Bias wanted! Examining people’s information exposure, quality expectations and bias perceptions in the context of the refugees debate among different segments of the German population
-
Dorothee Arlt
and
Jens Wolling
Abstract
The growing number of refugees entering Europe since 2015 has quickly ignited a heated public debate on refugees in Germany. Against the backdrop of the media’s information and opinion-forming function, this paper examines the importance of mainstream and social media among different segments of the German population. Applying cluster analysis to survey data (n = 1,579), six clusters with specific attitude-behavior combinations concerning the refugee issue were identified: Pro-Refugee Activists, Passive-Affirmative Mainstream, Directly-Involved Ambivalents, Passive-Worried Mainstream, Worried Agitators, and Anti-Refugee Activists. The results show that these clusters differ both in terms of socio-demographic and political characteristics as well as in terms of people’s issue-specific media usage, expectations, and evaluations of media coverage. Moreover, the findings indicate that social media play a problematic role in the debate as they seem to reinforce people’s pre-existing attitudes toward refugees. The implications of these findings for public debate on refugees are also discussed.
©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial 2018
- Articles
- The consequences of being on the agenda: The effect of media and public attention on firms’ stock market performance
- Issue ownership as a determinant of political parties’ media coverage
- The effect of interaction topic and social ties on media choice and the role of four underlying mechanisms
- Bias wanted! Examining people’s information exposure, quality expectations and bias perceptions in the context of the refugees debate among different segments of the German population
- Research in brief
- Vox pops in the news: The journalists’ perspective
- The way Syrian refugees in Turkey use media: Understanding “connected refugees” through a non-media-centric and local approach
- Book Reviews
- McQuire, S.: Geomedia: Networked cities and the future of public space
- Coleman, R., & Wu, D.: Image and emotion in voter decisions. The affect agenda
- Gruner, O.: Screening the Sixties. Hollywood cinema and the politics of memory
