Media Exposure and Opinion Formation in an Age of Information Overload (MEOF) – Survey U.S.A.

The research project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, investigates the consequences of online media presence for political preferences and behaviour. The study was conducted by YouGov USA. During the survey period 23 April 2018 to 15 October 2019, American citizens aged 18 and older with internet access were surveyed in online interviews (CAWI) on the following topics: political preferences and political behaviour, use of social media, media use, attitudes towards specific topics, political knowledge, opinions on the regulation of online harassment. Respondents were selected through quota sampling from an online access panel.<br>1. Political preferences and political behaviour: party identification; ideological self-location; registered as a voter; voting behaviour in the 2016 presidential election; interest in politics; frequency following government and public affairs; party preference; approval of Donald Trump´s work as president; approval of Congress´s work; likelihood of own voting in the midterm elections on 6/11/2018; likability scales for selected countries, politicians and groups of people; social distance from supporters of the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and Trump; individual characteristics: Gun ownership, foreign language skills, travel outside the US, family member served in the military, attended a political rally in the past year; national attachment; exaggerated patriotism (chauvinism); expected winner of House of Representatives election; expected national vote share of Democratic Party; voting intention in November 2018 midterm elections; preferred party to control Congress after midterm elections; preference for Republican vs. of Democrats in own constituency as Congressman; expected election winner in own constituency; certainty of own assessment regarding expected election winner; opinion on impeachment proceedings against President Trump; feeling constrained in political discussions; participation in midterm elections and voting decision regarding Congressman; justification of system (scale); opinion on regulation of economy in the following areas: Drones, self-driving cars, internet companies´ handling of user data, finance, health insurance, oil, gas, social media providers´ handling of user data; preferences regarding regulation of leading tech companies; opinion on higher taxes for incomes over 10 million dollars; opinion on withdrawal of all American troops from Afghanistan within one year; heterogeneity of own newsfeed on Twitter (estimated percentage liberals, moderates, conservatives).

2. Use of social media: account on selected social media sites; frequency of reception of political news or comments on Twitter and Facebook from different sources (friends, relatives, acquaintances, news organisations and journalists, politicians, parties or political campaigns, other followees, companies); proportion of accounts sharing one´s own political views (diversity of political views); frequency of political usage behaviour on Twitter and Facebook (tweeting or (tweeting or posting one´s views on current political issues, sharing news with followers, reading news articles from people one follows, reading news or information from politicians or parties, reading personal opinions of contacts on political issues, liking political information or opinions, political conversations).

3. Media use: frequency of political information from various sources (TV, newspapers or printed magazines, radio, online media, social media, face-to-face conversations); frequency of use of selected news sites and news programmes on TV, daily newspapers and cable news programmes; perceptions of selected news sources; general trust vs. distrust in known news sources about government and politics; trust in media; (press, Facebook); major news outlets treat all sides fairly vs. tend to favour one side when presenting political and social issues; trust in Huffington Post and Fox News; opinion on news organisations´ criticism of political leaders.

4. Attitude towards political issues: most important political issues in the USA; attitude towards various statements on the following domestic and foreign policy issues: Black Lives Matter movement, climate change, corporations, relief for the poor, entry into war, gun control laws, international cooperation, international trade, Islam, isolation, marijuana, military strength, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), North Korea, regulation of corporations or the the technology industry, sexual harassment (mee too), President Trump´s right to pardon, cooperation with the United Nations, wall on the border with Mexico; opinion on current political issues: thorough investigation by the FBI of possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, dealing with young immigrants (Dreamers), regulation of technology companies, dealing with North Korea; particularly important issues and problems in the USA; political trade-offs on various issues (e. g. Russia and the Trump election campaign, dealing with North Korea, etc.); impact of increasing US trade with other countries on own economic situation and the American economy; perceived polarisation (Democrats and Republicans hate each other, differences between Democrats and Republicans are too great to overcome, polarisation in America is greater than ever before); opinion on various statements regarding racism (e.g. Blacks should work their way up without special favours like other minorities, in recent years Blacks have gotten less than they deserve); threat perceptions (terrorist attack on the US, Russia´s interference in American midterm elections, North Korea´s plans to attack the United States with a long-range nuclear missile, Iran developing nuclear weapons, undocumented immigrants taking jobs away from Americans, loss of American jobs to China); support or oppose the declaration of a national emergency on the US-Mexico border; trust in institutions and organisations (Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple, local police, FBI, Congress, courts, executive branch and military); assessment of group-based discrimination in the US (gays and lesbians, Muslims, whites, Hispanics, African Americans); impeachment proceedings against President Trump: Congress should conduct impeachment proceedings against President Trump; support or opposition to such impeachment proceedings; President Trump should be removed from office in impeachment proceedings; decisive reasons for the decision of the House of Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings (e. g. Trump´s efforts to support foreign politicians to influence US policy).

5. Knowledge of politics, events and facts: promise to answer the following questions without outside help; no agreement not to cheat; admission of looking up information during the study; party affiliation of various American politicians and personalities; actual political and social events that have taken place in recent months; factual knowledge: Percentage of residents in the country born outside the United States, unemployment rate in the United States, percentage of adult African-Americans in American prisons; opinion on the letter bombings of prominent Democrats and critics of President Trump; knowledge about the impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

6. Experiment on online news: Consent to try a particular news service; subscription link clicked.

7. Opinions on the regulation of online harassment: personal experience with hate speech; opinion on the legal regulation of group-specific offensive or hateful statements in public (Americans, Muslims, Jews, women, Christians, immigrants, neo-Nazis, government); designation of selected cases as hate speech (e.g. racial slur against an ethnic minority); responsibility of different actors to act against hate speech on the internet (victims, witnesses, online platforms, politicians, judiciary and police, employers of hate speech spreaders); list experiment on unpopular opinions (Marijuana is harmless. Legalize it!, Vaccines save lives. Mandatory vaccination for all children!, Stop killing babies. Make Abortion illegal in ALL cases!, Muslims out of USA. Protect the American People!, More Women in Tech. Affirmative Action now!, Guns don’t kill people. People kill people, Save the planet. Raise the taxes on gasoline!, People should be able to make statements that criticize the government publicly, Media organizations should be able to publish information about large political protests in our country, Government should be able to stop a news media outlet from publishing biased or inaccurate information, People should be allowed to express unpopular opinions in public, even those that are deeply offensive to other people, Marijuana should be legalized, even if it may be harmful for some people, Vaccination should be mandatory for all children, even if parents oppose it, Abortion should be illegal, even if there is a health risk for the mother); support vs. rejection of the following statements in social media: People should be free to practice their religion in our country, Muslims out of the US. Protect the American People, It is important that people can use the internet without government censorship, People should be allowed to express unpopular opinions publicly, even if others find those opinions deeply offensive).

8. Vignette experiment for regulating online harassment with different attributes regarding topic, message category target, message target, gender, religion and ideology of the sender, name of the sender and profile photo of the sender, message category of the sender, message with group category and topic, categorisation of the target group in the sender message, sender message, response of the target, response category of the target: Assessment of the offensive and hateful nature of different messages; preferred actions (platform provider should take no action, message should be deleted, writer should not be able to send further messages to the target of this message, writer should be secondarily banned from the platform, writer should be permanently banned from the platform, no further action should be taken, sender of the message should lose their job, sender of the message should pay a fine, sender of the message should receive a prison sentence).

Demography: sex; age; year of birth; ethnicity; education; marital status; children under 18 in household; occupation; net household income; state; denomination; born-again or evangelical Christian; frequency of church attendance; personal importance of religion; frequency of prayer.

Additionally coded were: wave; respondent ID; interview start and end dates; weight; vignette ID; online news experiment: assignment news source (Fox News or Huffington Post); attention check.