Causes and consequences of public opinion perceptions in times of social media

社交媒体时代舆论认知的原因和后果

• 批准号: 396521619
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Thomas Zerback
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2016-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/396521619?language=en
• 关键词: Causes; consequences; public; opinion; perceptions

Humans are social beings and as such, their thoughts and behaviors are influenced by their perceptions of what other people think and do. An important part of this picture of social reality are perceptions of public opinion that are defined as subjective assessments of opinion distributions in society (e.g., majorities or minorities regarding specific issues). The ways by which people form a picture of public opinion have considerably developed during the last decades, particularly with the rise of the internet and the web 2.0. The extension of potentially visible opinions (in the media and the personal social surrounding) along with an increased importance of personal and algorithmic selection of media content has raised new questions, but has also stimulated criticism. Buzzwords like echo chamber and filter bubble describe the dangers emanating from homogenous opinion environments, where the individual is barely confronted with disagreement. Despite their social relevance, not much is known about the phenomenology of individual opinion environments, the diversity of opinions within them, and the effects emanating from them. Only a simultaneous examination of all possible sources of public opinion perceptions can draw a complete picture of how individual opinion environments look like, which part of them is actually homogenous, and which effects they have on public opinion perception, attitudes, and behavior. Answering that question is the central goal of the project.

人类是社会性的生物，因此，他们的思想和行为受到他们对其他人的想法和行为的看法的影响。这幅社会现实图景的一个重要部分是对公众舆论的看法，这些看法被定义为对社会中舆论分布的主观评估（例如，少数民族或少数民族在具体问题上的意见）。在过去的几十年里，人们形成公众舆论的方式有了很大的发展，特别是随着互联网和Web 2.0的兴起。潜在可见的观点（在媒体和个人社交环境中）的延伸沿着媒体内容的个人和算法选择的重要性增加，提出了新的问题，但也引发了批评。像回音室和过滤气泡这样的流行语描述了来自同质意见环境的危险，在这种环境中，个人几乎没有遇到分歧。尽管它们具有社会相关性，但人们对个人意见环境的现象学、其中意见的多样性以及由此产生的影响知之甚少。只有同时考察所有可能的舆论感知来源，才能完整地了解个体舆论环境是什么样的，其中哪一部分实际上是同质的，以及它们对舆论感知、态度和行为的影响。解决这个问题是该项目的中心目标。