Hey Google, What is in the News? The Influence of Conversational Agents on Issue Salience

Figures & data

Figure 1. Theoretical model.

Table 1. Means and stand deviations of moderators per channel.

	Generalized media trust		Trust in the channel		Attention to the news
Moderators	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Facebook	4.64	0.58	3.98	0.70	3.92	1.1
Google assistant	4.61	0.64	4.34	0.81	3.86	1.13
NOS	4.53	0.62	3.85	0.69	4.33	0.92

Table 2. Model outline overview.

Issue type	Issue topics		Events
In the country	Model 1 Among all participants	Model 2 Within the channel	Model 3 Among all participants	Model 4 Within the channel
In the news	Model 5 Among all participants	Model 6 Within the channel	Model 7 Among all participants	Model 8 Within the channel

Table 3. Model comparisons.

	Issues in the country
	Model 1			Model 2			Model 3			Model 4
	Country issue topics among all participants			Country issue topics within channel			Country events among all participants			Country events within channel
Predictors	Odds ratios	CI	p	Odds ratios	CI	p	Odds ratios	CI	p	Odds ratios	CI	p
Google Assistant	0.70	0.53–0.92	0.010	0.63	0.47–0.84	0.002	0.88	0.69–1.13	0.324	0.96	0.76–1.22	0.747
NOS	0.96	0.74–1.26	0.787	0.90	0.68–1.19	0.470	1.06	0.84–1.35	0.608	1.10	0.87–1.39	0.428
Age	1.01	1.00–1.02	0.007	1.01	1.00–1.02	0.003	1.01	1.00–1.02	0.025	1.01	1.00–1.02	0.029
Gender	1.36	1.05–1.75	0.020	1.51	1.16–1.97	0.002	1.15	0.92–1.43	0.226	1.37	1.05–1.79	0.020
Education	1.04	0.98–1.12	0.212	1.02	0.95–1.10	0.538	1.08	1.01–1.14	0.016	1.09	1.01–1.17	0.019
Generalized trust	1.06	0.69–1.64	0.783	1.27	0.81–2.00	0.297	1.28	0.88–1.87	0.189	1.09	0.74–1.59	0.668
Trust in the channel	0.88	0.64–1.21	0.437	0.92	0.66–1.28	0.617	0.74	0.56–0.98	0.033	0.84	0.63–1.11	0.222
Attention	0.86	0.71–1.03	0.098	0.86	0.71–1.04	0.114	0.85	0.73–1.00	0.046	0.81	0.67–0.98	0.028
Perceived lack of diversity	0.98	0.86–1.11	0.720	0.99	0.87–1.13	0.914	0.93	0.83–1.03	0.174	0.93	0.81–1.06	0.271
Customization	0.98	0.91–1.06	0.644	0.96	0.89–1.04	0.315	0.97	0.90–1.03	0.316	0.94	0.87–1.02	0.169
Political interest	1.05	0.93–1.19	0.410	1.04	0.91–1.18	0.555	1.06	0.95–1.18	0.308	1.03	0.91–1.18	0.608
Political orientation	0.97	0.91–1.03	0.327	0.96	0.90–1.02	0.177	0.96	0.91–1.01	0.139	0.98	0.92–1.05	0.592
Google Assistant * Generalized trust	1.51	0.82–2.78	0.183	1.31	0.69–2.48	0.403	0.87	0.51–1.47	0.594	0.87	0.51–1.49	0.617
NOS * Generalized trust	1.67	0.94–2.95	0.078	1.17	0.65–2.11	0.607	0.93	0.57–1.51	0.759	1.33	0.80–2.19	0.270
Google Assistant * Trust in the channel	0.80	0.50–1.28	0.351	0.72	0.44–1.16	0.177	1.11	0.74–1.66	0.616	0.99	0.66–1.49	0.975
NOS * Trust in the channel	0.90	0.57–1.44	0.672	0.79	0.49–1.28	0.337	1.07	0.72–1.61	0.724	0.95	0.63–1.43	0.795
Google Assistant * Attention	1.10	0.83–1.45	0.512	1.13	0.85–1.51	0.404	0.98	0.77–1.25	0.901	1.16	0.91–1.47	0.238
NOS * Attention	1.34	1.00–1.81	0.051	1.55	1.13–2.11	0.006	1.10	0.85–1.41	0.482	1.16	0.90–1.51	0.260
Issues in the news
	Model 5			Model 6			Model 7			Model 8
	News issue topics among all participants			News issue topics within channel			News events among all participants			News events within channel
Predictors	Odds Ratios	CI	p	Odds Ratios	CI	p	Odds Ratios	CI	p	Odds Ratios	CI	p
Google Assistant	0.68	0.53–0.87	0.002	0.67	0.52–0.86	0.002	0.70	0.56–0.88	0.002	0.72	0.55–0.93	0.014
NOS	0.86	0.68–1.09	0.221	0.87	0.68–1.11	0.247	0.89	0.71–1.12	0.319	0.93	0.72–1.21	0.602
Age	1.01	1.01–1.02	<0.001	1.01	1.01–1.02	<0.001	1.01	1.00–1.01	0.072	1.02	1.01–1.03	<0.001
Gender	.17	0.94–1.46	0.163	1.25	1.00–1.56	0.052	1.17	0.94–1.45	0.161	1.33	1.04–1.70	0.022
Education	1.02	0.96–1.08	0.522	1.02	0.96–1.08	0.564	1.03	0.97–1.09	0.399	1.06	0.99–1.13	0.100
Generalized trust	1.05	0.71–1.54	0.809	1.14	0.77–1.67	0.515	1.13	0.79–1.63	0.497	1.20	0.78–1.84	0.411
Trust in the channel	0.74	0.56–0.98	0.038	0.73	0.55–0.97	0.030	0.93	0.71–1.21	0.584	0.97	0.71–1.33	0.850
Attention	0.96	0.82–1.13	0.648	0.95	0.81–1.12	0.549	1.02	0.88–1.19	0.800	1.03	0.86–1.23	0.750
Perceived lack of diversity	1.13	1.01–1.26	0.028	1.13	1.01–1.26	0.032	1.01	0.90–1.12	0.889	1.02	0.90–1.15	0.793
Customization	0.97	0.91–1.03	0.340	0.99	0.92–1.06	0.740	0.97	0.91–1.04	0.412	1.01	0.94–1.09	0.707
Political interest	1.03	0.93–1.15	0.568	1.01	0.91–1.13	0.811	1.09	0.98–1.21	0.112	1.08	0.96–1.21	0.220
Political orientation	0.96	0.92–1.01	0.155	0.96	0.91–1.02	0.161	0.99	0.94–1.04	0.634	1.03	0.97–1.09	0.295
Google Assistant * Generalized trust	1.32	0.77–2.28	0.311	1.26	0.73–2.16	0.410	0.84	0.50–1.41	0.513	0.92	0.50–1.67	0.775
NOS * Generalized trust	1.44	0.87–2.37	0.159	1.37	0.83–2.26	0.221	1.10	0.69–1.77	0.681	1.21	0.69–2.12	0.502
Google Assistant * Trust in the channel	1.07	0.71–1.61	0.747	1.05	0.70–1.59	0.806	1.06	0.72–1.57	0.764	0.92	0.58–1.45	0.717
NOS * Trust in the channel	1.23	0.82–1.84	0.327	1.26	0.84–1.90	0.262	1.05	0.72–1.55	0.796	1.02	0.65–1.60	0.935
Google Assistant * Attention	0.98	0.77–1.25	0.859	1.03	0.81–1.31	0.830	0.96	0.77–1.21	0.756	0.95	0.73–1.24	0.711
NOS * Attention	1.08	0.84–1.41	0.542	1.08	0.83–1.40	0.560	0.92	0.72–1.18	0.511	0.92	0.69–1.23	0.568

Figure 2. Estimated probabilities of issue salience agreement across models.¹

Figure 3. Estimated probabilities of generalized media trust across models.²

Figure 4. Estimated probabilities of trust in the channel across models.³

Figure 5. Estimated probabilities of attention to the news across models.⁴