"In Conversation" Series
Lecturer:
Dr. Hannah Trachtman (Hebrew University)
Title:
Demand for Online News, Inertia, and Misperceptions
Abstract:
There is growing concern that individuals consume low-quality and highly polarized news, especially on social media. In this project, we aim to show: i) that news consumption on social media is at least in part driven by inertia and misperceptions; ii) that, as a consequence, simple and low-cost interventions asking people to make active news-consumption choices and providing information can lead to more-balanced and higher-quality news diets. We run a large survey experiment in which we randomly offer participants an opportunity to reoptimize their news portfolio by following or unfollowing news outlets on Facebook. We also randomly provide participants with information about the slant and/or quality of the outlets they follow. We find that individuals suffer from misperceptions regarding the quality of outlets, and that correcting these misperceptions increases the quality of the outlets they choose to follow. We find little evidence of misperceptions regarding the slant of news consumed. However, simply prompting individuals to make active choices about the pages they like leads to more moderate portfolios. (Joint work with Ro'ee Levy and Luca Braghieri.)
Location:
Eilan Hall, Feldman Building, Second Floor, Edmond Safra Campus.