Social Media, News Consumption, and Polarization: Evidence from a Field Experiment
@article{Levy2020SocialMN, title={Social Media, News Consumption, and Polarization: Evidence from a Field Experiment}, author={Ro’ee Levy}, journal={Mass Communication eJournal}, year={2020} }
Does the consumption of ideologically congruent news on social media exacerbate polarization? I estimate the effects of social media news exposure by conducting a large field experiment randomly offering participants subscriptions to conservative or liberal news outlets on Facebook. I collect data on the causal chain of media effects: subscriptions to outlets, exposure to news on Facebook, visits to online news sites, and sharing of posts, as well as changes in political opinions and attitudes…
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