During the 2016 presidential campaign, we tracked online news consumption among a national sample.
Data & Methods:
We monitored news provider usage during this period using comprehensive tracking methods.
Key Findings:
• Partisan isolation in election news was significantly higher (2-3 times greater) than previous studies found.
• Despite limited partisan slant differences across consumed content, partisans showed strong bias toward like-minded sources.
• Evaluations of candidates remained unchanged among those exposed to congenial outlets.
Why It Matters:
This research quantifies the extent of echo chambers in contemporary media and suggests their formation may be less reliant on extreme partisan slant than previously thought.
| Partisan Selective Exposure in Online News Consumption: Evidence from the 2016 Presidential Campaign was authored by Erik Peterson, Sharad Goel and Shanto Iyengar. It was published by Cambridge in PSR&M in 2021. |
