Session II

News & Perceptions

Session I schedule
Time (EDT)	Time (CET)	Title	Presenters
9:35 a.m.	3:35 p.m.	Use and Evaluation of Foreign News Media by Young Adults with Turkish Migration History	Zeynep Altundağ (Freie Universität Berlin)
9:45 a.m.	3:45 p.m.	Where Do You Go For News When The News Goes?	Mike Gruszcynski & Haley Pierce (Indiana University)
9:55 a.m.	3:55 p.m.	Sharing the Alternative: The Role of Digital Platforms for Alternative News-Sharing Behavior	Felix Gaisbauer & Jakob Ohme (Freie Universität Berlin)
10:05 a.m.	4:05 p.m.	Examining the False Social Reality on Climate Change: Magnitude and Causes of Climate Norm Misperceptions	Nathaniel Geiger, Junho Lee, Sara Constantino, Gregg Sparkman (Indiana University-Bloomington)
10:15 a.m.	4:15 p.m.	Developing a New Measure of Polling Distrust	Junghyun Moon (Indiana University)
10:25 a.m.	4:25 p.m.	Questions/Discussion for Session 2 presentations
10:55 a.m.	4:55 p.m.	BREAK (15 minutes)

Discussion facilitator

Baoning Gong

Baoning Gong completed her Master's degree in Media and Political Communication at the Free University of Berlin. As a research assistant and doctoral researcher in the research group "Dynamics of Digital Mobilization", she investigates the influence of platform functionalities on the mobilization of the Far-Right. In her dissertation, she analyzes the networks of extremist movements on various social media platforms and also examines fringe platforms that host more extreme communities. Additionally, she engages in projects involving the analysis of strategies employed by different actor groups within the Far-Right, such as political parties and alternative media, as well as their interplay within an alternative information ecosystem. She employs both social network analysis and quantitative content analysis in her research.

Use and Evaluation of Foreign News Media by Young Adults with Turkish Migration History

9:35 a.m. EDT | 3:35 p.m. CET

In this symposium, I aim to present the key findings of our research project, which was conducted on behalf of the Foreign Ministry of Germany between October 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023. The project examines the news media consumption habits of young adults with Turkish migration history living in Germany, placing a specific emphasis on their information-seeking behavior concerning political and societal matters related to both Turkey and Germany. The study comprises an analysis of content from Turkish, German, and U.S. international news media—TRT-Deutsch, DW Türkçe, VoA Türkçe—exploring reporting priorities, self- and further representations, various thematic aspects, journalistic form, news topics, and factors (such as conflict, damage, and surprise), country perspectives, and the inclusion of actors and speakers in political, institutional, or societal contexts. Additionally, the study evaluates the tone and sentiment of the news items and assesses the impact of the selected media outlets on their target audiences through focus group discussions and extensive analysis, with a special emphasis on TRT-Deutsch.

Zeynep Altundağ

Zeynep Altundağ holds a BA in Radio, Television, and Cinema and an MA in Communication Studies. She spent nearly nine years as a research assistant at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, in the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Communication and Media Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, she is researching the “Use of Social Media by Young Descendants of Migrants from Turkey in Germany” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Joachim Trebbe. From December 2018 to August 2022, she received a doctoral scholarship from the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Since October 2022, Zeynep has been working as a researcher in the Department of Media Analysis/Research Methods at Freie Universität Berlin. In addition to her research background, she has teaching experience in the fields of communication, media, and film studies.

Where Do You Go For News When The News Goes?

9:45 a.m. EDT | 3:45 p.m. CET

The increase in and proliferation of "news deserts," places where citizens have little or no access to local news, is an ongoing topic of interest to political communication scholars (e.g., Abernathy, 2023). Research has focused particularly on whether news deserts are correlated with voter abstention (Ramos, Torre, & Jerónimo, 2023), disenfranchisement with government and public policy (Miller, 2018), decreases in trust in government (Zayed, 2023), as well as increases in exposure to misinformation online (Pickard, 2019).

Many of the possible outcomes of living in a news desert, however, are likely endogenous to characteristics of both citizens and the broader information environment in which they reside. We examine the extent to which individuals living (or not) in news deserts rely on traditional and online news sources, as well as how these uses of news interact with sociopolitical characteristics, including partisanship and ideology.

Mike Gruszcynski

Mike Gruszczynski (PhD, Political Science, University of Nebraska, 2013) is an Assistant Professor of Communication Science in The Media School at Indiana University. His research has been published in Public Opinion Quarterly, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication and Society, Journalism and Communication Monographs, and Political Behavior, among others. His research is inclusive of political communication, political psychology, and research methodology, and focuses particularly on how changes in political and communication domains influence agenda-setting processes, framing effects, and journalistic decision-making.

Haley Pierce

Haley Pierce is a Ph.D. student in The Media School. Her research interests concern the political, economic, and social factors that shape individuals’ political information environments and the effects of such information on people’s political attitudes and behavior. Often, she takes up these questions in the context of climate change.

Sharing the Alternative: The Role of Digital Platforms for Alternative News-Sharing Behavior

9:55 a.m. EDT | 3:55 p.m. CET

In times of growing turmoil around questions of factual correctness on information flowing through the public sphere, so-called alternative news media have established themselves as a counterpole to legacy mass media. In Germany, many online-only media outlets present information to a growing audience, pursue different goals, follow different standards, and are financed differently than what they would describe as ‘elite media.’ Digital platforms are the key to success; here, media outlets can grow their audiences with little financial resources and bypass pre-digital media systems' critique and verification mechanisms.

However, their reach depends on their followers, how they share information, and how they use the network effect of social media to draw attention to information that is often only relevant to a niche audience. This presentation focuses on why alternative news audiences share certain information online. We also explore why these users, on other occasions, decide against sharing news with others. Utilizing an original dataset collected via an online survey of more than 2000 German alternative news users in September 2023, the study sheds light on the question of to what extent motivational patterns among this audience are responsible for the success of alternative news media as a counterweight to established journalistic sources.

Felix Gaisbauer

Felix Gaisbauer studied Physics and Philosophy at LMU Munich and earned his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in 2022. He is part of the research group "Digital News Dynamics" at Weizenbaum Institute, where he studies the use of computational methods to capture news-driven public debate online. His core research areas are network theory, modelling of complex systems and quantitative analysis of platform communication, e.g. on Twitter.

Jakob Ohme

Jakob Ohme is Head of Research Group at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin, where he leads the ‘Digital News Dynamics’ research group. This group examines the perception, distribution, and function of professional journalist news on digital platforms relative to other information being spread by, for example, political parties, influencers, or artificial intelligence.

His research interests center around the impact of digital and mobile communication on news exposure and political behavior in digital democracies, focusing on generational differences in media use and political socialization.

He has a special interest in developing digital methods in political communication and journalism research. Currently, he is a Fellow at the Digital Communication Methods Lab at the University of Amsterdam.

Examining the False Social Reality on Climate Change: Magnitude and Causes of Climate Norm Misperceptions

10:05 a.m. EDT | 4:05 p.m. CET

Emerging research suggests that although most Americans report concern about climate change and support many major climate policies, most are not aware of this “climate majority”. In turn, failing to recognize that others share one’s views has been demonstrated to demobilize climate action. This presentation includes three studies demonstrating the magnitude and possible causes of these widespread misperceptions. Study 1 (nationally representative stratified sample; N=6,119) reveals the magnitude of Americans' misperceptions of fellow citizen’s opinions: although a solid majority express climate change concern and support several major climate policies, most underestimate these percentages by almost half – a misperception we term a “false social reality”. Study 2 (N=1912) tests 10 potential mechanisms of climate change norm misperceptions. Results demonstrate that participants’ information environment (e.g., climate change discussion frequency, conservative media exposure, community-level political homogeneity) and desire to share reality with others robustly predict social misperceptions. Study 3 (N=843) investigates one possible corrective mechanism for this misperception – asking participants to consider opinions in the past prior to estimating opinions in the present. Overall, results demonstrate the large magnitude of norm misperceptions as well as possible causes of misperceptions, and offer preliminary suggestions for their possible correction.

Nathaniel Geiger

My research examines how people become motivated and empowered to take action on climate change other collective action issues. After growing up in Texas, I received my PhD in Social Psychology from Penn State University before moving to Bloomington, Indiana for my current position. I have published work in a variety of communication, psychology, and other cross-disciplinary journals, including Nature Communications, Environmental Communication, the Journal of Environmental Psychology, Social Psychological and Personality Science, and Climatic Change, and have had work featured in popular press outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Scientific American, and the Guardian. I also serve as an Associate Deputy Editor of Climatic Change and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

Sara Constantino

Sara Constantino is an assistant professor in the Psychology Department and the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. She works broadly on social and environmental policy and decision-making. Her research focuses on understanding the interplay between individual, institutional and ecological factors on perceptions, policy preferences and resilience to extreme events or shocks. In particular, recent studies look at the role of polarization, social norms and governance in stimulating or stifling support for climate action. She also works on the impacts and politics of basic income programs. Prior to starting at Northeastern, she was an associate research scholar at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs and a lecturer at the High Meadows Environmental Institute. Before this, she was senior research fellow in guaranteed income with the Jain Family Institute and a founding editor at Nature Human Behavior. She received her bachelor’s degree in economics from McGill University, a master’s degree in economics from University College London, and a Ph.D. in cognitive sciences, with a focus on learning and decision-making in dynamic environments, from New York University.

Gregg Sparkman

Gregg Sparkman's research focuses on the psychology of social change, including research on interventions to address social problems related to the environment, health, and social inequity. He examines responses to and drivers of social change, motivations to change behavior, how best to advocate for change, and the role of social influence, identity, moral reasoning, and beliefs about whether change is possible.

Developing a New Measure of Polling Distrust

10:15 a.m. EDT | 4:15 p.m. CET

In the era of political polarization, understanding the climate of others’ opinions about sociopolitical issues is essential for social interactions. For this reason, polling has been regarded as “a fundamental component of American political communication” and its unique feature of depicting what opinion forms a majority in the public sphere has emerged as an independent genre of journalism. However, at the same time, polling has been the subject of serious criticism and recent polls report that public trust in polling is declining. Indeed the public fear that pollsters could intentionally influence citizens’ opinions has led more than 70 countries to impose regulations (e.g., poll embargo) on the publication of polls. Against this backdrop, an in-depth investigation of how pervasive skepticism toward polling influences perceptions of various aspects of polling bears timely importance. This study is designed to deepen an understanding of individuals' perceptions of polling, as a social institution, and aims to develop a new measure for gauging subjective evaluation of distrust in public opinion polls, labeled here as polling distrust. A follow-up study that adopts the developed measure will be conducted to further illuminate how polling distrust contributes to shaping various perceptions of polling (e.g., perceptions of polling effect).

Junghyun Moon

Junghyun Moon is a Ph.D. candidate in the Media School at Indiana University Bloomington. His research focuses on exploring the dynamics of political information processing—specifically related to public perceptions of news media.