Article-Level Slant and Polarization of News Consumption on Social Media

63 Pages Posted: 19 Sep 2024

See all articles by Luca Braghieri

Luca Braghieri

Bocconi University - Department of Decision Sciences

Sarah Eichmeyer

Bocconi University

Ro'ee Levy

Tel Aviv University - Eitan Berglas School of Economics

Markus M. Mobius

Microsoft Corporation - Microsoft Research New England; University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - School of Information; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Jacob Steinhardt

University of California, Berkeley

Ruiqi Zhong

University of California, Berkeley

Date Written: August 21, 2024

Abstract

There is widespread concern that the online news ecosystem produces highly polarized content and that extreme content gets further amplified through social media distribution channels. Methodological limitations in estimating content-based slant at the article level have made evaluating these claims difficult. We use data on the near universe (∼ 1 million) of hard news articles published online by the top 100 U.S. news outlets in 2019, in combination with recent advances in natural language processing, to obtain a measure of content-based slant at the article level. We report five main findings. First, the majority (65%) of the variance in slant across articles arises within outlets, rather than across outlets. Second, most news produced is centrist, but the tails of the slant distribution are thick. Third, using article-level engagement data from the universe of U.S. Facebook users, we find that extreme content is much more likely to be shared widely on Facebook than moderate content. Fourth, consistent with concerns over echo chambers, left-and right-leaning users get exposed to and consume highly congenial news articles on Facebook, often from the same outlet. Fifth, polarization in news consumption, defined as the scaled difference between the average slant consumed by liberals and by conservatives, is higher than previously thought, because most existing measures do not take into account the fact that partisans consume pro-attitudinal news even within outlets.

Suggested Citation

Braghieri, Luca and Eichmeyer, Sarah and Levy, Ro'ee and Mobius, Markus M. and Mobius, Markus M. and Steinhardt, Jacob and Zhong, Ruiqi, Article-Level Slant and Polarization of News Consumption on Social Media (August 21, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4932600 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4932600

Luca Braghieri

Bocconi University - Department of Decision Sciences ( email )

Via Roentgen 1
Milan, 20136
Italy

Sarah Eichmeyer

Bocconi University ( email )

Via Sarfatti, 25
Milan, 20136
Italy

Ro'ee Levy (Contact Author)

Tel Aviv University - Eitan Berglas School of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 39040
Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, 69978
Israel

Markus M. Mobius

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - School of Information ( email )

304 West Hall
550 East University
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1092
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.markusmobius.org

Microsoft Corporation - Microsoft Research New England ( email )

One Memorial Drive, 12th Floor
Office 12062
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.markusmobius.org

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.markusmobius.org

Jacob Steinhardt

University of California, Berkeley ( email )

Ruiqi Zhong

University of California, Berkeley ( email )

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
72
Abstract Views
156
Rank
646,565
PlumX Metrics