(Almost) Everything in Moderation: New Evidence on Americans' Online Media Diets. Issue 4 (19th February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Guess, Andrew M.
• Is Part Of: American journal of political science. Volume 65:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 1007
• Page End: 1022
• Publication Date: 2021-02-19
• Subjects: Political science -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; Computer network resources; 320.05
• DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12589
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0092-5853

Abstract

Abstract: Does the internet facilitate selective exposure to politically congenial content? To answer this question, I introduce and validate large‐ N behavioral data on Americans' online media consumption in both 2015 and 2016. I then construct a simple measure of media diet slant and use machine classification to identify individual articles related to news about politics. I find that most people across the political spectrum have relatively moderate media diets, about a quarter of which consist of mainstream news websites and portals. Quantifying the similarity of Democrats' and Republicans' media diets, I find nearly 65% overlap in the two groups' distributions in 2015 and roughly 50% in 2016. An exception to this picture is a small group of partisans who drive a disproportionate amount of traffic to ideologically slanted websites. If online "echo chambers" exist, they are a reality for relatively few people who may nonetheless exert disproportionate influence and visibility.