Yariv Tsfati

Do People Watch what they Do Not Trust? Exploring the Association between News Media Skepticism and Exposure

This article explores a possible association between skepticism toward the media and audience exposure patterns. Hypotheses predicting a relationship between media skepticism and news media consumption are tested on four large sample data sets. Findings show that media skepticism is negatively associated with mainstream news exposure but positively associated with nonmainstream news exposure.

Online News Exposure and Trust in the Mainstream Media: Exploring Possible Associations

Based on the premise that online journalism offers readers with some features that may serve as an alternative to traditional journalism, this article explores possible associations between mistrust in mainstream news media and consumption of online news. Results from a telephone survey and an online survey demonstrate that the association between mistrust of mainstream news and exposure to online news in general is negative. But whereas mainstream exposure is related to trust in media, exposure to nonmainstream sites is related to media skepticism. The findings also shed some light on the factors contributing to audience trust in online news.

The Influence of Presumed Media Influence on News About Science and Scientists

According to the authors, much of media coverage of science and scientists is explained by scientists’ beliefs regarding the impact of appearing in media on their careers. Their argument rests on recent advances in communication theory, stressing “the influence of presumed media influence,” and contributes to our understanding of why some scientists receive more media coverage than others. Combined data from a survey of scholars in an Israeli research university (n = 166) and content analysis data on the frequency of the scholars’ appearances in the media were used to test this argument. Structural equation modeling revealed that the scholars’ belief in the influence of media increased their motivation and efforts to obtain media coverage, which in turn was related to the number of their actual media appearances.

Individual and Contextual Correlates of Trust in Media Across 44 Countries

Media research demonstrates that audience trust in the news media is a highly consequential factor, shaping audience selection of and response to media, and potentially impacting citizens’ perceptions of the political system at large. Still, our knowledge about the correlates of trust in media is limited. Only a few studies have utilized a correlational design to explore the associations between trust in media and other factors, and almost all of these studies originate in the U.S. context. The current investigation utilizes data from 44 diverse countries (n = 57,847), collected as part of the World Values Survey, to broaden our understanding of trust in media. The aim is two-fold—to learn about individual-level correlates across contexts and to demonstrate that macro-level factors play a part in shaping such trust. Our findings indicate that levels of political interest, interpersonal trust, and exposure to television news and newspapers are positively correlated with trust in media, while education and exposure to news on the Internet are negatively associated. On the macro level, postmaterialism emerged as a consistent predictor of trust in media. State ownership of the media industry did not have a main effect on trust in media after controlling for other factors. However, an interaction was found between state ownership and level of democracy: state ownership of television is positively associated with media trust in democratic societies and negatively associated with trust in media in nondemocratic societies.

Mainstream Media Skepticism and Exposure to Sectorial and Extranational News Media: The Case of Israel

In recent decades, audience options for current affairs information have been multiplying. Globalization and media segmentation present citizens with a variety of news outlets for political information in addition to those offered by the mainstream communication channels, which once dominated every nation state. In this article, survey data gathered in Israel (N ??1,122) are analyzed to examine the association between mainstream media skepticism and exposure to sectorial and extranational news media. Findings show that skepticism toward the mainstream news media is indeed related to sectorial and extranational news consumption; however, it is not related to consumption of such nonmainstream media exclusively. Results are discussed in light of theories of the public sphere.

Testing Causal Direction in the Influence of Presumed Media Influence

According to the influence of presumed media influence hypothesis, people estimate the potential effects of media on other people and change their attitudes or behaviors as a consequence. In recent years, many studies offered some support for this idea. However, a central limitation of these studies is that all of them utilized correlational methodology and thus do not offer a valid way to infer causality. The current research examined the causal direction in the influence of presumed media influence using experimental methodology. In Study 1, the authors manipulated the perceived influence of watching pornography and measured the effects of this manipulation on support for censorship. In Study 2, perceptions regarding the influence of a news story about an expected shortage in sugar were manipulated indirectly, by manipulating the perceived exposure to the news story, and behavioral intentions resulting from the story were consequently measured. In both studies, results supported the causal direction postulated by the “presumed influence” hypothesis.

Exposure to Ideological News and Perceived Opinion Climate: Testing the Media Effects Component of Spiral-of-Silence in a Fragmented Media Landscape

Spiral-of-silence theory assumes that a monolithic stream of messages from mainstream media, leaving little ability for audiences to seek ideologically congruent news, affects people’s perceptions of the distribution of opinion in society. While these assumptions may have been valid when Noelle-Neumann developed her theory forty years ago, the new media landscape, characterized by the proliferation of ideological media outlets, makes them seem outdated. Do audiences of conservative-leaning media perceive a conservative opinion climate while audiences of liberal-leaning media perceive a more liberal distribution of opinion? And if so, what are the consequences? We examine these questions using two data sets collected in extremely different contexts (Study 1 in the context of the 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza, n = 519; Study 2, in the context of the 2004 U.S. presidential elections using the National Annenberg Election Survey, n = 9,058). In both studies, selective exposure to ideological media outlets was associated with opinion climate perceptions that were biased in the direction of the media outlets’ ideologies. In Study 2, we also demonstrated that partisan selective exposure indirectly contributes to political polarization, and that this effect is mediated by opinion climate perceptions.

What is good journalism? comparing Israeli public and journalists' perspectives:

The frequent referencing of service to the public interest as a core professional journalistic value raises the question of the correspondence between the perception of journalists and the public as to what constitutes good and bad journalism. In this study, a sample of Israeli journalists and a sample of the Israeli public were asked a series of questions about the core values and practices of journalism. Results suggest four major conclusions: first, Israeli journalists have a clear, relatively uniform perception of what constitutes worthy journalism. Second, journalists and the public differ in the degrees of significance they assign to various journalistic norms and practices. Third, the public is slightly more positive in its overall assessment of the Israeli media in comparison with the journalists. Finally, the two general assessments are constituted by different, or even opposing, components.

Debating the Debate The Impact of Exposure to Debate News Coverage and Its Interaction with Exposure to the Actual Debate

Rather than studying the effects of a programmed debate per se, this article examines the “total information environment” that surrounds the debate. A model explaining how people make judgments about the “winner” of a debate is suggested and tested on survey data (N = 748) collected in the days following the second 1996 presidential debate. Results demonstrate that consumption of debate-related news coverage, interpersonal discussion about the debate, and prior candidate attitudes are associated with perceptions of the winner of the debate. In addition, exposure to news coverage of the debate significantly interacted with exposure to the actual debate, so that the impact of news coverage was stronger for those watching little of the actual debate.

Exploring the Association between Israeli Legislators’ Physical Attractiveness and Their Television News Coverage

This study develops and tests the hypothesis that physically attractive politicians receive more news coverage. The physical attractiveness of Members of the 16th Israeli Knesset (MKs) was assessed by students abroad, who did not know they were evaluating Israeli politicians. The number of times each member appeared on national television news at the time of study was obtained and used as a measure of television news coverage. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that, over and above controls for a host of factors, the physical attractiveness of the MKs was associated with their coverage in television news.