Waving the Red Cloth
Abstract
This study extends the boundary conditions of the work on media effects on polarization by (1) examining whether exposure to news coverage about a contentious political issue polarizes attitudes, especially among the already-polarized citizens; (2) analyzing “easy” and “hard” dimensions of EU attitudes; and (3) offering causal and generalizable evidence in a non-US context. Individual-level data from a representative four-wave panel survey are matched with coded content data on the amount of coverage about the EU in numerous news outlets. Results show that strongly opinionated citizens exposed to news about the EU polarize following exposure, and that the “easy” dimensions of EU attitudes polarize more than the “hard” attitude dimensions. Moreover, polarization emerges among strong EU supporters and opponents alike. These results extend the polarization literature to naturalistic settings and suggest that the polarizing effects of the media may be greater than previously acknowledged.
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Most polarization studies do not actually study media content.
“Surprisingly, most polarization studies do not actually study media content (Kubin & Sikorski, 2021;Wojcieszak et al., 2018).”
From When debates break apart: discursive polarization as a multi-dimensional divergence emerging in and through communication (2023) · cites this paper as Wojcieszak et al., 2018
Mere exposure to EU news does not polarize everyone, but amplifies extreme views among those media users who already held somewhat extreme views prior to exposure.
“They find that it does not polarize everyone, but that it amplifies extreme views among those media users who already held somewhat extreme views prior to exposure.”
From When debates break apart: discursive polarization as a multi-dimensional divergence emerging in and through communication (2023) · cites this paper as Wojcieszak et al. (2018)
There are comparatively few studies exploring how polarization evolves in media content, particularly with regards to news media.
“Among the wealth of research on polarization, there are comparatively few studies which explore how polarization evolves in media content, particularly with regards to news media (Kubin & Sikorski, 2021;Wojcieszak et al., 2018).”
From When debates break apart: discursive polarization as a multi-dimensional divergence emerging in and through communication (2023) · cites this paper as Wojcieszak et al., 2018
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Waisbord, S. (2020) · REVISTA SAAP · doi:10.46468/rsaap.14.2.a1 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Brüggemann, M., & Meyer, H. (2023) · Communication Theory · doi:10.1093/ct/qtad012 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Social Media and the Changing Information Environment
Kraft, P. W., Krupnikov, Y., Milita, K., Ryan, J. B., & Soroka, S. (2020) · Public Opinion Quarterly · doi:10.1093/poq/nfaa015 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
- Authors
- Wojcieszak, M., Azrout, R., & de Vreese, C.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Davis (US)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Corresponding author
- Wojcieszak, Magdalena
- Venue
- Public Opinion Quarterly
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2017-12-09
- Volume
- 82
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 87-109
- ISSN
- 0033-362X (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5331
- OpenAlex
- W2773558295
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 8.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Public Opinion Quarterly (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Studies and Communication
- Keywords
- media coverage, attitude dimensions, political polarization, news exposure, European Union
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