Media Salience Shifts and the Public’s Perceptions About Reality: How Fluctuations in News Media Attention Influence the Strength of Citizens’ Sociotropic Beliefs

• This article examines whether shifts in news media attention to societal issues matter for how strong beliefs citizens have about those issues. Based on an issue signal approach, in which media salience is conceptualized as signal strength, the study analyzes whether sociotropic beliefs become more prevalent, extreme, and certain when news media salience rises, and less prevalent, extreme, and certain when media salience drops. Using a four-wave panel survey dataset collected over a two-year period, the empirical analysis links media content analyses of issue salience to panel survey data, comparing four issues with different levels of baseline salience and political controversy: violent crimes, immigration, climate change, and antibiotic resistance. The analysis shows that issue-specific news media exposure and issue-specific use of alternative media offer two different pathways to the formation of beliefs. The hypothesized relationship with news media salience was supported for the two controversial issues with high baseline salience (immigration and violent crimes), but not for climate change and antibiotic resistance. The results indicate that issue attributes matter and that audiences may respond differently to salience shifts depending on the level of controversy of the issue.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Media effects

Issue Attention Cycles

Cultivation

Agenda-Setting

Sociotropic Beliefs

Attitude Strength

Media Salience

News Media

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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