Bias wanted! Examining people’s information exposure, quality expectations and bias perceptions in t...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
Beteiligte: Arlt, Dorothee, Wolling, Jens
In: Communications, 43, 2018, 1, S. 75-99
veröffentlicht:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Medientyp: Artikel, E-Artikel

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Umfang: 75-99
ISSN: 1613-4087
0341-2059
DOI: 10.1515/commun-2017-0045
veröffentlicht in: Communications
Sprache: Unbestimmt
Schlagwörter:
Kollektion: Walter de Gruyter GmbH (CrossRef)
Inhaltsangabe

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The growing number of refugees entering Europe since 2015 has quickly ignited a heated public debate on refugees in Germany. Against the backdrop of the media’s information and opinion-forming function, this paper examines the importance of mainstream and social media among different segments of the German population. Applying cluster analysis to survey data (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic>= 1,579), six clusters with specific attitude-behavior combinations concerning the refugee issue were identified: Pro-Refugee Activists, Passive-Affirmative Mainstream, Directly-Involved Ambivalents, Passive-Worried Mainstream, Worried Agitators, and Anti-Refugee Activists. The results show that these clusters differ both in terms of socio-demographic and political characteristics as well as in terms of people’s issue-specific media usage, expectations, and evaluations of media coverage. Moreover, the findings indicate that social media play a problematic role in the debate as they seem to reinforce people’s pre-existing attitudes toward refugees. The implications of these findings for public debate on refugees are also discussed.</jats:p>