Abstract
Abstract. Comments sections under news articles have become popular spaces for audience members to oppose the mainstream media’s perspective on political issues by expressing alternative views. This kind of challenge to mainstream discourses is a necessary element of proper deliberation. However, due to heuristic information processing and the public concern about disinformation online, readers of comments sections may be inherently skeptical about user comments that counter the views of mainstream media. Consequently, commenters with alternative views may participate in discussions from a position of disadvantage because their contributions are scrutinized particularly critically. Nevertheless, this effect has hitherto not been empirically established. To address this gap, a multifactorial, between-subjects experimental study (N = 166) was conducted that investigated how participants assess the credibility and argument quality of media-dissonant user comments relative to media-congruent user comments. The findings revealed that media-dissonant user comments are, indeed, disadvantaged in online discussions, as they are assessed as less credible and more poorly argued than media-congruent user comments. Moreover, the findings showed that the higher the participants’ level of media trust, the worse the assessment of media-dissonant user comments relative to media-congruent user comments. Normative implications and avenues for future research are discussed.
References
2016). Measuring message credibility: Construction and validation of an exclusive scale. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 93(1), 59–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699015606057
(2018). (Alternative) media sources in AfD-centered Facebook discussions. Studies in Communication and Media, 7(2), 256–270. https://doi.org/10.5771/2192-4007-2018-2-256
(2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01
(2020). Facts, alternative facts, and fact checking in times of post-truth politics. Journal of Public Economics, 182, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2019.104123
(1987).
(The heuristic model of persuasion . In M. P. ZannaJ. M. OlsenC. P. HermanEds., Social influence: The Ontario symposium (Vol. 5, pp. 3–39). Lawrence Erlbaum.1999).
(The heuristic-systematic model in its broader context . In S. ChaikenY. TropeEds., Dual-process theories in social psychology (pp. 73–96). Guilford Press.2016). Reader comments as press criticism: Implications for the journalistic field. Journalism, 17(6), 677–693. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884915579332
(2008).
(The Internet as a new platform for expressing opinions and as a new public sphere . In W. DonsbachM. W. TraugottEds., The SAGE handbook of public opinion research (pp. 64–72). SAGE.1996). A disconfirmation bias in the evaluation of arguments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.71.1.5
(2017). The impact of trust in the news media on online news consumption and participation. Digital Journalism, 5(10), 1281–1299. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2017.1279979
(2019). Comments sections as targets of dark participation? Journalists’ evaluation and moderation of deviant user comments. Journalism Studies, 20(14), 2014–2033. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2018.1556320
(1986). Measuring the concept of credibility. Journalism Quarterly, 63(3), 451–462. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769908606300301
(2016). SIMR: An R package for power analysis of generalized linear mixed models by simulation. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 7(4), 493–498. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12504
(2008).
(Deliberative discourse . In W. DonsbachEd., The international encyclopedia of communication (pp. 1–6). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405186407.wbiecd0692007). The effects of argument quality and involvement type on attitude formation and attitude change: A test of dual-process and social judgment predictions. Human Communication Research, 33(1), 81–102. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00290.x
(2008). Developing a unifying framework of credibility assessment: Construct, heuristics, and interaction in context. Information Processing & Management, 44(4), 1467–1484. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2007.10.001
(2019). Right-wing alternative media, Routledge.
(2017). Public spheres of skepticism: Climate skeptics’ online comments in the German networked public sphere. International Journal of Communication, 11, 1661–1682. http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/5557
(2007). Trust in news media: Development and validation of a multidimensional scale. Communication Research, 34(2), 231–252. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650206298071
(1990). The case for motivated reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 108(3), 480–498. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.3.480
(2017). Motivated reasoning in the perceived credibility of public opinion polls. Public Opinion Quarterly, 81(2), 422–446. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfx018
(2012). That’s not the way it is: How user-generated comments on the news affect perceived media bias. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(1), 32–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01597.x
(2013).
(Trust, truth and objectivity: Sustaining quality journalism in the era of the content-generating user . In C. PetersM. J. BroersmaEds., Rethinking journalism: Trust and participation in a transformed news landscape (pp. 75–88). Routledge.2013). Credibility and trust of information in online environments: The use of cognitive heuristics. Journal of Pragmatics, 59(Part B), 210–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.07.012
(2010). Social and heuristic approaches to credibility evaluation online. Journal of Communication, 60(3), 413–439. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2010.01488.x
(1988). Defining and measuring credibility of newspapers: Developing an index. Journalism Quarterly, 65(3), 567–574. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769908806500301
(2020). Comments and credibility: How critical user comments decrease perceived news article credibility. Journalism Studies, 21(6), 783–801. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2020.1724181
(2019). Uncivil user comments increase users’ intention to engage in corrective actions and their support for authoritative restrictive actions. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699019886586
(2010). The dynamics of persuasion: Communication and attitudes in the twenty-first century (6th ed.). Routledge.
(1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 123–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60214-2
(2019). How to measure generalized trust in news media? An adaptation and test of scales. Communication Methods and Measures, 13(1), 26–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/19312458.2018.1506021
(2018). Effects of civility and reasoning in user comments on perceived journalistic quality. Journalism Studies, 19(1), 62–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1161497
(2012). Default Bayes factors for ANOVA designs. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 56(5), 356–374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmp.2012.08.001
(2018). Woher kommt und wozu führt Medienfeindlichkeit? Zum Zusammenhang von populistischen Einstellungen, Medienfeindlichkeit, negativen Emotionen und Partizipation
([Where does media hostility come from and what does it lead to? The connection between populist attitudes, media hostility, negative emotions and participation] . Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft, 66(3), 283–301. https://doi.org/10.5771/1615-634X-2018-3-2832000). Infotainment: Der Einfluss emotionalisierend-affektorientierter Darstellung auf die Glaubwürdigkeit
([Infotainment: The influence of emotionalizing, affect-oriented presentation on credibility] . Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft, 48(1), 63–84. https://doi.org/10.5771/1615-634x-2000-1-631996). How message evaluation and source attributes may influence credibility assessment and belief change. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 73(4), 974–991. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769909607300415
(2016). News commenters and news comment readers. Engaging News Project, Center for Media Engagement. https://mediaengagement.org/research/survey-of-commenters-and-comment-readers/
(2006). Motivated skepticism in the evaluation of political beliefs. American Journal of Political Science, 3(50), 755–769. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00214.x
(2015). Public spheres in interaction: Comments sections of news websites as counterpublic spaces. Journal of Communication, 65(3), 465–488. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12156
(2003). Do people watch what they do not trust? Communication Research, 30(5), 504–529. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650203253371
(2019).
(Journalism, trust, and credibility . In K. Wahl-JorgensenT. HanitzschEds., ICA handbook series. The handbook of journalism studies (2nd ed., pp. 356–371). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315167497-232018). What does the crowd think? How online comments and popularity metrics affect news credibility and issue importance. New Media and Society, 20(8), 3068–3083. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817742905
(1996). Responses to humorous advertising: The moderating effect of need for cognition. Journal of Advertising, 25(1), 15–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.1996.10673493
(2018). The dynamics of online news discussions: Effects of news articles and reader comments on users’ involvement, willingness to participate, and the civility of their contributions. Information, Communication & Society, 21(10), 1419–1435. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1324505
(