Essays on Incidental News Consumption on Social Media Platforms

学术文献早就确定，个人根据来自两种渠道的信息形成观点：他们的家庭、朋友和熟人网络，以及报纸或电视等外部媒体来源。随着21世纪社交媒体平台的兴起，这两种信息渠道之间的界限变得模糊。以前，个人使用社交媒体进行交流、消费用户生成的内容和娱乐，而现在，这些社交媒体平台也成为许多人的新闻来源。然而，大多数人并不积极使用社交媒体来获取新闻。事实上，社交媒体平台上的新闻消费主要是个人出于其他目的在社交媒体上花费时间的副产品（Fletcher and Nielsen, 2018; Boczkowski et al., 2017）。然而，直到最近，学者们才开始分析社交媒体平台上这种偶然的新闻消费与政治参与等结果之间的具体联系。我的研究试图引出个人在多大程度上批判性地参与出现在他们的社交媒体feed上的新闻，以及偶然新闻消费促进民主参与的潜力。研究个人在社交媒体上消费新闻的方式，对于理解知识演变和社会两极分化的影响至关重要。一方面，可以想象，偶然接触社交媒体平台上的新闻可以通过增加整体新闻消费和扩大参与社会问题和建立知情意见的个人范围来加强民主社会。然而，这种认为更多的新闻消费总是有利于民主社会的观点并没有考虑到偶然新闻相对于其他新闻来源的质量。同样可以想象的是，个人仅仅是由于社会压力而采纳朋友的意见，这可能导致回音室和两极分化的出现，并减少社会意见的多样性。

It has long been established in the academic literature that individuals form opinions based on information from two types of channels: their network of family, friends and acquaintances as well as external media sources such as newspapers or television. With the rise of social media platforms in the 21st century, the boundaries between these two types of information channels have become blurred. While, previously, individuals used social media to communicate, consume user-generated content and entertain themselves, these social media platforms now also serve as a source of news for many.However, the majority of individuals do not actively use social media to obtain news. In fact, news consumption on social media platforms is mostly a by-product of individuals spending time on social media for other purposes (Fletcher and Nielsen, 2018; Boczkowski et al., 2017). Yet only recently have scholars begun to analyse the specific link between this incidental news consumption on social media platforms and outcomes such as political participation.My research seeks to elicit the extent to which individuals critically engage with the news appearing on their social media feeds and the potential of incidental news consumption to foster democratic participation. Examining the manner in which individuals consume news on social media is crucial to understand the implications for the evolution of knowledge and polarisation in society. On the one hand, it is conceivable that incidental exposure to news on social mediaplatforms can strengthen democratic societies by increasing news consumption overall and widening the spectrum of individuals that engage with societal issues and establish informed opinions. However, this view that more news consumption is invariably beneficial for democratic societies does not consider the quality of incidental news relative to other news sources. It is equally conceivable that individuals merely adopt their friends opinions as a result of social pressure, which could lead to the emergence of echo chambers and polarisation as well as reduce diversity of opinion in society.