Abstract

Social media (SM) are often regarded drivers of personalized echo chambers in which only ideas resonante that individuals already hold, leading to more extreme opinions and intensified opinion expression. However, recent theorizing and evidence has cast doubts on the universal applicability of the echo chamber metaphor, pointing out that communication effects on opinion expression are much more complex than the metaphor suggests. Using the refugee crisis in Germany as a background, the current study challenges four implicit premises of the echo chamber metaphor empirically. The findings show a more complex picture than the metaphor implies: (1) Ignoring other information sources beyond SM may lead to severe misinterpretations; seeming evidence for echo chambers disappears after controlling for news media use. (2) SM reliance does not generally stimulate opinion expression. (3) Attitude extremity moderates the effect of SM reliance, suggesting that people with more extreme views are susceptible to echo chamber effects. (4) Attitude position on the issue-at-hand moderates the effect of SM reliance, which suggests that echo chambers do not completely shield their users from the public discourse. We propose the Echo Chamber Continuum (ECCo) Model to stimulate developing the echo chamber metaphor into a theory suitable for studying opinion formation.

摘要

社交媒体（SM）通常被认为是个性化回声室的驱动力，在回声室中，只有个人已经持有的想法就会产生共鸣，从而导致更多的极端观点和强烈的观点表达。但是，最近的理论和证据使人们对回声腔隐喻的普遍适用性产生了怀疑，指出对观点表达的交流影响比隐喻所暗示的复杂得多。以德国的难民危机为背景，当前的研究从经验上挑战了回声室隐喻的四个隐含前提。研究结果显示出比隐喻所暗示的更为复杂的图景：（1）忽略SM以外的其他信息源可能会导致严重的误解；控制新闻媒体使用后，回声室的表面证据消失了。（2）SM依赖通常不会激发意见表达。（3）态度四肢减轻了SM依赖的影响，表明视力较极端的人容易受到回声室的影响。（4）在当前问题上的态度立场减轻了SM依赖的影响，这表明回声室不能完全使用户免受公共话语的影响。我们提出了“回声室连续体”（ECCo）模型，以促进将回声室隐喻发展为适合于研究意见形成的理论。这表明回声室不能完全使用户免受公众话语的影响。我们提出了“回声室连续体”（ECCo）模型，以促进将回声室隐喻发展为适合于研究意见形成的理论。这表明回声室不能完全使用户免受公众话语的影响。我们提出了“回声室连续体”（ECCo）模型，以促进将回声室隐喻发展为适合于研究意见形成的理论。