Web users read news articles matching their own views the most
Monday, 08, Jun 2009 01:05
New research has revealed that web users tend to prefer news articles that match their own views on the subject in question.
Experts at Ohio State University gathered the opinions of 156 students on a range of topics, including gun ownership, abortion, healthcare regulation and the minimum wage.
They then invited these students back several weeks later to browse a series of online news opinion pieces on these issues, with each article clearly stating its position on the topic at hand in the headline.
Researchers found that the participants clicked on 1.9 news articles that matched their own views on average and 1.4 pieces that did not.
They had a 58 per cent likelihood of choosing an article that they agreed with in terms of viewpoint, compared with 43 per cent for picking a piece that opposed their opinions.
"People have more media choices these days and they can choose to only be exposed to messages that agree with their current beliefs," commented Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, co-author of the study.
Last year, a study by the Pew Research Center found that 13 per cent of US consumers can be categorised as "net-newsers" who rely on the web for keeping up to date with the latest news.
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