine the internet connection type used by families, the technology experiences of lower-income parents, and their perceptions of opportunities that technology use offers their children. We then determine…
Connecting With Hyperlocal News Website: Cause or Effect of Civic Participation
This is one of the first systematic explorations into the relationship between residents' connection to a hyperlocal news website and civic participation. Integrating an ecological framework of civic participation and an audience-centered approach, the present study investigates whether residents' connection to a hyperlocal news website serves as the cause or effect of community participation. Using survey data with probability sampling of ethnic…
Multistep Flow of Communication: Network Effects
The multistep flow paradigm describes the way in which media and interpersonal influence shape public opinion. Works in that tradition explore the diffusion of media messages and the complex patterns of behavioral contagion in social networks. The flows of influence and information are amplified by opinion leaders: key individuals who can change the beliefs and actions of others in their community. Sociometric approaches provide a way to identify…
Volunteer Science: An Online Laboratory for Experiments in Social Psychology
Experimental research in traditional laboratories comes at a significant logistic and financial cost while drawing data from demographically narrow populations. The growth of online methods of research has resulted in effective means for social psychologists to collect large-scale survey-based data in a cost-effective and timely manner. However, the same advancement has not occurred for social psychologists who rely on experimentation as their pr…
Causing Ripples in Local Power Relations: The meso-level influence of a hyperlocal news website
Hyperlocal news operations have been considered a promising alternative to the shrinking legacy media for sustaining civic discourse and engagement in local communities. However, these operations’ meso-level influence on civic engagement has not been widely investigated. Building upon the Media System Dependency theory, this article proposed an analytical framework for assessing such influence. This framework was applied to an ethnically diverse …
A Multitheoretical, Multilevel, Multidimensional Network Model of the Media System: Production, Content, and Audiences
(2013). A Multitheoretical, Multilevel, Multidimensional Network Model of the Media System: Production, Content, and Audiences. Annals of the International Communication Association: Vol. 37, Communication Yearbook 37, pp. 67-93
The Incidental Pundit: Who Talks Politics with Whom, and Why
Informal discussion plays a crucial role in democracy, yet much of its value depends on diversity. We describe two models of political discussion. The purposive model holds that people typically select discussants who are knowledgeable and politically similar to them. The incidental model suggests that people talk politics for mostly idiosyncratic reasons, as by‐products of nonpolitical social processes. To adjudicate between these accounts, we d…
The role of race, religion, and partisanship in misperceptions about Covid-19
Concerns about misperceptions among the public are rampant. Yet, little work explores the correlates of misperceptions in varying contexts – that is, how do factors such as group affiliations, media exposure, and lived experiences correlate with the number of misperceptions people hold? We address these questions by investigating misperceptions about COVID-19, focusing on the role of racial/ethnic, religious, and partisan groups. Using a large su…
Using General Messages to Persuade on a Politicized Scientific Issue
Politics and science have become increasingly intertwined. Salient scientific issues, such as climate change, evolution, and stem-cell research, become politicized, pitting partisans against one another. This creates a challenge of how to effectively communicate on such issues. Recent work emphasizes the need for tailored messages to specific groups. Here, we focus on whether generalized messages also can matter. We do so in the context of a high…
Causing Ripples in Local Power Relations: The meso-level influence of a hyperlocal news website
Hyperlocal news operations have been considered a promising alternative to the shrinking legacy media for sustaining civic discourse and engagement in local communities. However, these operations’ meso-level influence on civic engagement has not been widely investigated. Building upon the Media System Dependency theory, this article proposed an analytical framework for assessing such influence. This framework was applied to an ethnically diverse …
A Multitheoretical, Multilevel, Multidimensional Network Model of the Media System: Production, Content, and Audiences
(2013). A Multitheoretical, Multilevel, Multidimensional Network Model of the Media System: Production, Content, and Audiences. Annals of the International Communication Association: Vol. 37, Communication Yearbook 37, pp. 67-93
Connecting With Hyperlocal News Website: Cause or Effect of Civic Participation
This is one of the first systematic explorations into the relationship between residents' connection to a hyperlocal news website and civic participation. Integrating an ecological framework of civic participation and an audience-centered approach, the present study investigates whether residents' connection to a hyperlocal news website serves as the cause or effect of community participation. Using survey data with probability sampling of ethnic…
Volunteer Science: An Online Laboratory for Experiments in Social Psychology
Experimental research in traditional laboratories comes at a significant logistic and financial cost while drawing data from demographically narrow populations. The growth of online methods of research has resulted in effective means for social psychologists to collect large-scale survey-based data in a cost-effective and timely manner. However, the same advancement has not occurred for social psychologists who rely on experimentation as their pr…
A Multitheoretical, Multilevel, Multidimensional Network Model of the Media System: Production, Content, and Audiences
(2013). A Multitheoretical, Multilevel, Multidimensional Network Model of the Media System: Production, Content, and Audiences. Annals of the International Communication Association: Vol. 37, Communication Yearbook 37, pp. 67-93
Causing Ripples in Local Power Relations: The meso-level influence of a hyperlocal news website
Hyperlocal news operations have been considered a promising alternative to the shrinking legacy media for sustaining civic discourse and engagement in local communities. However, these operations’ meso-level influence on civic engagement has not been widely investigated. Building upon the Media System Dependency theory, this article proposed an analytical framework for assessing such influence. This framework was applied to an ethnically diverse …
Volunteer Science: An Online Laboratory for Experiments in Social Psychology
Experimental research in traditional laboratories comes at a significant logistic and financial cost while drawing data from demographically narrow populations. The growth of online methods of research has resulted in effective means for social psychologists to collect large-scale survey-based data in a cost-effective and timely manner. However, the same advancement has not occurred for social psychologists who rely on experimentation as their pr…
Multistep Flow of Communication: Network Effects
The multistep flow paradigm describes the way in which media and interpersonal influence shape public opinion. Works in that tradition explore the diffusion of media messages and the complex patterns of behavioral contagion in social networks. The flows of influence and information are amplified by opinion leaders: key individuals who can change the beliefs and actions of others in their community. Sociometric approaches provide a way to identify…
Connecting With Hyperlocal News Website: Cause or Effect of Civic Participation
This is one of the first systematic explorations into the relationship between residents' connection to a hyperlocal news website and civic participation. Integrating an ecological framework of civic participation and an audience-centered approach, the present study investigates whether residents' connection to a hyperlocal news website serves as the cause or effect of community participation. Using survey data with probability sampling of ethnic…
The Social Context of Media Trust: A Network Influence Model
Concerns about the low public trust in U.S. media institutions have recently deepened amid increasing partisan polarization, large-scale digital disinformation campaigns, and frequent attacks on the press from political elites. This study explored the social factors that shape our trust in mainstream news sources. An examination of longitudinal network data from 13 residential student communities highlighted the importance of interpersonal influe…
Contextualizing connectivity: How internet connection type and parental factors influence technology use among lower-income children
This project links research on digital inequality, which focuses on connection quality and its outcomes for under-connected individuals, and parental mediation, which focuses on the influence of parents on children’s technology experiences. We examine the internet connection type used by families, the technology experiences of lower-income parents, and their perceptions of opportunities that technology use offers their children. We then determine…
Misinformation in action: Fake news exposure is linked to lower trust in media, higher trust in government when your side is in power
One major concern about fake news is that it could damage the public trust in democratic institutions. We examined this possibility using longitudinal survey data combined with records of online behavior. Our study found that online misinformation was linked to lower trust in mainstream media across party lines. However, for moderates and conservatives, exposure to
The Incidental Pundit: Who Talks Politics with Whom, and Why
Informal discussion plays a crucial role in democracy, yet much of its value depends on diversity. We describe two models of political discussion. The purposive model holds that people typically select discussants who are knowledgeable and politically similar to them. The incidental model suggests that people talk politics for mostly idiosyncratic reasons, as by‐products of nonpolitical social processes. To adjudicate between these accounts, we d…
The role of race, religion, and partisanship in misperceptions about Covid-19
Concerns about misperceptions among the public are rampant. Yet, little work explores the correlates of misperceptions in varying contexts – that is, how do factors such as group affiliations, media exposure, and lived experiences correlate with the number of misperceptions people hold? We address these questions by investigating misperceptions about COVID-19, focusing on the role of racial/ethnic, religious, and partisan groups. Using a large su…
Social Media Metrics in the Digital Marketplace of Attention: Does Journalistic Capital Matter for Social Media Capital
Drawing on Bourdieu’s field theory, this study investigated how the quality and reputation of news outlets were related to their social media capital. Social media capital is conceptualized as the resources that news organizations can generate via social media efforts, and measured by examining each outlet’s audience size and engagement metrics on Twitter. To triangulate findings, we used social media metrics extracted from (1) the entire populat…
Contagious Politics: Tie Strength and the Spread of Political Knowledge
This work explores the influence of social connections on young people’s political knowledge. Extending previous research on individual and interpersonal predictors of political learning, the study examines relational characteristics and their role in informed citizenship. Factors expected to affect social contagion in political behavior include conversation content, interaction frequency, relational closeness, mutual communication partners, and …
Misinformation, Trust, and Use of Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19
In this survey study of US adults, endorsement of misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of trust in physicians or scientists, conspiracy-mindedness, and the nature of news sources were associated with receiving non-evidence-based treatment for COVID-19. These results suggest that the potential harms of misinformation may extend to the use of ineffective and potentially toxic treatments in addition to avoidance of health-promoting behav…
Using General Messages to Persuade on a Politicized Scientific Issue
Politics and science have become increasingly intertwined. Salient scientific issues, such as climate change, evolution, and stem-cell research, become politicized, pitting partisans against one another. This creates a challenge of how to effectively communicate on such issues. Recent work emphasizes the need for tailored messages to specific groups. Here, we focus on whether generalized messages also can matter. We do so in the context of a high…
Fact-Checking: Journalistic Strategies and Audience Outcomes in Diverse National Contexts
The quality of information consumed by citizens remains a crucial aspect of a working democracy. In recent years, fact-checking has emerged as an important safeguard against the spread of false and misleading content. This themed article offers an overview of notable recent studies on this topic published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. Included works examine the practices and effects of fact-checking across diverse national context…
Continuity and Change in Trust in Scientists in the United States: Demographic Stability and Partisan Polarization
Americans’ trust in scientists has been stable and high, relative to other political and social institutions, for the last half century (Krause, Brossard, and Scheufele 2019). Yet, underlying this stability lies a dramatic change such that a partisan gap has emerged, with Democrats exhibiting substantially more trust than Republicans. Fifty years ago, Republicans in fact exhibited more relative trust in scientists. This article explains this cont…
Depression, Populism, and Presidential Approval
Is there a relationship between depression and political evaluations? Building on existing work, we argue that experiencing depressive symptoms will positively correlate with supporting a populist politician and negatively correlate with supporting a nonpopulist officeholder. We evaluate these predictions with data from the United States, focusing on Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Our data are consistent with our hypotheses, and, as expected, we fin…
From Politics to Entertainment: Exploring "News Finds Me" Perceptions Across News Topics
The "News Finds Me" (NFM) perception captures the common belief that one can stay informed without actively seeking news. This study aims to extend previous research by comparing the widely used general NFM measure with topic-specific perceptions of entertainment, sports, politics, COVID-19, and climate change news. We assess the strength, predictors, and outcomes of NFM perceptions across those different thematic domains. Our findings show that …
Political science (12 works) · Politics (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Social Media and Politics (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Democracy (5 works) · Law (5 works)