TY - JOUR
T1 - Cable News Use and Conspiracy Theories
T2 - Exploring Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC Effects on People’s Conspiracy Mentality
AU - Gil de Zúñiga, Homero
AU - Scheffauer, Rebecca
AU - Zhang, Bingbing
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 AEJMC.
PY - 2024/12
Y1 - 2024/12
N2 - Research on the origin, dissemination, and support of conspiracy theories has skyrocketed. Studies reveal how individual antecedents such as people’s personality traits, intrinsic motivations, and broad social-psychological processes explain this phenomenon. Fewer studies, however, explored the role of cable news exposure. This study casts a new light on how exposure to Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC relate to people’s levels of general conspiracy mentality fueled by the belief in “secret-plotting orchestrated by powerful others.” Results from K-mean cluster algorithms, ordinary least squares (OLS) causal-autoregressive regressions, and cross-lagged panel structural equation model tests show Fox News exposure fosters people’s conspiracy mentality.
AB - Research on the origin, dissemination, and support of conspiracy theories has skyrocketed. Studies reveal how individual antecedents such as people’s personality traits, intrinsic motivations, and broad social-psychological processes explain this phenomenon. Fewer studies, however, explored the role of cable news exposure. This study casts a new light on how exposure to Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC relate to people’s levels of general conspiracy mentality fueled by the belief in “secret-plotting orchestrated by powerful others.” Results from K-mean cluster algorithms, ordinary least squares (OLS) causal-autoregressive regressions, and cross-lagged panel structural equation model tests show Fox News exposure fosters people’s conspiracy mentality.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85161657780
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85161657780&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/10776990231171929
DO - 10.1177/10776990231171929
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85161657780
SN - 1077-6990
VL - 101
SP - 889
EP - 910
JO - Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
JF - Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
IS - 4
ER -