Fox viewers transformed after watching CNN for 30 days, report finds
Study finds changes in attitudes, policy preferences about Covid-19,
then president Donald Trump
Fox News viewers who were paid to watch CNN for 30 days eventually
became more skeptical and less likely to buy into fake news, according
to a new study.
The study titled “The manifold effects of partisan media on viewers’ beliefs and attitudes: A field experiment with Fox News viewers” by
David E Brockman and Joshua L Kalla was conducted in September 2020 and published last week.
“Of 763 qualifying participants, we then randomised 40 per cent to
treatment group. To change the slant of their media diet, we offered
treatment group participants $15 per hour to watch 7 hours of CNN per
week, during Sept. 2020, prioritising the hours at which participants
indicated they typically watched Fox News,” the study said.
The study found changes in attitudes and policy preferences about
Covid-19, evaluations of then president Donald Trump and Republican
candidates as well as elected officials.
“Despite regular Fox viewers being largely strong partisans, we found manifold effects of changing the slant of their media diets on their
factual beliefs, attitudes, perceptions of issues’ importance, and
overall political views,” the authors of the study said.
They found that participants became more likely to agree that if Donald
Trump made a mistake, Fox News would not cover it.
“CNN provided extensive coverage of Covid-19, which included information about the severity of the Covid-19 crisis and poor aspects of Trump’s performance handling Covid-19. Fox News covered COVID-19 much less,”
said the study.
It found that Fox News gave viewers information about why the disease is
not a serious threat, while CNN provided a lot more information about
the disease itself.
[snip]
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-news-cnn-partisan-media-study-b2050240.html
TB
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