During the 2018 US midterm election campaign, 1,037 US participants were asked to randomly change their web browser's homepage to either Fox News or HuffPost, follow the corresponding news outlet's Facebook page, and subscribe to the outlet's affiliated newsletters; participants were surveyed eight times between July 2018 and October 2019, and although increased exposure to partisan news did not significantly influence individuals' political opinions, it was tied to increased knowledge of recent events, increased browsing on the homepage websites, and decreased trust in mainstream media, according to the authors.
Article #20-13464: "The consequences of online partisan media" by Andrew M. Guess, Pablo Barberá, Simon Munzert, and JungHwan Yang.
MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew Guess, Princeton University, NJ; tel: 301-512-9754; email: aguess@princeton.edu
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences