Browsing by Author "Diehl, Trevor"

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    A Panel Study on the Dynamics of Social Media Use and Conspiracy Thinking
    (SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, 2023) Valenzuela, Sebastian; Diehl, Trevor; Lee, Sangwon; Halpern, Daniel
    Studies exploring the association between social media use and belief in conspiracy theories have yielded mixed evidence. To address this inconsistency, we focus on conspiracy thinking - a predisposition to interpret events as products of secret, malevolent plots - for which contextual confounds can be better isolated. We posit that social media use and conspiracy thinking are positively related, and examine whether this relationship stems from selectivity effects, media effects, or reinforcing effects. The analysis relies on a random intercept cross-lagged panel model estimated with data from an original three-wave panel survey (N = 331) fielded in Chile. Results support the existence of a reciprocal, lagged relationship between frequency of use of social media platforms, and conspiracy thinking. In line with recent studies on social media, the association becomes manifest at the within-, rather than between-, person level. We close with a discussion of how these results align with the reinforcing spirals model.
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    Rethinking the Virtuous Circle Hypothesis on Social Media: Subjective versus Objective Knowledge and Political Participation
    (OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC, 2022) Lee, Sangwon; Diehl, Trevor; Valenzuela, Sebastián
    Despite early promise, scholarship has shown little empirical evidence of learning from the news on social media. At the same time, scholars have documented the problem of information 'snacking' and information quality on these platforms. These parallel trends in the literature challenge long-held assumptions about the pro-social effects of news consumption and political participation. We argue that reliance on social media for news does not contribute to people's real level of political knowledge (objective knowledge), but instead only influences people's impression of being informed (subjective knowledge). Subjective knowledge is just as important for driving political participation, a potentially troubling trend given the nature of news consumption on social media. We test this expectation with panel survey data from the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. Two path model specifications (fixed effects and autoregressive) support our theoretical model. Implications for the study of the 'dark side' of social media and democracy are discussed.