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A wealth of research examines the relationship between digital media consumption and political participation. Research typically defines participation broadly and focuses on Western contexts. We seek to add to the understanding of this relationship by focusing more directly on the relationship between digital media consumption and the propensity to vote among young people in a less democratic context. To do so, we examine a set of Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) that have varying degrees of democratization. We test whether digital media consumption stimulates voting among respondents aged 18-30, and if this is contingent on how free and fair are the elections. Our results suggest that in the most democratic country, Kyrgyzstan, the relationship between digital media use and the propensity to vote is relatively flat while digital media use in less democratic countries, overall, is associated with a decrease in the propensity to vote. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cable news makes it possible for consumers to avoid information that challenges their predispositions, and the Internet makes it even easier. Cable news consumption is related to attitude extremity, but the extant literature is absent empirical examination of how the two may work together. Objectives: This study aims to contribute to our understanding of the relationship between media consumption and policy attitude extremity. In particular,, it asks how digital media consumption may combine with cable or traditional mass media to drive higher levels of polarization and attitude extremity. Methods: We use American National Election Studies and data reduction methods to model and measure the gathering of political information to compare the relationship between different forms of media consumption and policy attitude extremity. Results: Our results indicate that, independently, the consumption of both "partisan" cable news and "non‐partisan" political digital information have the same positive relationship to attitude extremity across four major issue domains (economy, federal spending, social issues, and foreign affairs) and that when combined into a single index, the relationship is stronger than their independent relationships. Finally, the results suggest that the combined effect is strongest among those who consume more liberal cable news. Conclusion: Our high choice media environment contributes to the polarized climate in the United States today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that people are motivated to avoid information that challenges their predispositions. They seek out attitude-consistent information, leading to more extreme attitudes. While research suggests that the Internet facilitates this selective exposure more easily than traditional media, there is little evidence that it contributes to issue attitude extremity, and even less outside the Western context. We seek to fill that gap using survey data from the Arab Barometer. Our results indicate that digital information consumption consistently predicts issue attitude extremity, but some part of that relationship is mediated by political attentiveness. These results have tangible implications for understanding the complex relationship between public opinion and governance in societies with limited or absent democratic structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use original survey data from Malaysia to explore differences in how traditional and digital media shape the attitudes and behavior of citizens. In closed, and even semi-authoritarian, states such as Malaysia, the Internet, including social media, is often the only place for opposition-centered media to thrive. As a result, consumption of Internet media is related to dissident attitudes. We argue that this relationship, though, is mitigated by trust in the medium. Our results suggest: (1) trust in traditional and Internet media determines the frequency with which citizens use each corresponding medium to gather political information, (2) higher trust in traditional media is positively associated with attitudes about democratic conditions in Malaysia; the opposite is true for trust in Internet media, (3) trust in the traditional media is negatively related, and trust in Internet media is positively related to the inclination to protest, (4) the positive relationship between digital media consumption and this attitude is stronger for those who trust Internet media, and diminished among those who trust traditional media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]