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This study investigated whether exposure to fake news leads to more confusion about public affairs and how SNS news use and characteristics of SNSs – network size, political heterogeneity and political expertise of networks – are associated with exposure to fake news and the confusion about political reality. For that, we theorized confusion as the composite of strengthening of misperception and weakening of right perception. Findings show that those exposed to fake news are more likely to be confused about the information in fake news. Regarding SNS factors, news use on SNSs increases exposure to fake news. Network size and political network heterogeneity indirectly affect people's confusion via exposure to fake news. In contrast, network political expertise was found to limit confusion directly, as well as indirectly by reducing likelihood of exposure to fake news. Implications of this study are discussed regarding the functioning of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Social networking sites (SNSs) provide users with a variety of opportunities to encounter political disagreement. One important factor of the encounters with disagreement could be social endorsements because SNS users can easily engage with other people's posts via functions, such as liking and retweeting. The goal of this study is to test the hypothesis by examining the relationship between social endorsements, exposure to political disagreement (XPD), and information seeking. Methods: We use a national survey conducted during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign. Ordinary least squares regression models are specified for analysis. Results: We find that SNS users who prefer reading political information endorsed by others are more likely to encounter political disagreement. We also find that XPD on SNSs encourages people to search for more information about the counter‐attitudinal posts, especially when the encountered disagreement is perceived to have good arguments and rationales. Conclusion: Overall, social endorsement enhances the probability of XPD on SNSs. This in turn facilitates individuals' search for more information, an important feature in democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly debate persists as to whether the use of social networking sites (SNSs) encourages or discourages political discussion with people holding different opinions. Drawing on a national survey, this study focuses on Facebook and explores the predictors of cross-cutting discussion on this platform. The results reveal that political interest is positively associated with cross-cutting discussion and this relationship is mediated by the frequency of news consumption on Facebook, suggesting that Facebook use has the potential of exposing the politically attentive to dissonant views. Furthermore, the level of heterogeneity of a person's strong-tie network is found to accentuate the mediating effect of Facebook news consumption. Implications are discussed for the impacts of Facebook use on deliberative democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the 2012 American National Election Studies (ANES) panel data, this study explores the influence of the consumption of partisan information sources on affective polarization and investigates the mechanism underlying this relationship. The results show that exposure to pro-party television sources strengthens affective polarization among partisans. The polarizing effects of pro-party sources are mediated by the discrete negative emotions (i.e., anger and fear) toward presidential candidates. The study discusses the impact of selective exposure on deliberative and participatory democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]