3. * 5,000,000,000
* 850,000
* 1000
* 75%
Facebook
Users
Members
in
“1
Million
Strong
for
Obama”
FB
pages
about
2008
Presidential
Election
Voters
younger
than
30
get
half
of
their
political
info
from
the
Internet
4. Facebook
is
used
for:
* Political
disclosure
* Political
discussion
(inflammatory
conversation)
* Political
entertainment
5.
6. * The
overall
image
(positive/negative)
of
Obama
&
McCain
across
user-‐generated
Facebook
groups
* How
the
prevalence
of
profane,
age-‐,
religious-‐,
and
race-‐
related
references
varied
by
candidate
Focus
of
the
research
8. * RQ1:
How
do
groups
focused
on
McCain
vs.
Obama
differ
in
terms
of
group
membership
and
group
activity?
* RQ2:
How
do
groups
focused
on
McCain
vs.
Obama
differ
in
terms
of
frequency
of
positive
&
negative
references
to
candidates,
the
use
of
profanity,
and
references
to
race,
religion
and
age?
* RQ3:
Do
references
to
McCain
vs.
Obama
differ
in
terms
of
positive
&
negative
comments,
and
positive
&
negative
references
to
race,
religion,
and
age?
Research
Questions
9. Coded
Content
Categories:
* Thumbnail
picture
* Group
description
* Group
name
* Number
of
group
member
* Total
posted
items
* Present
of
profanity,
racial,
religious,
and
age-‐related
language
Content
Analysis
Valence:
Positive
vs.
negative
12. * Obama
had
more
positive
support
than
McCain
with
Facebook
groups
* McCain
Group
were
overwhelmingly
negative
Significant
findings
13. Why???
* Younger
demographics
of
people
more
heavily
supported
Obama
* The
success
of
Obama’s
attempt
to
run
a
“positive”
campaign
* Indication
of
some
frequency
of
“anti-‐McCain”
Facebook
groups
* It’s
reflective
of
the
tone
and
temperament
of
McCain
supports
(Republican’s
third-‐person
&
hostile
media
perception)
14. Although
social
media
provide
individuals
a
platform
to
express
their
beliefs,
these
expressions
are
often
partisan
and
polarizing.
Conclusion
17. * Read
a
newspaper
that
endorsed
Bush
* Listen
to
conservative
talk
radio
* Watch
Fox
News
* Use
conservative
political
Internet
sites
Let’s
talk
about
stereotype
18. Selective
Exposure:
Desire
for
opinion
reinforcement
>
aversion
to
opinion
challenge
Why?
Cognitive
Dissonance
theory:
People
experience
positive
feelings
when
presented
with
information
that
confirms
that
their
decision
is
correct
19. How
the
various
opinions
included
in
a
news
story
influence
people’s
use
of
it?
Research
Question
20. Recruit
subjects
from
two
online
news
services:
AlterNet
vs.
WorldNetDaily
-‐Left
-‐Right
-‐358
readers
-‐369
readers
-‐More
female
-‐More
male
-‐More
educated
-‐Less
educated
-‐Lower
income
-‐Higher
income
-‐More
Democrats
-‐More
Republicans
Subject
Recruitment
21. 1)Indicate
personal
interest
&
familiarity
* Gay
marriage
* Social
security
reform
* Civil
liberties
2)
Read
article
description
&
Indicate
interesting
articles
3)
Read
automatically
assigned
articles
Administration
Process
22. Independent
Variables:
* Prospective
perception
* Retrospective
perceptions
Dependent
Variables:
* Interested
or
not
interested?
* Read
time
Measurement
23. H1:
The
more
opinion-‐reinforcing
information
an
individual
expects
a
news
story
to
contain,
the
more
likely
he/she
is
to
look
at
it.
Hypotheses
and
results
24. H3:
The
more
opinion-‐challenging
information
the
reader
expects
a
news
story
to
contain,
the
less
likely
he
or
she
is
to
look
at
it.
Hypotheses
and
results
Likelihood
of
story
selection
H3a:
opinion
reinforcement
has
a
larger
influence
on
selection
than
opinion
challenge
25. H2:
The
more
opinion-‐reinforcing
information
a
new
story
contains,
the
more
time
an
individual
will
spend
viewing
it.
Hypotheses
and
results
26. H4:
The
more
opinion-‐challenging
information
a
new
story
contains,
the
more
time
the
individual
will
spend
viewing
it.
Hypotheses
and
results
27. * People
don’t
seek
to
completely
exclude
other
political
perspectives
* Internet
does
NOT
create
echo
chambers
Conclusion
28. * How
do
people
choose
which
sources
of
opinion-‐
challenging
information
to
use?
Discussion
question
