Titel: | News Consumption and Its Unpleasant Side Effect : Studying the Effect of Hard and Soft News Exposure on Mental Well-Being Over Time; Studying the Effect of Hard and Soft News Exposure on Mental Well-Being Over Time |
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Beteiligte: | , |
In: | Journal of Media Psychology, 29, 2017, 3, S. 137-147 |
veröffentlicht: |
Hogrefe Publishing Group
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Medientyp: | Artikel, E-Artikel |
Umfang: | 137-147 |
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ISSN: |
1864-1105
2151-2388 |
DOI: | 10.1027/1864-1105/a000224 |
veröffentlicht in: | Journal of Media Psychology |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Schlagwörter: | |
Kollektion: | Hogrefe Publishing Group (CrossRef) |
<jats:p> Abstract. Following the news is generally understood to be crucial for democracy as it allows citizens to politically participate in an informed manner; yet, one may wonder about the unintended side effects it has for the mental well-being of citizens. With news focusing on the negative and worrisome events in the world, framing that evokes a sense of powerlessness, and lack of entertainment value, this study hypothesizes that news consumption decreases mental well-being via negative hedonic experiences; thereby, we differentiate between hard and soft news. Using a panel survey in combination with latent growth curve modeling (n = 2,767), we demonstrate that the consumption of hard news television programs has a negative effect on the development of mental well-being over time. Soft news consumption, by contrast, has a marginally positive impact on the trend in well-being. This can be explained by the differential topic focus, framing and style of soft news vis-à-vis hard news. Investigating the effects of news consumption on mental well-being provides insight into the impact news exposure has on variables other than the political ones, which definitively are not less societally relevant. </jats:p> |