Abstract
Previous research has found that news coverage on immigration is often biased in negative ways and that it inspires the formation of negative attitudes towards immigrants. However, academic research about this link between news consumption and attitudes towards immigrants among adolescents remains limited. The current study aims to test this association from a media-exposure and intergroup-contact perspective using survey data from 875 adolescents in Flanders, Belgium. The findings show that only television news consumption, thus no other types of news consumption, was associated with adolescents’ attitudes towards immigrants. Intergroup contact within the friend group, outside the school context, was linked to more positive attitudes. This study nuances earlier findings that news consumption predicts attitudes towards immigrants. Implications for future research are discussed.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all the respondents who participated in the study and the reviewers for their valuable feedback and suggestions.
Funding details
This research was supported by funding from the KU Leuven Research Council within the framework of the C2-research project FRIENDS with the project number 3H170314.
References
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Alternative regression outcomes for the associations between intergroup contact, news consumption, and the attitudes towards immigrants.
Attitudes towards immigrants | |||
Model 1 | Model 2 | Model 3 | |
Control variables | |||
Gender | .08 | .07 | .06 |
Age | .01 | .02 | 0 |
Education type | .26*** | .25*** | .23** |
Political preference | –.29*** | –.28*** | –.28*** |
Migration background | .20** | .14* | .14* |
Intergroup contact variables | |||
Ethnicity of friends | .18** | .18** | |
Ethnicity of school | –.08 | –.07 | |
News consumption variables | |||
News on TV | –.12 | ||
News on radio | .07 | ||
Newspapers | –.06 | ||
News online | .07 | ||
News on SNS | –.04 | ||
Adj. R2 | .23 | .25 | .26 |
Δ R2 | .03** | .02 | |
Note: Standardized regression coefficients. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001. Gender: boy = 1, girl = 2. Education type: BSO = 1, TSO = 2, ASO = 3.
Zero-order correlations.
1. | 2. | 3. | 4. | 5. | 6. | 7. | 8. | 9. | 10. | 11. | 12. | 13. | |
1. Gender | 1 | ||||||||||||
2. Age | −.11** | 1 | |||||||||||
3. Education type | .32*** | −.38*** | 1 | ||||||||||
4. Political preference | −.24*** | .01 | −.12* | 1 | |||||||||
5. Migration background | .06 | .13*** | −.05 | −.13* | 1 | ||||||||
6. News on TV | −.05 | −.07* | .01 | .01 | −.06 | 1 | |||||||
7. News on radio | .04 | −.06 | .17*** | .03 | −.20*** | .32*** | 1 | ||||||
8. News on paper | −.08* | −.02 | .10* | 0 | −.05 | .28*** | .22*** | 1 | |||||
9. News online | −.01 | .12** | .11* | .05 | .04 | .18*** | .15** | .28*** | 1 | ||||
10. News on SNS | .05 | .06 | .07* | .14* | .03 | .26*** | .24*** | .11** | .26*** | 1 | |||
11. Ethnicity of friends | .08* | .07* | −.08* | −.14* | .40*** | −.08* | −.23*** | −.05 | −.01 | −.03 | 1 | ||
12. Ethnicity of school | .10** | .09* | −.20*** | .01 | .13*** | .01 | −.12*** | −.06 | 0 | −.04 | .21*** | 1 | |
13. Attitude towards immigrants | .19*** | −.09* | .29*** | −.36*** | .18*** | −.10** | −.07* | −.06 | .04 | −.02 | .17*** | 0 | 1 |
Note: Pearson correlations. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001. Gender: boy = 1, girl = 2. Education type: BSO = 1, TSO = 2, ASO = 3.
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Editorial
- Through mature and yet fresh eyes: Researching emerging issues in the field of children and media
- Articles
- Investigating the digital media engagements of very young children at home: Reflecting on methodology and ethics
- Why children’s news matters: The case of CBBC Newsround in the UK
- Relating adolescents’ exposure to legacy and digital news media and intergroup contact to their attitudes towards immigrants
- Nationwide implementation of media literacy training sessions on internet safety
- Exploring European childrenʼs self-reported data on online aggression
- Caring dataveillance and the construction of “good parenting”: Estonian parents’ and pre-teens’ reflections on the use of tracking technologies
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Editorial
- Through mature and yet fresh eyes: Researching emerging issues in the field of children and media
- Articles
- Investigating the digital media engagements of very young children at home: Reflecting on methodology and ethics
- Why children’s news matters: The case of CBBC Newsround in the UK
- Relating adolescents’ exposure to legacy and digital news media and intergroup contact to their attitudes towards immigrants
- Nationwide implementation of media literacy training sessions on internet safety
- Exploring European childrenʼs self-reported data on online aggression
- Caring dataveillance and the construction of “good parenting”: Estonian parents’ and pre-teens’ reflections on the use of tracking technologies