Sophie Lecheler
Biographic Data
| ID | 308034 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sophie Lecheler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sophie |
| FAMILY NAME | Lecheler |
| SIGNATURE | LECHELER S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Vienna |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7320-1012 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 79 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 764 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 79 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 14 |
Immersive Stories: The Effect of Inclusion, Narrative, and Interaction in Journalism
Google as Journalists’ Invisible Research Assistant? The Impact of Algorithmically-Driven Search Results in Journalistic Information Gathering Routines
Search engines play an important role in the information-gathering process of journalists. This paper analyzes the possible influence Google has on journalists when consulting, selecting, and evaluating sources through this search engine. We conducted a rare experiment on site with 73 journalists working within newsrooms in the Netherlands. We, firstly, find that all participating journalists use Google and mainly remain on the first page of resu…
The shadow side of empathy? Eliciting empathy in journalism and its potentially unintended side-effects on polarization
Journalistic reporting has increasingly adopted a more human-centered approach, often aiming to evoke empathy in the audience. This is because empathy is expected to bridge the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them,’ thereby fostering social cohesion. However, previous assessments of empathy-inducing journalism tend to fall short in two ways: first, they often rely on broad definitions of empathy, while current models suggest a dual-process model involving …
(In)visible bonds: Towards a dynamic conceptualisation of emotion in journalist- politician relationships
Journalists and politicians are professionally interdependent and closely entangled. Their interactions form fluid communities with shifting boundaries and implicit rules that are strongly shaped by emotion. Yet, journalism studies have rarely conceptualized these affective ties systematically, tending instead to analyse the journalism–politics relationship on an individual or interpersonal level. This paper introduces emotional communities as a …
The “bread and butter” of science: Understanding how scientists communicate uncertainties
Scientists increasingly experience that political contexts influence their science communication, affecting core aspects of their communication, such as the communication of uncertainty. Few studies suggest that uncertainty is increasingly being downplayed or omitted in science communication to the media and public, partially because scientists fear becoming political targets. However, to what extent that perception holds, and how scientists them…
Effects of data-driven campaigning: An integrative framework, literature review, and research agenda
The positive and negative consequences of data-driven campaigning (DDC) in the digital era have been hotly debated among policymakers and scholars. This article applies a top–down approach by first introducing a framework to conceptualize the potential individual-level effects of DDC. Based on the framework, we then conducted a literature review to evaluate existing findings. A research agenda is proposed to call for more attention to: (a) DDC wi…
Public Knowledge and Expertise Under Authoritarian Siege: A Defense of Academic Freedom from Digital Journalism Studies
This article addresses the growing global assault on academic freedom—a cornerstone of democratic societies now under increasing threat from authoritarian regimes. It highlights a global decline in that freedom since its peak 20 years ago, focusing on the United States in 2025 to illustrate rapidly escalating academic silencing, even in a country with well-established democratic freedoms and institutions. Drawing on the collective expertise of in…
The Role of Choice Architecture in Mitigating News Avoidance
News avoidance has become more common and is associated with negative democratic outcomes. However, only a handful of studies have explored solutions to reduce news avoidance, with nudges offering a potential approach. One of such nudges are opting-in and opting-out effects. Additionally, news avoidance research suggests that one of the most promising—yet not fully tested—digital interventions is reminding citizens of their civic duty to keep inf…
Spurring or Blurring Professional Standards? The Role of Digital Technology in Implementing Journalistic Role Ideals in Contemporary Newsrooms
This study examines the perceived relevance and implementation of competing normative ideals in journalism in times of increasing use of digital technology in newsrooms. Based on survey and content analysis data from 37 countries, we found a small positive relationship between the use of digital research tools and “watchdog” performance. However, a stronger and negative relationship emerged between the use of digital audience analytics and the pe…
Beyond Credibility: The Effects of Different Forms of Visual Disinformation
Deepfakes dominate discussions about manipulated videos, but other forms of visual disinformation are more prevalent and less understood. Moreover, deception is often assessed through measuring credibility, overlooking cognitive effects like misperceptions and attitude changes. To address these gaps, an online experiment ( N = 802) examined visual disinformation’s effects on credibility, misperceptions, and perceptions of a politician. The study …
Solutions that Move Us? The Role of Responsibility Framing in Audience Reactions to Sustainability Stories
Research on the effectiveness of solutions journalism in influencing self-efficacy, responsibility perception, and behavioral intentions has produced mixed results. While emotional responses to solutions are generally strong, there is no clear evidence that solutions effectively motivate audiences. This study aims to explore whether solutions are effective in sustainability communication and whether the attribution of responsibility—whether to in…
The Limits of Computational Propaganda: Investigating Underexplored Platforms and Contexts
Trick of the traits: A conceptual replication of the trait ownership hypothesis
The theory of trait ownership argues that parties can ‘own’ character traits related to their ideological stances and that successfully trespassing onto the trait territory of competing parties yields the most electoral gain. An abundance of observational studies provides strong empirical support for the trait ownership theory in the context of the US. This study provides a conceptual replication, testing the theory’s universality by studying tra…
Cutting through the Hype: Understanding the Implications of Deepfakes for the Fact-Checking Actor-Network
During recent years, growing concerns about emergent formats of visual disinformation and, in particular, deepfakes have shaped public debates and media scholarship. Empirical studies about deepfakes have most often focused on investigating their potential effects on news audiences. However, very little is known about how they impact producers of mediated communication and what strategies are taken to mitigate this potential threat. Based on in-d…
Uncovering the audience perspective: A qualitative analysis of experiences and evaluations of two immersive journalism productions in the Netherlands
There has been limited adoption of Immersive Journalism (IJ) by the audience; simultaneously, the audience’s perspective is rarely considered in the production and research of IJ. At this point, however, it is crucial to incorporate an audience perspective to identify potentially unintended effects of IJ and improve on the innovation of IJ. This study investigates the audience’s experience and evaluation of IJ by qualitatively analyzing their tho…
Don’t Throw the Frame Out With the Bathwater: How Episodic News Frames Can Prevent Identity-Motivated Reasoning
Framing research has predominantly revealed detrimental effects of episodic news frames, including individualist blame attributions and political cynicism. However, such frames may also discourage group biases and impede motivated reasoning regarding identity politics. In two experiments ( N = 815; N = 1,019), we test the effect of episodic frames on group-consonant attitudes through identity-motivated reasoning. The two studies produce mixed res…
Comparing Journalistic Role Performance Across Thematic Beats: A 37-Country Study
Studies suggest that, at the routine level, news beats function as unique “micro-cultures.” Exploring this “particularist” approach in news content, we compare how the interventionist, watchdog, loyal, service, infotainment, and civic roles materialize across 11 thematic news beats and analyze the moderating effect of platforms, ownership, and levels of political freedom on journalistic role performance in hard and soft news. Based on the second …
A Matter of Perspective: An Experimental Study on Potentials of Constructive Journalism for Communicating a Crisis
Restorative narratives describe a new form of journalism that attempts to overcome the detrimental effects of the more prevalent negative and destructive tone of news coverage. This study investigates the potentials and risks of restorative narratives in the coverage of crises with a 2 (restorative/negative) × 2 (COVID-19/climate crisis) experimental online study ( n = 829) for emotional, cognitive, evaluative, and behavioral outcomes. For both c…
Informing Immersed Citizens: The Impact of Interactivity on Comprehending News in Immersive Journalism
Immersive journalism has emerged as an innovative journalistic approach promising enhanced attention and understanding through interactive, virtual environments. Previously, this was mostly tested through factual knowledge. However, evaluating immersive audio-visual modalities solely along factual knowledge falls short of considering, firstly, what about and how an immersive experience is remembered and, secondly, the importance of considering th…
Are Certain Types of Microtargeting More Acceptable? Comparing US, German, and Dutch Citizens’ Attitudes
Much of the research on political microtargeting has focused on growing public concerns about its use in elections, fuelling calls for greater regulation or even a ban on the practice. We contend that a more nuanced understanding of public attitudes toward microtargeting is required before further regulation is considered. Drawing on advertising psychology research and the results of academic analyses into microtargeting, we argue that individual…
On or off topic? Understanding the effects of issue-related political targeted ads
Whilst data-driven strategies are allegedly prevalent in political campaigns, evidence regarding their actual effectiveness is scarce. This study investigates, from an individual perspective, the effect of issue congruency in political ads on immediate responses and voting behaviors. To reach our goal, we combined different types of data collection: mobile experience sampling method (mESM), panel survey, and content analysis. The combined approac…
I Do Not (Want To) Know! The Relationship Between Intentional News Avoidance and Low News Consumption
News avoidance is associated with misperceptions and lower political knowledge and participation. Synthetizing the research results in differentiating between intentional news avoidance, a conscious choice, and news avoidance as low news consumption. Although these two types seem to be driven by different factors and have distinct consequences, the current research has predominantly ignored to consider this distinction and the dimensions' interpl…
Understanding Digital Campaign Competence: Conceptualizing Data-Driven Political Advertising Literacy
Technological advancements create new ways of informing and persuading citizens in the political advertising context. Insights are limited regarding how citizens deal with data-driven political advertising (DDPA). This is problematic because the collection and combination of large amounts of data render them vulnerable to information and power asymmetries. Using multidisciplinary perspectives, this article discusses the digital campaign competenc…
Zooming in on Topics: An Investigation of the Prevalence and Motives for Selective News Avoidance
Intentional news avoidance is a common behavior that can be influenced by individual, content, and contextual factors.However, prior studies have primarily focused on general news avoidance and neglected selective avoidance of specific topics.Therefore, our study aimed to determine which topics people tend to avoid and the reasons behind this behavior.We conducted an online survey (N = 1071) with open-ended questions to gather information on topi…
Citizens’ Acceptance of Data-Driven Political Campaigning: A 25-Country Cross-National Vignette Study
This paper investigates how the acceptance of data-driven political campaigning depends on four different message characteristics. A vignette study was conducted in 25 countries with a total of 14,390 respondents who all evaluated multiple descriptions of political advertisements. Relying on multi-level models, we find that in particular the source and the issue of the message matters. Messages that are sent by a party the respondent likes and de…
Fake news as a two-dimensional phenomenon: A Framework and Research Agenda
Based on an extensive literature review, we suggest that 'fake news' alludes to two dimensions of political communication: the fake news genre (i.e. the deliberate creation of pseudojournalistic disinformation) and the fake news label (i.e. the instrumentalization of the term to delegitimize news media). While public worries about the use of the label by politicians are increasing, scholarly interest is heavily focused on the genre aspect of fake…
Issue Importance as a Moderator of Framing Effects
A growing amount of research is devoted to the question of which individual and contextual variables enhance, limit, or obliterate news framing effects. However, the fundamental question whether framing effects vary depending on the issue at stake has not been addressed. Based on two experimental studies (total N = 1,821), this article investigates the extent to which framing effects differ in magnitude as well as process, depending on how import…
Getting Real: The Duration of Framing Effects
A growing number of studies test the effects of news framing on citizens' understanding of politics. By employing experimental designs, these studies report significant effects for a multitude of issues and frames. However, what happens to the framing effect after initial exposure? Based on a “classic” framing experiment ( n = 625 ), this article traces framing effects across a number of delayed time points: after 1 day, 1 week, and 2 weeks. Our …
Manufacturing Conflict? How Journalists Intervene in the Conflict Frame Building Process
A considerable amount of research is devoted to the presence and effects of conflict frames in the news. However, it is unknown if journalists actively manufacture and inflate conflict in their coverage of politics, or if they merely respond to contentious politics as it happens. This study focuses on the extent to which journalists take an interventionist stance in the conflict frame building process. We conducted expert interviews ( N = 16) amo…
Is Context the Key? The (Non-)Differential Effects of Mediated Incivility in Three European Countries
There is a worry that serious forms of political conflict, in particular, uncivil behavior of politicians, increases political cynicism and demobilizes the public. Despite the close relation of incivility with social and cultural norms of what is an acceptable form of discussion, studies are mostly restricted to one country. To overcome this blind spot, we conduct a cross-national experiment in three countries (the Netherlands, UK and Spain) test…
Learning From News on Different Media Platforms: An Eye-Tracking Experiment
A large number of studies focus on the effects of news consumption on learning. However, we know surprisingly little about how the process of news consumption itself influences learning across different platforms. This experimental study (N = 149) uses eye tracking to examine to what extent news modality (i.e., whether news is presented in a printed newspaper or on a news website) affects visual attention to news, and subsequently, knowledge. Res…
Towards A Typology of Conflict Frames: Substantiveness and interventionism in political conflict news
Conflict-framing literature has suffered from a lack of consistent conceptualization and consequently the aim of this paper is to unravel the dimensionality of conflict frames. We conducted a content analysis (N = 1536) to develop a typology of conflict news coverage. Using factor analysis, different aspects of conflict news are distinguished with level of substantiveness and interventionism as the main dimensions. Furthermore, the study focuses …
Delegitimizing the media: Analyzing politicians’ media criticism on social media
A growing literature on the impact of “fake news“ accusations on legacy news outlets suggests that the use of this term is part of a much larger trend of increased and delegitimizing media criticism by political actors. However, so far, there is very little empirical evidence on how prevailing politicians’ delegitimizing media criticism really is and under which conditions it occurs. To fill these gaps, we present results of a content analysis of…
From Novelty to Normalization? How Journalists Use the Term “Fake News” in their Reporting
During recent years, worries about fake news have been a salient aspect of mediated debates. However, the ubiquitous and fuzzy usage of the term in news reporting has led more and more scholars and other public actors to call for its abandonment in public discourse altogether. Given this status as a controversial but arguably effective buzzword in news coverage, we know surprisingly little about exactly how journalists use the term in their repor…
Fleeting, Fading, or Far-Reaching? A Knowledge-Based Model of the Persistence of Framing Effects: Persistence of Framing Effects
The social relevance of framing effects hinges upon their ability to persist. This article develops a theoretical account of the conditions under which framing effects should vanish quickly, fade slowly, or cause permanent changes. It argues that the cognitive processes involved in mediating frame effect need to leave durable traces in a person's knowledge to raise a persistent effect. This paper distinguishes temporary changes in the accessibili…
The Emotional Turn in Journalism Needs to be About Audience Perceptions: Commentary - Virtual Special Issue on the Emotional Turn
The emotional turn in journalism studies is fueled by new forms of emotion-driven journalistic work, such as immersive journalism and constructive journalism. However, because these innovations are developed to ultimately re-connect journalists with disenfranchised and fragmented audiences, they highlight the need for a more thorough study of audience perceptions in our field
The Effects of Repetitive News Framing on Political Opinions over Time
This study tests how repeated exposure to the same news frame influences political opinions over time. In a survey experiment (N = 296), we repeatedly exposed participants to the same news frame (at the start of the study, after one day, one week, and two weeks) and measured effects on opinions (at the start, after two weeks, and after six weeks). Participants in a control group were exposed only once and the effect was also traced over time. Res…
Motivated Reasoning in Identity Politics: Group Status as a Moderator of Political Motivations
Western democracies are increasingly defined by identity politics, where politics appeals to both political and other social identities. Consequently, political information processing should depend not just on political identity, but also on other identities, such as gender, race, or sexuality. For any given issue, we argue that the extent to which reasoning is motivated by one’s political identity depends on citizens’ group status in other relev…
It's the frame that matters: Immigrant integration and media framing effects in the Netherlands
Framing Serbia: The effects of news framing on public support for EU enlargement
One of the most important activities of the European Union (EU) has been widening the Union, that is, enlargement. Tapping to what extent and why EU citizens support future enlargement rounds has become a popular endeavour among researchers and EU officials. During recent years, a number of studies have indicated that public support for EU integration is likely to also depend on how the national news media portray the EU. Based on an experimental…
EU membership and the press: An analysis of the Brussels correspondents from the new member states
In light of the 2004 and 2007 enlargement of the European Union with 12 new member states we need to reconsider what we know about the Brussels press corps. Brussels journalists play a pivotal role in the European integration process. They act as agents of Europeanization, wedged between complex European issues and national public spheres, privileged in terms of information supply, geographical proximity and social networking. This study is one o…
Visual disinformation in a digital age: A literature synthesis and research agenda
While a fast-growing body of research is concerned with the detrimental consequences of disinformation for democracy, the role of visuals in this context has so far only been discussed superficially. Visuals are expected to amplify the impact of disinformation, but it is rarely specified how, and what exactly distinguishes them from text. This article is one of the first to treat visual disinformation as its own type of falsehood, arguing that it…
Information Flow and Communication Deficit: Perceptions of Brussels-Based Correspondents and EU Officials
This study contributes to the debate on the European Union (EU) ‘communication deficit’ by assessing EU-media relations. Previous literature has examined the way EU institutions interface with journalists, but tells us little about potential differences between these institutions’ communication performance. Moreover, research tends to address the main actors of this process, Brussels-based correspondents and EU officials, separately. Drawing on i…
Journalistic Role Performance in Times of Covid
This paper examines journalistic role performance in coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on a content analysis of newspaper, television, radio and online news in 37 countries. We test a set of hypotheses derived from two perspectives on the role of journalism in health crises. Mediatization theories assume that news media tend to sensationalize or to politicize health crises. A contrasting perspective holds that journalists shift toward more…
Does News Platform Matter? Comparing Online Journalistic Role Performance to Newspaper, Radio, and Television
The shifting role of journalism in a digital age has affected long-standing journalistic norms across media platforms. This has reinvigorated discussion on how work in online newsrooms compares to other platforms that differ in media affordances and forms. Still, more studies are needed on whether those differences translate into distinct practices, especially when examining cross-national studies. Based on the second wave of the Journalistic Rol…
Invisible Friend or Foe?How Journalists Use and Perceive Algorithmic-Driven Tools in Their Research Process
The use of algorithmic tools by journalists for information-gathering has received particular attention in recent years. While it might facilitate the research process, there are also concerns about their impact on journalism. Based on reconstruction interviews with 27 journalists, we first answer the primary question to what extent journalists actually use algorithmic-driven tools for research purposes. Then, we analyze which folk theories journ…
A first-person promise? A content-analysis of immersive journalistic productions
Major news outlets increasingly use immersive techniques in their journalistic productions. The idea is that, through the application of immersive technologies, the news consumer can engage with and be part of the story. However, we do not know, to what extent this promise is actually fulfilled in productions currently accessible to news audiences. This study uses a multi-step approach to fill this knowledge gap. First, based on an interdisciplin…
News Consumer Perceptions of New Journalistic Sourcing Techniques
This study examines how news consumers evaluate the use of digital sources in the journalistic news production process. It also assesses to what extent credibility judgments depend on whether consumers learn that journalists have visibly verified the information they have obtained from a certain source. Using a scenario study, we found that scenarios picturing online sourcing techniques, such as using information from Twitter and Facebook, are pe…
Setting the Agenda for Research on Media and Migration: State-of-the-Art and Directions for Future Research
Citizens’ Acceptance of Data-Driven Political Campaigning: A 25-Country Cross-National Vignette Study
This paper investigates how the acceptance of data-driven political campaigning depends on four different message characteristics. A vignette study was conducted in 25 countries with a total of 14,390 respondents who all evaluated multiple descriptions of political advertisements. Relying on multi-level models, we find that in particular the source and the issue of the message matters. Messages that are sent by a party the respondent likes and de…
EU membership and the press: An analysis of the Brussels correspondents from the new member states
In light of the 2004 and 2007 enlargement of the European Union with 12 new member states we need to reconsider what we know about the Brussels press corps. Brussels journalists play a pivotal role in the European integration process. They act as agents of Europeanization, wedged between complex European issues and national public spheres, privileged in terms of information supply, geographical proximity and social networking. This study is one o…
Issue Importance as a Moderator of Framing Effects
A growing amount of research is devoted to the question of which individual and contextual variables enhance, limit, or obliterate news framing effects. However, the fundamental question whether framing effects vary depending on the issue at stake has not been addressed. Based on two experimental studies (total N = 1,821), this article investigates the extent to which framing effects differ in magnitude as well as process, depending on how import…
Framing Serbia: The effects of news framing on public support for EU enlargement
One of the most important activities of the European Union (EU) has been widening the Union, that is, enlargement. Tapping to what extent and why EU citizens support future enlargement rounds has become a popular endeavour among researchers and EU officials. During recent years, a number of studies have indicated that public support for EU integration is likely to also depend on how the national news media portray the EU. Based on an experimental…
Getting Real: The Duration of Framing Effects
A growing number of studies test the effects of news framing on citizens' understanding of politics. By employing experimental designs, these studies report significant effects for a multitude of issues and frames. However, what happens to the framing effect after initial exposure? Based on a “classic” framing experiment ( n = 625 ), this article traces framing effects across a number of delayed time points: after 1 day, 1 week, and 2 weeks. Our …
Information Flow and Communication Deficit: Perceptions of Brussels-Based Correspondents and EU Officials
This study contributes to the debate on the European Union (EU) ‘communication deficit’ by assessing EU-media relations. Previous literature has examined the way EU institutions interface with journalists, but tells us little about potential differences between these institutions’ communication performance. Moreover, research tends to address the main actors of this process, Brussels-based correspondents and EU officials, separately. Drawing on i…
News Framing and Public Opinion: A Mediation Analysis of Framing Effects on Political Attitudes
There is no satisfactory account of the psychological processes that mediate a news framing effect. Based on an experimental study ( N = 1,537), this article presents a mediation analysis of a news framing effect on opinion, testing for two important mediation processes: belief importance and belief content change. Results show that framing is mediated by both belief importance and belief content, with belief content being the more prominent vari…
News Framing Research: An Overview and New Developments
Fleeting, Fading, or Far-Reaching? A Knowledge-Based Model of the Persistence of Framing Effects: Persistence of Framing Effects
The social relevance of framing effects hinges upon their ability to persist. This article develops a theoretical account of the conditions under which framing effects should vanish quickly, fade slowly, or cause permanent changes. It argues that the cognitive processes involved in mediating frame effect need to leave durable traces in a person's knowledge to raise a persistent effect. This paper distinguishes temporary changes in the accessibili…
What a Difference a Day Makes? The Effects of Repetitive and Competitive News Framing Over Time
Based on a “classic” framing experiment ( N = 1,324), this study empirically mimics the dynamic nature of framing effects over time. We integrate (a) multiple frame exposures as well as (b) various tests for duration of framing effects into our study design. Our results show that exposure to repetitive frames does not systematically strengthen effects on opinion formation. However, effects can get stronger when the delay between two exposures is …
The Mediating Role of Emotions: News Framing Effects on Opinions About Immigration
Emotions play an important role in explaining why news framing has effects on opinions about immigration. Yet, our knowledge regarding which emotions are relevant for different types of news frames is limited. This survey experiment ( N = 715) determines to what extent positive and negative emotions mediate framing effects about immigration, and whether mediation depends on the type of frame at stake. We exposed participants to one of four preest…
The Effects of Repetitive News Framing on Political Opinions over Time
This study tests how repeated exposure to the same news frame influences political opinions over time. In a survey experiment (N = 296), we repeatedly exposed participants to the same news frame (at the start of the study, after one day, one week, and two weeks) and measured effects on opinions (at the start, after two weeks, and after six weeks). Participants in a control group were exposed only once and the effect was also traced over time. Res…
Manufacturing Conflict? How Journalists Intervene in the Conflict Frame Building Process
A considerable amount of research is devoted to the presence and effects of conflict frames in the news. However, it is unknown if journalists actively manufacture and inflate conflict in their coverage of politics, or if they merely respond to contentious politics as it happens. This study focuses on the extent to which journalists take an interventionist stance in the conflict frame building process. We conducted expert interviews ( N = 16) amo…
How Long Do News Framing Effects Last? A Systematic review of Longitudinal Studies
News Quality and Public Opinion: The Impact of Deliberative Quality of News Media on Citizens' Argument Repertoire
This article investigates the impact of the deliberative quality of online news items on argument repertoire. Participants in an online experiment (N = 557) read a news item that covers a local debate on underground CO2 storage. Two dimensions of deliberative quality are manipulated: justification, or the extent to which arguments in the news item are substantiated, and constructive debate climate, that is, the extent to which stakeholders are re…
It's the frame that matters: Immigrant integration and media framing effects in the Netherlands
News Consumer Perceptions of New Journalistic Sourcing Techniques
This study examines how news consumers evaluate the use of digital sources in the journalistic news production process. It also assesses to what extent credibility judgments depend on whether consumers learn that journalists have visibly verified the information they have obtained from a certain source. Using a scenario study, we found that scenarios picturing online sourcing techniques, such as using information from Twitter and Facebook, are pe…
News Media, Knowledge, and Political Interest: Evidence of a Dual Role From a Field Experiment
Political knowledge and political interest are generally positively influenced by news media exposure. Yet, at the same time, knowledge and interest are among the most important predictors of news media exposure in the first place. We conduct a field experiment (N = 393) as a test of this dual function of knowledge and interest in a realistic news media choice setting. We examine whether preexisting interest and knowledge predict which individual…
When Does an Infographic Say More Than a Thousand Words: Audience evaluations of news visualizations
In recent years, the use of visualizations or infographics in the news has become increasingly popular. We know, however, surprisingly little about how news consumers use and appreciate news visualizations. We apply a mixed-method approach to answer these two questions. First, we conduct an eye-tracking study that measures use, by means of direct attention to visualizations on three different news platforms (print newspaper, e-newspaper on tablet…
Towards A Typology of Conflict Frames: Substantiveness and interventionism in political conflict news
Conflict-framing literature has suffered from a lack of consistent conceptualization and consequently the aim of this paper is to unravel the dimensionality of conflict frames. We conducted a content analysis (N = 1536) to develop a typology of conflict news coverage. Using factor analysis, different aspects of conflict news are distinguished with level of substantiveness and interventionism as the main dimensions. Furthermore, the study focuses …
News Framing Effects
News Framing Effects is a guide to framing effects theory, one of the most prominent theories in media and communication science. Rooted in both psychology and sociology, framing effects theory describes the ability of news media to influence people’s attitudes and behaviors by subtle changes to how they report on an issue. The book gives expert commentary on this complex theoretical notion alongside practical instruction on how to apply it to re…
Down the Rabbit Hole
The FrameWorks Institute has been applying framing theory to conduct applied empirical communications research for nearly two decades. During this time, we have worked with scientists, advocates, and practitioners to reframe public discourse on a range of social issues, including race and racism, climate change, criminal justice, addiction, immigration, early childhood development, education, and environmental health. In this chapter, we show how…
Refugees, Media, and Public Opinion: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives
The complex interplays between processes of migration and refuge seeking, public perceptions of migrant religion and religious practices, and political radicalization toward the far right have take
Learning From News on Different Media Platforms: An Eye-Tracking Experiment
A large number of studies focus on the effects of news consumption on learning. However, we know surprisingly little about how the process of news consumption itself influences learning across different platforms. This experimental study (N = 149) uses eye tracking to examine to what extent news modality (i.e., whether news is presented in a printed newspaper or on a news website) affects visual attention to news, and subsequently, knowledge. Res…
Setting the Agenda for Research on Media and Migration: State-of-the-Art and Directions for Future Research
On Different Sides: Investigating the Persuasive Effects of Anger Expression in Political News Messages
Anger expression is increasingly prevalent in political news messages. However, the persuasive effects of expressing anger in a political context have received scant attention from researchers. We conducted two experiments to investigate the hypothesis that anger expression is detrimental to persuasion because it runs counter to well‐established social norms for the polite expression of opinions. We created political news messages including a per…
Political science (57 works) · Psychology (46 works) · Social Media and Politics (42 works) · Sociology (42 works) · Computer Science (32 works) · Media Studies and Communication (32 works) · Politics (30 works) · Social Psychology (29 works) · Law (27 works) · Social Psychology (26 works)