Influence of Explicit and Implicit Attitudes in Selecting News and Political Orientation: A Study through Colombian Newspapers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2023.26.3.7Keywords:
Explicit attitudes, implicit attitudes, selective exposure, media brands, confirmation biasAbstract
This study analyzes news selection patterns according to implicit and explicit attitudes toward news media brands. We also explore how people’s political orientation modulates their attitudes toward the media. In an experiment with 126 university students (56 females) between 17 and 41 years old, we examined the choice of headlines attributed to the Colombian newspapers El Tiempo and El Espectador using a forced-choice task. We also measured explicit attitudes toward the brands, implicit attitudes, frequency of reading, political orientation, and changes in attitudes after presenting an intervention article that explained the phenomenon of confirmation bias. Results revealed that explicit attitudes (not implicit ones) predicted headline choices. Reading frequency predicted individuals’ political orientation, though this effect occurred through explicit attitudes. The intervention text altered explicit attitudes but not implicit ones. Participants with a slight left-wing political inclination favored content from the El Espectador newspaper, likely due to confirmation bias. In conclusion, explicit attitudes influenced the choice of headlines, reading frequency, and participants’ political orientation.
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