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ABSTRACT
Although a growing body of literature examines exposure to social, news, and political information via social media, we have little understanding of how users delineate these categories. In this study, we develop over 100 discrete Facebook stimuli varying these topics, and then test to what extent and which users match our definition of those posts. Our results suggest that users and researchers often agree on defining social and political content, but are more likely to disagree on categorizing news content. Therefore, researchers should carefully define all concepts—especially news—when considering prevalence and effects on social media users.
Notes
1. There were differences in the number of words in each post type. Status posts contained significantly more words (M = 20.68, SE = .50) than either link (M = 18.36, SE = .50, p < .01) or picture (M = 17.85, SE = .79, p < .01) posts. We deliberately limited the word count for the link and picture posts because they included additional visual and/or textual information. There were no significant differences in word count between the topics (F = .85, p = .50), nor was there an interaction between the type and topic of post (F = 1.46, p = .21). To increase internal validity, we blurred the picture and user name of the poster, as well as the time and date information.
2. See the NimStim standardized set of facial expressions (created by Tottenham et al., Citation2009) at (http://www.macbrain.org/resources.htm) or the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; created by Lang et al., Citation2008) at http://csea.phhp.ufl.edu/media/iapsmessage.html.
3. This is not the only way to define news, although it is derived from studies of news content on Facebook (e.g., Bakshy et al., Citation2015; Mitchell & Page, Citation2013). For our purposes, we examine to what extent users and researchers agree on a single definition rather than promote a particular definition. This is true for political and social posts as well.
4. A copy of this supplemental appendix of all posts will be available at http://emilyk.vraga.org/.
5. Although this sample skews Democratic, this resembles the party affiliation of youth ages 18–29 nationally. According to Jones (Citation2014), in 2013, 53% of American youth were Democrats, 35% were Republicans, and 12% were Independents, which largely matches our political breakdown.
6. Correct categorization occurred for 85% of statuses, 78% of links, and 62% of pictures.
7. Examination of the supplemental appendix provides some insight into the nature of the confusion about post purpose for news links, social links, and news pictures. For social links, mismatched categorization usually occurred when people saw social links’ primary purpose as “news” or as “other.” For both news links and news pictures, posts that were not categorized as news were most often categorized as “social.” For all types of posts, disagreement in categorization of post purpose as “political” was rare.
8. Political interest and enjoying politics on Facebook are moderately correlated, r = .35, p < .01.
9. To compute the “congruent” and “incongruent” political posts, we compared which party the post favored to respondents’ party affiliation. A post was coded as congruent if it favored the participant’s preferred party and incongruent if it favored the opposing party. Independents were excluded from this analysis, leaving an N of 48.
10. However, the two news posts that mention contentious social issues without referencing their political debate are both more commonly seen as news, rather than political content.
11. The picture used in this post was Blair, G. (September 10, 2012). Color me rad. Design mom. Retrieved from: http://www.designmom.com/2012/09/color-me-rad/, CC.
12. The picture used in this post was McKnight, E. (2014). School busses in a parking lot. Retrieved from http://www.shutterstock.com/en/pic.mhtml?id=155042309&pl=44814-43068, CC.
13. The picture used in this post was Trull, A. (January 14, 2013). Metro’s expansion plans include new tunnels. Transportation nation. Retrieved from:http://www.wnyc.org/story/284441-metros-expansion-plans-include-new-tunnels/, CC.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Emily K. Vraga
Emily K. Vraga is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at George Mason University. Her research focuses on how individuals attend to and process news and political information, particularly for disagreeable messages they encounter in digital media environment.
Leticia Bode
Leticia Bode is an assistant professor in the Communication, Culture, and Technology Program at Georgetown University. Her research considers the intersection of technology, communication, and political behavior, with an emphasis on the role new media plays in affecting political information and electoral politics.
Anne-Bennett Smithson
Anne-Bennett Smithson is a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication at George Mason University. Her research focuses on how candidates frame political messages in both traditional and new media. She is particularly interested in how candidates present political disagreement and leverage emotional appeals in campaign communications.
Sonya Troller-Renfree
Sonya Troller-Renfree is a PhD candidate in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology at the University of Maryland. Her research uses psychophysiological methods to assess the development of executive functions and attention in children and adults.