The Positive Effect of Being Conflict Non-Avoidance. How Conflict Framing Mobilizes Citizens to Participate Politically.

The news media's ability to mobilize citizens to participate politically by emphasizing elite conflict over politics is not well understood. We posit that citizens may gain knowledge when exposed to conflict news framing. We further posit that whether they translate their knowledge into political participation is conditioned by their orientation towards conflict. Consequently, individuals who avoid conflict participate less frequently than individuals who do not. The proposed moderated mediation process was tested using a content analysis of news media coverage and a three-wave panel survey (n=2,061). Generally, results show that the effect of exposure to conflict news framing on (changes in) political participation is positively mediated by knowledge. This mediation effect is further moderated by conflict avoidance, where the effect is more positive among conflict non-avoiders than conflict avoiders. To understand the news media's mobilizing effect on political participation calls for attention to news content and individual motivational factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]