Toby Hopp
Biographic Data
| ID | 259086 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Toby Hopp |
| GIVEN NAMES | Toby |
| FAMILY NAME | Hopp |
| SIGNATURE | HOPP T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Colorado Boulder |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0460-2669 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 103 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Mainstream News Media Trust, Countermedia Attendance, and Political Learning
Using a two-wave panel dataset, this study sought to better understand the relationship between mainstream news media trust, countermedia attendance, and political knowledge. The results of a lagged autoregressive path model indicated that mainstream news media trust was negatively associated with countermedia attendance and that countermedia attendance was negatively associated with political learning. An additional model suggested that frequent…
TikTok Usage Effects on Attention to News Reading: An Eye-Tracking Study
This research examines how the use of the social media TikTok correlates with users’ attention to news reading. In a quasi-experimental laboratory setting, 242 U.S. college-age participants read 10 news and opinion pieces on a computer. Before reading, half of the sample browsed TikTok. Using eye tracking metrics, we found that those who browsed TikTok before reading were less likely to sustain their attention on the articles. Those who reported …
Is Online Textual Political Expression Associated With Political Knowledge
Prior research has reliably shown a positive relationship between political talk and political knowledge. This study sought to build upon this research by assessing the association between internet-based textual political expression and political knowledge. Notably, while online textual political expression is closely linked to traditional conceptualizations of political talk, it is also different in several key ways. Accordingly, this study drew…
Reshaping the Spheres: Gatekeeping as an Ethical Normative Imperative
This theoretical essay argues for reconstituting the normative role of gatekeeping of journalism in a functioning democracy. It contends that in this time of disinformation, misinformation and fake news, the journalist's main normative role should involve gatekeeping all deviant information from the mainstream public sphere. It then articulates why the space inside the sphere of legitimate controversy grew in recent years, and journalists, throug…
Nextdoor use and support for aggressive policing
This study developed and tested a model interrelating Nextdoor use and support for aggressive policing. The results of an online survey ( n =1806) suggested that Nextdoor use is positively associated with crime concern; that crime concern is positively associated with support for aggressive policing; and that Nextdoor use is both indirectly and directly associated with support for aggressive policing. The results also indicated that social trust …
Let’s intervene: How platforms can combine media literacy and self-efficacy to fight fake news
In light of concerns over the spread of so-called “fake news” on social media, organizations, and policymakers have increasingly sought to identify tools that can be used to stem the dissemination of misinformation and disinformation. Some evidence suggests that brief media literacy interventions might serve as an important means of helping social media users discern between “real” and “fake” news headlines. However, empirical research indicates …
Seeing red: Reading uncivil news comments guided by personality characteristics
Whether on a news or a social networking site, comments following news stories are often beset with incivility. Assailed as diminishing constructive dialogue in a digital public sphere, uncivil comments nevertheless require deeper scrutiny to better understand their pervasiveness and, among some, popularity. This article uses a Uses and Gratifications framework to understand why certain people are more drawn to uncivil comments than civil ones. U…
Fake news self-efficacy, fake news identification, and content sharing on Facebook
This study explored the concept of self-efficacy in the context of fake news identification and sharing on Facebook. The results indicated that those scoring high on a measure of Facebook-based fake news self-efficacy (i.e., confidence in one’s ability to identify factually incorrect current events information on Facebook) performed increasingly well on a fake news identification and classification task. For its part, the ability to identify and …
A Spherical Rendering of Deviant Information Resilience
This theoretical exploration describes the social and technical features that, together, play a role in the resilience of deviant ideas in contemporary society. It argues, specifically, that two distinct but inter-related spherical processes together contribute to the social persistency of deviant information. The first of these spherical phenomena relates to the fragmentation of the dominant public discussion sphere. The second spherical process…
Fear, Anger, and Political Advertisement Engagement: A Computational Case Study of Russian-Linked Facebook and Instagram Content
This study examined political advertisements placed by the Russian-based Internet Research Agency on Facebook and Instagram. Advertisements were computationally analyzed for four rhetorical techniques presumed to elicit anger and fear: negative identity-based language, inflammatory language, obscene language, and threatening language. Congruent with extant research on arousing emotional responses, advertising clickthrough rates were positively as…
Understanding citizen attendance to poll aggregation websites through an extended application of the theory of planned behavior
This study integrated need for orientation and subjective numeracy into the theory of planned behavior to understand the use of poll aggregation websites over the course of the 2016 presidential election. The results of a longitudinal analysis suggested that need for orientation is positively associated with one’s perceptions of the value ascribed to poll aggregation websites by important others, and one’s overall attitudes toward poll aggregatio…
Blink and You Miss it: Measuring News Readers’ Attention to Interpretative Journalism Cues
Studies have shown that newsreaders often have a difficult time distinguishing between different article types and, anecdotally, were oblivious to the text cues that news organizations offered to help make the distinctions. Inquiry into how news readers come to conclusions regarding news content is critical in light of the apparent emergence of so-called interpretative journalism stories—pieces that depart from a straightforward objective approac…
Does the Framing of Transparency Impact Trust? Differences Between Self-Benefit and Other-Benefit Message Frames
This study examines the impacts of self-(i.e., egoistic) versus other-(i.e., social) benefit frames used in organizational transparency messaging. While research in various strategic communication disciplines has presented organizational transparency as useful to achieving positive outcomes, limited empirical research on the effects of strategic decision-making around information presentation in transparency messaging has been conducted. The expe…
Exposure to Difference on Facebook, Trust, and Political Knowledge
Building off of literatures in the areas of network heterogeneity, oppositional networks, cross-cutting exposure, incidental information exposure, and trust, we suggested that Facebook networks characterized by inclusion of people different from the self have the potential to facilitate the inflow of diverse and attitudinally-dissonant information, and, as such, have potential for political knowledge obtainment. We further theorized that this rel…
Why Do People Share Ideologically Extreme, False, and Misleading Content on Social Media? A Self-Report and Trace Data-Based Analysis of Countermedia Content Dissemination on Facebook and Twitter
Recently, substantial attention has been paid to the spread of highly partisan and often factually incorrect information (i.e., so-called 'fake news') on social media. In this study, we attempt to extend current knowledge on this topic by exploring the degree to which individual levels of ideological extremity, social trust, and trust in the news media are associated with the dissemination of countermedia content, or web-based, ideologically extr…
Aggregate poll Web site use across the 2016 United States presidential election
This study examined citizens’ use of poll aggregation Web sites over the last nine weeks of the 2016 United States presidential campaign. The results suggested that usage frequency increases as election day approaches. Moreover, those with high levels of political interest and those that actively use media to obtain political information are most likely to access poll aggregation Web sites
A network analysis of political incivility dimensions
Although online political incivility has increasingly become an object of scholarly inquiry, there exists little agreement on the construct’s precise definition. The goal of this work was therefore to explore the relational dynamics among previously identified dimensions of online political incivility. The results of a regularized partial correlation network indicated that a communicator’s desire to exclude attitude-discrepant others from discuss…
Civic engagement, social capital, and ideological extremity: Exploring online political engagement and political expression on Facebook
Using a method incorporating both survey and trace data measures, this study presented and tested a theoretical model for understanding political expression on Facebook. The data suggested that self-reported measures of offline civic engagement, bonded social capital, and ideological extremity were predictive of a self-reported measure of general online political engagement. For its part, self-reported levels of online political engagement were p…
Attention to issues and facts: Assessing the role of need for orientation as a predictor of political news sharing on Facebook
Need for orientation (NFO) has long been accepted as an antecedent to agenda-setting effects. This study assessed whether NFO can go further to explain a specific behavior, why individuals share political news on Facebook. A new method is introduced that combines survey data with users’ Facebook accounts and their actual Facebook posts to reveal the historical news sharing behaviors of 741 U.S. citizens. Computer-assisted content analysis is empl…
Reinforcing attitudes in a gatewatching news era: Individual-level antecedents to sharing fact-checks on social media
Despite the prevalence of fact-checking, little is known about who posts fact-checks online. Based upon a content analysis of Facebook and Twitter digital trace data and a linked online survey (N = 783), this study reveals that sharing fact-checks in political conversations on social media is linked to age, ideology, and political behaviors. Moreover, an individual’s need for orientation (NFO) is an even stronger predictor of sharing a fact-check…
Correlating Self-Report and Trace Data Measures of Incivility: A Proof of Concept
This study correlated self-report and trace data measures of political incivility. Specifically, we asked respondents to provide estimates of the degree to which they engage in uncivil political communication online. These estimates were then compared to computational measures of uncivil social media discussion behavior. The results indicated that those who self-disclose uncivil online behavior also tend to generate content on social media that i…
Socioeconomic Status, Social Capital, and Partisan Polarity as Predictors of Political Incivility on Twitter: A Congressional District-Level Analysis
Using 414,322 tweets drawn from 143,404 individual Twitter users located in all 435 U.S. congressional districts, this study employed big data and automated content analysis techniques to explore the degree to which socioeconomic status (SES), social capital potential (the degree to which a congressional district has the potential for interconnected citizen networks), and in-district partisan polarization were associated with incivility on Twitte…
Tapping Into a New Stream of (Personal) Data: Assessing Journalists’ Different Use of Social Media
This research seeks to quantify social media’s value as a reporting tool for journalists by understanding it as an instrument for accessing personal data. A national survey of reporters at all large and midsize U.S. newspapers shows that journalists place more value on Twitter than Facebook as it relates to professional practice. Evaluation of the various practice-based functions relative to individual journalists’ value perceptions suggests that…
Why Do People Share Ideologically Extreme, False, and Misleading Content on Social Media? A Self-Report and Trace Data-Based Analysis of Countermedia Content Dissemination on Facebook and Twitter
Recently, substantial attention has been paid to the spread of highly partisan and often factually incorrect information (i.e., so-called 'fake news') on social media. In this study, we attempt to extend current knowledge on this topic by exploring the degree to which individual levels of ideological extremity, social trust, and trust in the news media are associated with the dissemination of countermedia content, or web-based, ideologically extr…
Tapping Into a New Stream of (Personal) Data: Assessing Journalists’ Different Use of Social Media
This research seeks to quantify social media’s value as a reporting tool for journalists by understanding it as an instrument for accessing personal data. A national survey of reporters at all large and midsize U.S. newspapers shows that journalists place more value on Twitter than Facebook as it relates to professional practice. Evaluation of the various practice-based functions relative to individual journalists’ value perceptions suggests that…
Reinforcing attitudes in a gatewatching news era: Individual-level antecedents to sharing fact-checks on social media
Despite the prevalence of fact-checking, little is known about who posts fact-checks online. Based upon a content analysis of Facebook and Twitter digital trace data and a linked online survey (N = 783), this study reveals that sharing fact-checks in political conversations on social media is linked to age, ideology, and political behaviors. Moreover, an individual’s need for orientation (NFO) is an even stronger predictor of sharing a fact-check…
Civic engagement, social capital, and ideological extremity: Exploring online political engagement and political expression on Facebook
Using a method incorporating both survey and trace data measures, this study presented and tested a theoretical model for understanding political expression on Facebook. The data suggested that self-reported measures of offline civic engagement, bonded social capital, and ideological extremity were predictive of a self-reported measure of general online political engagement. For its part, self-reported levels of online political engagement were p…
Socioeconomic Status, Social Capital, and Partisan Polarity as Predictors of Political Incivility on Twitter: A Congressional District-Level Analysis
Using 414,322 tweets drawn from 143,404 individual Twitter users located in all 435 U.S. congressional districts, this study employed big data and automated content analysis techniques to explore the degree to which socioeconomic status (SES), social capital potential (the degree to which a congressional district has the potential for interconnected citizen networks), and in-district partisan polarization were associated with incivility on Twitte…
Correlating Self-Report and Trace Data Measures of Incivility: A Proof of Concept
This study correlated self-report and trace data measures of political incivility. Specifically, we asked respondents to provide estimates of the degree to which they engage in uncivil political communication online. These estimates were then compared to computational measures of uncivil social media discussion behavior. The results indicated that those who self-disclose uncivil online behavior also tend to generate content on social media that i…
A network analysis of political incivility dimensions
Although online political incivility has increasingly become an object of scholarly inquiry, there exists little agreement on the construct’s precise definition. The goal of this work was therefore to explore the relational dynamics among previously identified dimensions of online political incivility. The results of a regularized partial correlation network indicated that a communicator’s desire to exclude attitude-discrepant others from discuss…
Exposure to Difference on Facebook, Trust, and Political Knowledge
Building off of literatures in the areas of network heterogeneity, oppositional networks, cross-cutting exposure, incidental information exposure, and trust, we suggested that Facebook networks characterized by inclusion of people different from the self have the potential to facilitate the inflow of diverse and attitudinally-dissonant information, and, as such, have potential for political knowledge obtainment. We further theorized that this rel…
Fake news self-efficacy, fake news identification, and content sharing on Facebook
This study explored the concept of self-efficacy in the context of fake news identification and sharing on Facebook. The results indicated that those scoring high on a measure of Facebook-based fake news self-efficacy (i.e., confidence in one’s ability to identify factually incorrect current events information on Facebook) performed increasingly well on a fake news identification and classification task. For its part, the ability to identify and …
Does the Framing of Transparency Impact Trust? Differences Between Self-Benefit and Other-Benefit Message Frames
This study examines the impacts of self-(i.e., egoistic) versus other-(i.e., social) benefit frames used in organizational transparency messaging. While research in various strategic communication disciplines has presented organizational transparency as useful to achieving positive outcomes, limited empirical research on the effects of strategic decision-making around information presentation in transparency messaging has been conducted. The expe…
Reshaping the Spheres: Gatekeeping as an Ethical Normative Imperative
This theoretical essay argues for reconstituting the normative role of gatekeeping of journalism in a functioning democracy. It contends that in this time of disinformation, misinformation and fake news, the journalist's main normative role should involve gatekeeping all deviant information from the mainstream public sphere. It then articulates why the space inside the sphere of legitimate controversy grew in recent years, and journalists, throug…
Socioeconomic Status, Social Capital, and Partisan Polarity as Predictors of Political Incivility on Twitter: A Congressional District-Level Analysis
Using 414,322 tweets drawn from 143,404 individual Twitter users located in all 435 U.S. congressional districts, this study employed big data and automated content analysis techniques to explore the degree to which socioeconomic status (SES), social capital potential (the degree to which a congressional district has the potential for interconnected citizen networks), and in-district partisan polarization were associated with incivility on Twitte…
Tapping Into a New Stream of (Personal) Data: Assessing Journalists’ Different Use of Social Media
This research seeks to quantify social media’s value as a reporting tool for journalists by understanding it as an instrument for accessing personal data. A national survey of reporters at all large and midsize U.S. newspapers shows that journalists place more value on Twitter than Facebook as it relates to professional practice. Evaluation of the various practice-based functions relative to individual journalists’ value perceptions suggests that…
Reinforcing attitudes in a gatewatching news era: Individual-level antecedents to sharing fact-checks on social media
Despite the prevalence of fact-checking, little is known about who posts fact-checks online. Based upon a content analysis of Facebook and Twitter digital trace data and a linked online survey (N = 783), this study reveals that sharing fact-checks in political conversations on social media is linked to age, ideology, and political behaviors. Moreover, an individual’s need for orientation (NFO) is an even stronger predictor of sharing a fact-check…
Correlating Self-Report and Trace Data Measures of Incivility: A Proof of Concept
This study correlated self-report and trace data measures of political incivility. Specifically, we asked respondents to provide estimates of the degree to which they engage in uncivil political communication online. These estimates were then compared to computational measures of uncivil social media discussion behavior. The results indicated that those who self-disclose uncivil online behavior also tend to generate content on social media that i…
Aggregate poll Web site use across the 2016 United States presidential election
This study examined citizens’ use of poll aggregation Web sites over the last nine weeks of the 2016 United States presidential campaign. The results suggested that usage frequency increases as election day approaches. Moreover, those with high levels of political interest and those that actively use media to obtain political information are most likely to access poll aggregation Web sites
A network analysis of political incivility dimensions
Although online political incivility has increasingly become an object of scholarly inquiry, there exists little agreement on the construct’s precise definition. The goal of this work was therefore to explore the relational dynamics among previously identified dimensions of online political incivility. The results of a regularized partial correlation network indicated that a communicator’s desire to exclude attitude-discrepant others from discuss…
Civic engagement, social capital, and ideological extremity: Exploring online political engagement and political expression on Facebook
Using a method incorporating both survey and trace data measures, this study presented and tested a theoretical model for understanding political expression on Facebook. The data suggested that self-reported measures of offline civic engagement, bonded social capital, and ideological extremity were predictive of a self-reported measure of general online political engagement. For its part, self-reported levels of online political engagement were p…
Attention to issues and facts: Assessing the role of need for orientation as a predictor of political news sharing on Facebook
Need for orientation (NFO) has long been accepted as an antecedent to agenda-setting effects. This study assessed whether NFO can go further to explain a specific behavior, why individuals share political news on Facebook. A new method is introduced that combines survey data with users’ Facebook accounts and their actual Facebook posts to reveal the historical news sharing behaviors of 741 U.S. citizens. Computer-assisted content analysis is empl…
A Spherical Rendering of Deviant Information Resilience
This theoretical exploration describes the social and technical features that, together, play a role in the resilience of deviant ideas in contemporary society. It argues, specifically, that two distinct but inter-related spherical processes together contribute to the social persistency of deviant information. The first of these spherical phenomena relates to the fragmentation of the dominant public discussion sphere. The second spherical process…
Fear, Anger, and Political Advertisement Engagement: A Computational Case Study of Russian-Linked Facebook and Instagram Content
This study examined political advertisements placed by the Russian-based Internet Research Agency on Facebook and Instagram. Advertisements were computationally analyzed for four rhetorical techniques presumed to elicit anger and fear: negative identity-based language, inflammatory language, obscene language, and threatening language. Congruent with extant research on arousing emotional responses, advertising clickthrough rates were positively as…
Understanding citizen attendance to poll aggregation websites through an extended application of the theory of planned behavior
This study integrated need for orientation and subjective numeracy into the theory of planned behavior to understand the use of poll aggregation websites over the course of the 2016 presidential election. The results of a longitudinal analysis suggested that need for orientation is positively associated with one’s perceptions of the value ascribed to poll aggregation websites by important others, and one’s overall attitudes toward poll aggregatio…
Blink and You Miss it: Measuring News Readers’ Attention to Interpretative Journalism Cues
Studies have shown that newsreaders often have a difficult time distinguishing between different article types and, anecdotally, were oblivious to the text cues that news organizations offered to help make the distinctions. Inquiry into how news readers come to conclusions regarding news content is critical in light of the apparent emergence of so-called interpretative journalism stories—pieces that depart from a straightforward objective approac…
Does the Framing of Transparency Impact Trust? Differences Between Self-Benefit and Other-Benefit Message Frames
This study examines the impacts of self-(i.e., egoistic) versus other-(i.e., social) benefit frames used in organizational transparency messaging. While research in various strategic communication disciplines has presented organizational transparency as useful to achieving positive outcomes, limited empirical research on the effects of strategic decision-making around information presentation in transparency messaging has been conducted. The expe…
Exposure to Difference on Facebook, Trust, and Political Knowledge
Building off of literatures in the areas of network heterogeneity, oppositional networks, cross-cutting exposure, incidental information exposure, and trust, we suggested that Facebook networks characterized by inclusion of people different from the self have the potential to facilitate the inflow of diverse and attitudinally-dissonant information, and, as such, have potential for political knowledge obtainment. We further theorized that this rel…
Why Do People Share Ideologically Extreme, False, and Misleading Content on Social Media? A Self-Report and Trace Data-Based Analysis of Countermedia Content Dissemination on Facebook and Twitter
Recently, substantial attention has been paid to the spread of highly partisan and often factually incorrect information (i.e., so-called 'fake news') on social media. In this study, we attempt to extend current knowledge on this topic by exploring the degree to which individual levels of ideological extremity, social trust, and trust in the news media are associated with the dissemination of countermedia content, or web-based, ideologically extr…
Fake news self-efficacy, fake news identification, and content sharing on Facebook
This study explored the concept of self-efficacy in the context of fake news identification and sharing on Facebook. The results indicated that those scoring high on a measure of Facebook-based fake news self-efficacy (i.e., confidence in one’s ability to identify factually incorrect current events information on Facebook) performed increasingly well on a fake news identification and classification task. For its part, the ability to identify and …
Seeing red: Reading uncivil news comments guided by personality characteristics
Whether on a news or a social networking site, comments following news stories are often beset with incivility. Assailed as diminishing constructive dialogue in a digital public sphere, uncivil comments nevertheless require deeper scrutiny to better understand their pervasiveness and, among some, popularity. This article uses a Uses and Gratifications framework to understand why certain people are more drawn to uncivil comments than civil ones. U…
Let’s intervene: How platforms can combine media literacy and self-efficacy to fight fake news
In light of concerns over the spread of so-called “fake news” on social media, organizations, and policymakers have increasingly sought to identify tools that can be used to stem the dissemination of misinformation and disinformation. Some evidence suggests that brief media literacy interventions might serve as an important means of helping social media users discern between “real” and “fake” news headlines. However, empirical research indicates …
Reshaping the Spheres: Gatekeeping as an Ethical Normative Imperative
This theoretical essay argues for reconstituting the normative role of gatekeeping of journalism in a functioning democracy. It contends that in this time of disinformation, misinformation and fake news, the journalist's main normative role should involve gatekeeping all deviant information from the mainstream public sphere. It then articulates why the space inside the sphere of legitimate controversy grew in recent years, and journalists, throug…
Nextdoor use and support for aggressive policing
This study developed and tested a model interrelating Nextdoor use and support for aggressive policing. The results of an online survey ( n =1806) suggested that Nextdoor use is positively associated with crime concern; that crime concern is positively associated with support for aggressive policing; and that Nextdoor use is both indirectly and directly associated with support for aggressive policing. The results also indicated that social trust …
Mainstream News Media Trust, Countermedia Attendance, and Political Learning
Using a two-wave panel dataset, this study sought to better understand the relationship between mainstream news media trust, countermedia attendance, and political knowledge. The results of a lagged autoregressive path model indicated that mainstream news media trust was negatively associated with countermedia attendance and that countermedia attendance was negatively associated with political learning. An additional model suggested that frequent…
TikTok Usage Effects on Attention to News Reading: An Eye-Tracking Study
This research examines how the use of the social media TikTok correlates with users’ attention to news reading. In a quasi-experimental laboratory setting, 242 U.S. college-age participants read 10 news and opinion pieces on a computer. Before reading, half of the sample browsed TikTok. Using eye tracking metrics, we found that those who browsed TikTok before reading were less likely to sustain their attention on the articles. Those who reported …
Is Online Textual Political Expression Associated With Political Knowledge
Prior research has reliably shown a positive relationship between political talk and political knowledge. This study sought to build upon this research by assessing the association between internet-based textual political expression and political knowledge. Notably, while online textual political expression is closely linked to traditional conceptualizations of political talk, it is also different in several key ways. Accordingly, this study drew…
Political science (21 works) · Psychology (21 works) · Social Psychology (17 works) · Computer Science (16 works) · Social Media and Politics (16 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Politics (13 works) · Law (10 works) · Advertising (9 works)