ABSTRACT

This study examines the causal effects of social media use on political knowledge as well as the underlying mechanisms through which such an effect occurs. The findings suggest that social media use hinders rather than enhances an individual’s learning about politics, because social media use fosters the perception that one no longer needs to actively seek news in order to stay informed (i.e., news-finds-me perception), and this in turn may have an adverse effect on an individual’s learning about politics. However, those who use traditional forms of media to a substantial degree to complement their news consumption via social media are less negatively affected than those who do not.

摘要

这项研究研究了社交媒体使用对政治知识的因果关系，以及这种影响发生的潜在机制。研究结果表明，社交媒体的使用会阻碍而不是增强个人对政治的了解，因为社交媒体的使用会培养一种观念，即人们不再需要主动寻求新闻来保持知情（即“新闻发现我”的感知），并且这反过来可能会对个人的政治学习产生不利影响。但是，那些使用传统形式的媒体来补充通过社交媒体进行的新闻消费的人受到的负面影响要小于不使用传统形式的人。