Racialization of the News through Interpersonal Communication

• In Event: Information & Views of Minoritized Groups

Abstract

How do interpersonal conversations racialize the news? While early scholarly work has identified the news media as a principal source of news for most Americans, not everyone learns about politics from the media today. Rather, many Americans learn about politics and events through other sources. Around 65% of Americans report learning about politics via word of mouth, and 66% of Americans report learning about politics via social media. Increasing evidence demonstrates the potentially damaging role political conversations can have on trust in government, accurate information, polarized attitudes, and correct voting. Despite these findings, however, we have yet to know whether individuals transfer racialized information to one another in interpersonal conversations and what the effects of social transmission of racialized information are on policy attitudes, if any. This paper uses four survey experiments to answer these research questions.

Authors

• Taylor Carlson, Washington University in St. Louis

• Nazita Lajevardi, Michigan State University

• Shayla Olson, University of Michigan