04/20/2023: Duncan Watts #3
Comments
|
Hi Professor Watts, |
|
Hello Professor Watts, Interesting the online "echo-chamber" phenomenon was less than the television, but theoretically makes sense given the smaller selection and greater ability to self select into those. Was there any efforts by tech companies creating the feeds to reduce echo-chamber effect potentially, aka is this a choice by those creating the algorithms to reduce that effect? |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, Thanks for sharing your expertise with us. I was wondering whether you think the same sort of "echo chamber" politics apply on platforms that are largely used for what people would consider "non-political" issues, such as on TikTok. In theory, people consume certain content and the algorithms build their explore pages based on the content they like. Now, assume an individual largely watches comedy videos. I believe that their are still echo chambers within these algorithms, and people will likely be swayed by the creators whose content they assume. For example, say an individual watches cooking videos and in particular certain people's content. If the content creator happened to be liberal, is that individual, by proxy, more likely to be liberal? How would you study these sorts of indirect and/or cascading echo chamber effects? Thanks! |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, |
|
Dear Prof. Watts, This is a fascinating paper! I wonder whether the difference in online versus tv news consumption could be attributed to the purpose people use these sources for (and whether we can control for that). For example, people might use online news more as a source of information (faster, more diverse) while tv is used more and more for political cheerleading (driven by political brand personalities). This would imply that not all consumption is equal: selective focus/concentration when consuming certain news sites might be more important than bland information gathering. In addition to measuring polarization through consumption, how do these trends compare with data on public opinion, where polarization is more obvious? Are patterns of polarization driven mostly by hardline supporters? |
|
Thanks for sharing your work, Professor! You show that biased news consumption is not persistent, i.e., people consuming left- or right-winged news are less likely to consume that in the following period. I guess what's also important is not just the political inclination of news but also who is delivering it. For instance, some people might simply like Tucker Carlson and want to hear him deliver news. Does your empirical evaluation include some kind of person fixed-effects? |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, |
|
Dear Prof. Watts, One thing I am concerned with is it seems hard to purely classify a person as TV viewer or online viewer. I think it might be for most people they are hybrid viewer of both TV and online channels. Is it possible that someone is partisan-segregated on TV but not so online? or the other way round? And I think the TV program resources are much limited than online resources. Thus could this phenomenon just be driven by the diversity of resources so online will have less segregation? Best, |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, thank you for sharing your work! My question is what is the future of democracy in US in a digital age, like a decade or two decades from now? It's looks like a big question, but the rationale behind the question is based the findings of your papers: Your papers argues that TV, a shrinking market, contribute the most political segregation, while the situations on social platforms are more moderate. We may safely assume that the younger generations are shifting from medias like TV to Internet streaming platforms and social medias. If this is the case, does that mean that the society is not becoming more polarized in the future when the generation watching TV fade away from the stage? |
|
Dear Prof. Watts, Thank you for sharing your research on TV-driven partisan audience segregation. Your descriptive analysis is very interesting, and it is surprising to see such a fast drop in partisan segregation for both TV and Web news audiences. While I understand that your data is not suitable for identifying the drivers of desegregation, I am curious about your hypothesis regarding this phenomenon. I am also a bit confused about one thing: how do you define TV news audience and Web news audience? It's common to see people consuming news in a mixed way, so can we really say that an individual is partisan-segregated based solely on their content selection behavior on one platform? For example, what if someone chooses to watch specific types of news on TV but looks at very different content online? This situation is not uncommon. Personally, I sometimes watch TV with my family and choose something that they are interested in, but when I'm online alone, I may look at something that only interests me. I believe many young people do the same thing. So, can we really draw a conclusion about someone's level of partisan segregation based solely on their content selection behavior on one platform? |
|
Thank you so much Professor Watts for sharing your work with us! How do you anticipate that this will change with age as younger generations get older? Given that your population varies with age, will we see trends more within the online space as opposed to television as younger generations get older and newer generations consume more and more news online? |
|
Professor Watts, Thank you so much for sharing your work. Considering the growing trend of partisan news consumption and its potential impact on political attitudes and behaviors, what measures can be taken to mitigate the potential negative effects of such news consumption on individuals and society as a whole? |
|
Hi Professor Watts, Thanks for giving this talk to our workshop! A key point you and you co-authors make is that "...to the extent that Americans do consume news, it is overwhelmingly from television, which accounts for roughly five times as much as news consumption as online". The relevance of this fact to much research on media consumption patterns, including the papers you note which overreact in their attempt to "debunk" the concerns about echo chambers, seems so obvious, yet it was not quite as obvious as it seemed, since it was being ignored. Overall, your point about the relative impact and importance of TV compared to online news reminds me of Hortaçsu and Syverson's 2015 work showing that for all of the emphasis on e-commerce, warehouse clubs like Sam's Club and Costco were at least 50% more impactful in terms of how much consumers buy from each type of store (at least in the 2010s; furthermore, their work also parallels yours in that a person is extremely likely to use both of, say Amazon and Costco, but not necessarily or likely in equal proportion, and that proportion matters). Or the fact that less than 40% of Americans have a 4-year college degree (although this number is higher than it used to be), while so much of "the discourse" (hyper-focused as it is on free speech/platforming questions, campus politics, and related matters) presupposes that attending a 4-year college is a universal shared experience for all who are reading/listening/watching. I hope that, like the work of Gelman et. al. that corrected some very-widespread (and commonly repeated by the media) misunderstandings about American partisan voting behavior, the work that you and your colleagues have done here rapidly becomes well-known and the new baseline for work on this topic. |
|
Dear Prof. Watts, Thank you so much for sharing your work with us! I really appreciate your research comparing the partisans in TV and web news. While the results show that there is a larger partisan in TV news audience, there might be selection bias among different audience groups of TV and web news. I wonder whether you would conclude a causal (or reverse causal) relationship between partisan and TV news? |
|
Hi Professor Watts, These are interesting findings and I'm anticipating the direction of future research in polarization as well as the broader realm of media influence. While the study focuses on individual level behavior, do you have any thoughts about potential differences in social network effects between online social media and TV consumption? TV consumption feels more social than online usage, especially in families (if it is still the case that most families just have one television set). Although information might spread quicker and more easily online, will information consumed alongside strong ties–especially among known individuals they can have repeated communication with–be perceived to have greater value and validity? How does this in turn affect the individuals' decisions and beliefs (I'm particular curious about both their own political beliefs and beliefs about others with differing opinions). |
|
Hi Prof. Watts,thanks for sharing your work with us. For the paper, could you please explain the categorizing of news and the bias in detail, regarding the intersection part? Given some news sources may have a mix of liberal and conservative viewpoints, making their categorization difficult. |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, thank you for sharing your work with us. I really enjoyed reading the study that compares the partisans between TV and online news audiences. I am curious, though it may be hard to examine, that whether the TV audiences consist of mainly older adults; and whether those elders who are used to accessing online news may already have exposure to the left ideology, which may increase the likelihood of consuming information from more than one source? If certain group differences like the above do exist, how would that influence the conclusion of this study? |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, thanks for sharing your work with us. I have two questions: 1. How do echo chambers form, and what role do algorithmic filters play in reinforcing them? 2. Can you provide examples of ways in which social media platforms have been accused of undermining democracy, and how can data science help to evaluate these claims? |
|
Thank you so much for sharing your work with us! What might be the reasons leading to the observed different degrees of partisanship in TV vs online viewers? Would it be possible that the inflexibility of TV shows (compared to online browsing) itself leads to more concentrated viewing records? What are some of the things that you think the findings of the current study can inform us about the root of political polarization and possible ways to eliminate it? |
|
Hi Dr. Watts, |
|
Dear Prof Watts, |
|
Thank you so much, Professor Watts!!! The message is from an individual who is thanking you for sharing their research on TV-driven partisan audience segregation. They find the descriptive analysis interesting and surprising, especially the fast drop in partisan segregation for both TV and Web news audiences. However, they are curious about the hypothesis behind this phenomenon and also a bit confused about the definition of TV news audience and Web news audience. They question whether an individual's content selection behavior on one platform is sufficient to conclude their level of partisan segregation, considering that many people consume news in a mixed way. They give an example of how they may watch TV with their family and choose something that interests them but may look at something different when online alone, which is not uncommon among young people. Based on your own experience, do you think the phenomenon of partisan segregation is decreasing or increasing over time? |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, Thank you for sharing this interesting piece of work with us! I’m curious about the policy implications of the findings for democracy, and what measures can be taken to address the problem of partisan audience segregation in the news? |
|
Dear Prof. Watts, |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, |
|
Hello Prof. Watts, Thank you for sharing your work! I am still very curious about the finding that fake news and partisan news feeds only constitute a small percentage of Internet traffic. Do you think the proportion of partisan-segregated audiences on the web will change when looking at an earlier time when web news is still in its early stages? Is it possible that web audiences learn to identify fake news better and stop consuming fake information after they get more experience on the Internet? |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, thank you so much for sharing your work with us. I am wondering what are the applications of the policy interventions proposed in your paper. What do you think about misinformation and how should we best approach and study it? |
|
Dear Prof. Watts, Thanks for sharing the interesting paper. I am impressed by the data and there only 17% and 4% of Americans are partisan-segregated on television and online. I'm curious why there is such a significant difference between television and online. Can we attribute this to the demographic difference or the different patterns of access to the information? For example, television gives the same message to all viewers, and we can only choose whether to watch it or not. Online, we will receive customized information, and we can independently click on links to information of interest. |
|
Hi Professor Watts, Thanks for sharing your work with us. My question is that how do the differences in the consumption of politically polarized content between web and TV audiences affect individuals' political beliefs and behavior over time? Or is it in the opposite way that TV audiences tend to watch politically polarized content because they are partisan segregated? Thanks. |
|
Hi Professor Watts, thank you for sharing your research with us! As you mainly discussed how partisan news impact internet users and viewers and the relationship of their political polarizations, I wonder do you think the media platform could provide the audience with impartial political issues, or all the news are more or less biased? |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, thank you for sharing your work! One question I have is that, what are some of the potential sources of bias in the data used to measure partisan news diets in Web and TV audiences, and how did the you attempt to address these biases in their analysis? |
|
Hello Professor, Thank you for your work. I was especially interested in your paper on fake news and was thinking about its connections with democracy and democratic backsliding. Many in the Philippines cite misinformation and fake news regarding Ferdinand Marcos's legacy for his son's eventual election. In many ways, voting in the son of one of the country's most infamous dictators could either be seen as a rejection of democratic ideals or political apathy, yet the fake news hypothesis makes his election seem like a result of forced amnesia. I was wondering where we should begin negotiating this and how different polities might change your methodology? |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, |
|
Thank you for presenting this to our work shop, Prof Watts! My question is whether the internet is killing network television news? With how ubiquitous televised news is in America, is the internet augmenting news consumption? Considering that internet news allows for highly personalized content delivery and preferred television news networks vary by region. Thus, only watching televised news can bias a whole group of people on the same issue while personalized internet news allows for greater diversity of opinions within a group as it caters to individual users preferences. In this sense, can internet news reduce bias and polarization? |
|
Dear Professor Watts, Thank you for sharing your work with us. I was wondering what your expectations are regarding future changes in partisan news consumption regarding the consumption channels. |
|
Hello Professor Watts, Thank you so much for sharing your work with us! This is such an interesting topic. I look forward to your presentation tomorrow. I found it interesting about your finding of temporal differences between TV news and online news. I wonder whether your results are associated with characteristics of age groups or other demographics, as I would imagine the audience base might differ significantly between these two news sources. |
|
Hi Prof Watts, Thank you for sharing this interesting work with us. The framework measure the extent of partisan segregation within the news audience is very novel, taking into account temporal dynamics underlying news consumption. The discussion over potential solutions to mitigate the risks posed by partisan news diets in the media ecosystem is inspring. Looking forward to your lecture! |
|
Thanks for sharing your amazing work with us, Prof. Watts! Your work is very relevant to our daily life, and it's very interesting that partisan news channels' audiences are growing even when the TV news audience is shrinking. If TV is really the channel, would you say the policy implication would be a negative shock/ an alarm to the TV market? |
|
Hi professor, thank you for sharing this excellent work. I have a question. What are the limitations of current models used in network neuroscience research to understand the relationship between structural connectivity and functional connectivity? Thank you so much |
|
Hi Professor Watts, I was really interested to read your paper on the consumption of YouTube content and how you found little evidence that the algorithm was behind it as a force. More generally do you think that if future evidence emerged that the algorithm was an issue in radicalisation, do you think your kind of analysis could be used to inform regulations that govern the kinds of algorithms in use across social media? Do you think such regulation is already necessary maybe? |
|
Hi Professor Watts, Thank you for sharing this interesting work with us! I have the following questions:
|
|
Hi Prof. Watts, |
|
Hi Professor Watts, Thanks for sharing your research. It is indeed an interesting research and here are a few questions. First, it seems that more people are partisan-segregated through television comparing with online news audience. But if we want to compare the effect related to the type of media (television versus online), we have to assume that the audience of television and online news share the demographic distribution. With this controlled, we then can proceed into how the difference of online news and television contribute to the difference. Indeed, all these audience are American, they are drawn from the same population. But how can we know that they have the same distribution? If they are not sharing the same distribution, then how can we directly compare? (In this case, what is driving the difference might not be the media but the underlying demographic structure of the audience groups.) Also, it is great that we know how different attributes (race, education, age) of people affect the partisan segregation, but the distribution might also contribute to the conclusion. Moreover, another question is on the habit of watching TV and browsing through online news feed. For TV audience, their news source is unique - we cannot let the TV play two news channels at the same time. But for internet audience, people are more lean to reading news from the news 'portal' which puts news of different sources together. Indeed, these archetypes will include most of the news consumption, but it cannot cover the full population of US people. And could you explain more on how this sample behavior can account for the overall partisan segregation of US people? (And if most online people generally consume news from portal, online news audience will show less partisanship. And this might make the conclusion of the research trivial?) And at last, another question is the "compliance" issue. For online users, their average daily minutes are significantly lower than the TV audience. Could the relatively low partisan segregation and low survival rate of partisanship due to the fact that online audience are generally less exposed to those partisan news comparing with TV users? (The reason I think of it as a compliance issue is that it is like imposing a treatment to people, but with low exposure with treatment, it is hard to say that people comply with the treatment.) And I am really curious what will happen if people generally spend more time on online news feed. Again, thank you so much for sharing your idea. This is really enlightening. Best, |
|
Thank you for sharing your thought-provoking work! I am particularly interested in how echo chambers affect moral judgement and ability to empathize with out-group members, especially in the virtual world. In your research, have you found that the effects of consuming biased information without awareness extend beyond political partisanship? I'm curious to know if similar effects might appear in other situations with strong moral convictions. |
|
Hello Professor Watts, thank you for sharing! Echo chamber and filter bubble are surrounded us every single day, let alone how much time we stick with social media everyday. I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts in your presentation! |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, thanks for sharing your work with us! How do homophily, affinity, and demonstrated personal preference contribute to the formation of echo chambers and filter bubbles, and how do these factors interact with algorithms and curation systems to shape online news consumption patterns? Thanks! |
|
Hi Prof Watts, |
|
Hi Professor Watts, I found your research very interesting. I was wondering if you have studied whether there's an increase in partisan news consumption when a politicized event takes place? Thanks! |
|
Hi Prof Watts, |
|
Hi Professor Watts, Thank you for sharing your research. How can the findings of this study help media organizations and policymakers address the issue of partisan segregation within news audiences? How might the growing audience for partisan news channels on television impact the political attitudes and behaviors of Americans, and what are the potential implications for democracy? Thank you! |
|
Hi Dr Watts, Thank you for your wonderful talk! I'm wondering if you considered the possibility of cascading effects from opinion leaders in the space and whether there are critical points which trigger these effect. |
|
Hi Dr. Watts, I appreciated how you showed partisan segregation size broken down by demographic, but did you happen to look at partisan segregation trends by region? I'd like to know whether regional differences in segregation generally followed standard partisan trends. |
|
HI Professor Watts, |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, |
|
Hi Prof. Watts, |
|
Hello Professor, Thank you for sharing this. I was wondering how was the TV data gather? were there any potential bias/missing information may affect the result? Also, since it is minute level, is it possible to observe how audience's behavior is different during different national news event? for example, are people more partisan when there is a significant breaking political news? |
|
Hi professor, |
|
Hi Professor, Thank you for sharing your work with us! With the current polarized political climate in the United States, do you believe that the high levels of partisan segregation observed in television news consumption could hinder constructive political debate and bipartisan collaboration? If so, what steps can be taken by politicians, media organizations, and citizens to promote a more inclusive and diverse news ecosystem? Thanks! |
|
Thanks for sharing your work. It is interesting to see an analysis on the taste of American audience and what partisan exists. I learned a lot in terms of measurement and method. Thank you |
and others
Comment below with a well-developed question or comment about the reading for this week's workshop.
If you would really like to ask your question in person, please place two exclamation points before your question to signal that you really want to ask it.
Please post your question by Tuesday of the coming week, at 11:59 PM. We will also ask you all to upvote questions that you think were particularly good. There may be prizes for top question-askers.
The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered: