Is Facebook eroding the public agenda? Evidence from survey and web-tracking data

Preserving a common public agenda positively affects social integration, minimizing social cleavages and polarization. Although social media are known for fragmenting the media environment, research has not devoted much attention to their effect on the public agenda. This article addresses whether c...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Cardenal, Ana Sofía, Galais, Caril, Majó-Vázquez, Sílvia
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Recursos:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/59648
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/59648
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edy025
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Public agenda
Agenda-setting
Social media
Facebook
Public opinion
Descrição
Resumo:Preserving a common public agenda positively affects social integration, minimizing social cleavages and polarization. Although social media are known for fragmenting the media environment, research has not devoted much attention to their effect on the public agenda. This article addresses whether consuming news through Facebook shapes individual agendas that diverge from the set of most important problems (MIPs) as perceived by the general public. Our research design combines survey and Web-tracking data to analyze how Facebook-referred news consumption influences individual consumers’ agendas. We find that when Facebook is a relevant news referral, people are less likely to mention the top MIPs for a representative sample of the Spanish population. We discuss the implications of our findings for the public agenda.