Running Head: NEWS MEDIA AND THE GROWING POLITICAL DIVIDE 1

Online News/Political Opinion Media Consumption and

The Growing Political Divide within the United States

Nadya J. Chen

Nevada State College

Online News Media/Public Opinion Consumption and the

Growing Political Divide within the United States

Within just the last decade, partisan parties have gone from a 15-percentage-point gap in

1994 to a 36-percentage-point gap in 2017, which is a 21-percentage-point increase in only 23

years (Doherty, 2017). The leap in divisiveness may be a cause of concern because of the

potential ramifications it may have on the country’s ability to compromise to combat the issues

ongoing in society. A number of factors can be assessed to analyze the reasoning behind this

growing political divide. Specifically, this research will analyze only one relevant trend that has

arisen: the growing use of the Internet for learning about recent news events. With its explosive

growth, the Internet is still in the works to see how the reading of political opinion online can

affect an individual’s political socialization. From 2017 to 2017, the percentage of individuals

who receive news primarily from online sources has risen by 5% within only one year

(Gottifried, 2017). To assess the correlation between these two growing trends, the following

question is assessed: ​How has the widespread utilization of the Internet/social media for

news/political opinion affected the growing political divide within the United States?​ The ability

to understand if there is a possible causal relationship between the two variables may enlighten

how to solve the issue.

The Ramifications of Online Media News Consumption

Although the Internet and social media has provided the most easily accessible and

convenient news sources in all of history, the ease of access may also be a cause of concern.

With everyone having access to posting news and information at their fingertips, the amount of

strongly biased information, plain misinformation, and uninformed information has also
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increased. As President Barack Obama has stated, “​The capacity to disseminate misinformation,

wild conspiracy theories, to paint the opposition in wildly negative light without any

rebuttal—that has accelerated in ways that much more sharply polarize the electorate and make it

very difficult to have a common conversation” (Boxell, Gentzkow, & Shapiro, 2017).​ Thus with

today’s technology, everyone may publicize their political opinions online without physical

confrontation or consequence. News sources are often economically incentivized to publish

biased news stories because more outrageous headlines also correspond with greater economic

return. A biased news network is also more likely to secure a more steady audience base.

Through increasingly polarized news sources, however, individuals of one party inherently

become more untrustworthy of the other side. If knowledge is so crucial to the continued

bettering of the human race, then society’s ability to pick out credible sources is absolutely

critical. To combat the issue, people need to first recognize that they may be unconsciously

affected by political opinions online.

Additionally, people are often unaware of another filter that exists within their brain that

selects for ideas they agree with. They unconsciously sift through information and “cherry pick”

the information they want to hear through confirmation bias. By selecting their chosen news

source, their biased perspective is only reinforced which gives people the confidence to have

more extremist values. It would be impossible to be without bias, but potential biases can still be

reduced. The first step to any problem is to be self-aware.

Discussion

Through a metaanalysis, Boxell, et al. discovered there not to be a correlation. Despite

the growing popular belief, Internet use is not a crucial aspect of the growing political divide.
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Although internet use has increased as well as political divisiveness, one is not affected by the

other. Boxell, et al. discovered the greatest political divide exists between those 65+ whom are

also the least likely to consume online news media. It can be a safe assumption then that there

are larger factors at play.

Other studies found positive correlations between the two variables, though not a causal

relationship. Proattitudinal news and counterattitudinal news consumption on Facebook

correlated with greater political partisanship (Anspach & Saunders, 2007). Online news media

consumption corresponded with greater partisanship (Nie, Miller, Golde, Butler, & Winneg,

2010). In a similar regard, online news media consumption could also have found to lower

political polarization from being exposed to different perspectives. Cross-cutting interactions on

social media tended to correspond with lower polarization (Heatherly, Lu, & Lee, 2016). There

was found to be little relationship between Internet access and political partisanship (Liang &

Nordin, 2014).

Through these conclusions, more influential factors are behind the growing political

divide. The Internet may be enhancing people’s ability to access such information, but it is not

the source. Through these findings, the more specific intentions of Internet use was able to find a

stronger relationship between political partisanship and Internet use. Because of the Internet’s

complexities, it may be impossible to analyze a distinct causal relationship. An analysis of how

current political party stances compare to those in the past through a historical lense may be

more insightful to explain today’s politics.

Conclusions and Future Study

Though this research does imply a middle ground should be established, it does not have

to be. Different perspectives are required for progress, and the growing political divide may not

be a potential problem. However, the ability of our country to be able to cooperate and live in a

diverse atmosphere may be compromised when a middle ground cannot be established at all

within different belief systems.Through this study though, the key was only to see whether or not

a correlation exists. It can be applied to any local, regional, or national scale of online news

media consumption. The correlation found between the usage of online media for news and the

current political divide has been found to be very weak. For future research, different factors can

be analyzed to determine the possible reasons for the growing political divide. Through a

different lense, future research could also analyze the relationship between online media

consumption and how it may affect the development of an individual’s political socialization.

In all though, everyone is affected by the policies that are put into place, and the policies

may be trying to directly address the problems people face throughout their lives. The better of

an understanding of the factors that are affecting our polarized political climate, the easier it will

be to solve the global and national issues at hand. Through any professional or personal

relationship, the benefits of being able to compromise is clear.

References

Abramowitz, A. I., & Saunders, K. L. (2007, July 12). Is Polarization a Myth? Retrieved October

15, 2019, from https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1017/S0022381608080493.

Boxell, L., Gentzkow, M., & Shapiro, J. M. (2017, October 3). Greater Internet use is not

associated with faster growth in political polarization among US demographic groups.

Retrieved October 15, 2019, from https://www.pnas.org/content/114/40/10612.

Doherty, C. (2017, October 5). Americans' growing partisan divide: 8 key findings. Retrieved

October 15, 2019, from

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/05/takeaways-on-americans-growing-par

tisan-divide-over-political-values/.

Gottfried, J., & Shearer, E. (2017, September 7). Internet closes in on TV as a source of news in

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https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/07/americans-online-news-use-vs-tv-new

s-use/.

Heatherly, K. A., Lu, Y., & Lee, J. K. (2016, March 4). Filtering out the other side?

Cross-cutting and like-minded discussions on social networking sites - Kyle A Heatherly,

Yanqin Lu, Jae Kook Lee, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2019, from

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444816634677.

Liang, C.-Y., & Nordin, M. (2014, March 14). The Internet, News Consumption, and Political

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2-0005.xml.
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Nie, N. H., Miller, D. W., Golde, S., Butler, D. M., & Winneg, K. (2010, April 9). The World

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