Lauren Feldman - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Lauren Feldman
Risk Analysis, 2017
Using a national sample, this study experimentally tests the effects of news visuals and texts th... more Using a national sample, this study experimentally tests the effects of news visuals and texts that emphasize either the causes and impacts of climate change or actions that can be taken to address climate change. We test the effects of variations in text and imagery on discrete emotions (i.e., hope, fear, and anger) and, indirectly, on support for climate mitigation policies. Political ideology is examined as a moderator. The findings indicate that news images and texts that focus on climate‐oriented actions can increase hope and, in the case of texts, decrease fear and anger, and these effects generally hold across the ideological spectrum. In turn, the influence of emotions on policy support depends on ideology: Hope and fear increase support for climate policies for all ideological groups but particularly conservatives, whereas anger polarizes the opinions of liberals and conservatives. Implications for climate change communication that appeals to emotions are discussed.
Applied Developmental Science, 2008
Proceedings of the 15th ACM Web Science Conference 2023
Multiple recent efforts have used large-scale data and computational models to automatically dete... more Multiple recent efforts have used large-scale data and computational models to automatically detect misinformation in online news articles. Given the potential impact of misinformation on democracy, many of these efforts have also used the political ideology of these articles to better model misinformation and study political bias in such algorithms. However, almost all such efforts have used source level labels for credibility and political alignment, thereby assigning the same credibility and political alignment label to all articles from the same source (e.g., the New York Times or Breitbart). Here, we report on the impact of journalistic best practices to label individual news articles for their credibility and political alignment. We found that while source level labels are decent proxies for political alignment labeling, they are very poor proxies-almost the same as flipping a coin-for credibility ratings. Next, we study the implications of such source level labeling on downstream processes such as the development of automated misinformation detection algorithms and political fairness audits therein. We find that the automated misinformation detection and fairness algorithms can be suitably revised to support their intended goals but might require different assumptions and methods than those which are appropriate using source level labeling. The results suggest caution in generalizing recent results on misinformation detection and political bias therein. On a positive note, this work shares a new dataset of journalistic quality individually labeled articles and an approach for misinformation detection and fairness audits.
A Comedian and an Activist Walk into a Bar
Abstract: Recent years have introduced American news audiences to new models of opinionated broad... more Abstract: Recent years have introduced American news audiences to new models of opinionated broadcast journalism, as exemplified by the cable news programs of Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Lou Dobbs, and others. This trend has fueled an ongoing ...
This study investigates how The Daily Show and The Colbert Report portray global warming in their... more This study investigates how The Daily Show and The Colbert Report portray global warming in their satirical news segments and guest interviews. Quantitative content analysis is used to examine the explicit claims made regarding the reality, causes, and severity of global warming; the intended targets of the shows’ satirical critiques about global warming; and how the issue is framed. Results show that a large majority of segments on both programs explicitly affirmed the reality of global warming, and the most frequent targets of global warming humor were climate skepticism, in general, as well as specific individuals and groups associated with skepticism. Although the programs were most likely to frame global warming in terms of political conflict, a majority of coverage simultaneously critiqued this frame.
International Journal of Communication, 2020
Educational achievement gaps exist between racial and ethnic groups in the United States; early c... more Educational achievement gaps exist between racial and ethnic groups in the United States; early childhood readiness, fostered in part by parents and caregivers, is crucial. To respond to this challenge, the Univision television network produced content that aired across 3 storytelling genres (scripted drama, reality, news) to entertain and educate Hispanic parents and primary caregivers of children ages 0–5 years about early brain development interventions. This pretest/posttest experimental study assessed the impact of each genre and found significant direct effects on knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions; the effects were mediated by perceived entertainment value and positive emotions.
The Journal of Climate Change and Health
Science Communication
This experiment examines how framing power plant emissions in terms of air pollution or climate c... more This experiment examines how framing power plant emissions in terms of air pollution or climate change, and in terms of health or environmental impacts, influences perceived benefits and costs of policies to reduce emissions and intentions to take political action that supports such policies. A moderated-mediation model reveals that focusing on air pollution, instead of climate change, has a positive significant indirect influence on intended political action through the serial mediators of perceived benefits and costs. Political ideology moderates the association between perceived benefits and political action. No framing effects are observed in the comparison between health and environmental impacts.
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
This study investigated whether increased technological affordances, characterized by the rise of... more This study investigated whether increased technological affordances, characterized by the rise of social media, diversified communication in climate change discourse. Extending the literature of intermedia agenda setting, this study examined agenda and frame contagion across Twitter and online news media. Using a large dataset of media content about climate change, time-series analysis showed that news media played a major role in setting agendas and frames, but Twitter has increased its dominance in climate change discussions. The findings address both opportunities for strategic science communication and challenges resulting from unverified scientific claims (e.g., hoax frames) spread on social media.
Global Environmental Change
This study examines how public support for four specific low-carbon energy policies (renewable en... more This study examines how public support for four specific low-carbon energy policies (renewable energy investment, revenue-neutral carbon tax, fuel efficiency regulations, expansion of nuclear power) varies when these policies are framed as a way to reduce either climate change, air pollution, or energy dependence. A survey question wording experiment with a nationally representative U.S. sample is utilized. We find framing effects only among Republicans, whose policy support was lower in response to the climate change frame versus the air pollution and energy security frames for all policies except nuclear power. This suggests that framing effects are conditional on political partisanship and policy content. When testing the processing mechanism behind these effects, we find no evidence that the climate change frame functions as a simple heuristic; rather, the findings are consistent with motivated reasoning, whereby the framing effects on policy support are mediated by the policy's perceived relative benefits and costs.
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media
This study analyzes the predictors of two types of media selectivity: interest-based (i.e., choic... more This study analyzes the predictors of two types of media selectivity: interest-based (i.e., choice of entertainment over politics) and partisan (i.e., choice of pro-attitudinal over counter-attitudinal or balanced news). Relying on a large survey-based experiment, we find that issue-specific engagement variables, including perceived issue understanding, issue importance, and issue attitude strength, predict interest-based and partisan selectivity above and beyond the influence of general political knowledge, news interest, and strength of political leanings. These results show that the drivers of selectivity are more complex than general political attributes; rather, they are contextual and reflect people's engagement with particular issues.
Journal of Communication
Two online news browsing experiments were conducted with national samples of U.S. adults to test ... more Two online news browsing experiments were conducted with national samples of U.S. adults to test the effects of six different climate change frames on selective exposure to climate change news; the frames emphasized the implications of climate change for either public health, the economy, national security, the environment, morality, or political conflict. Effects were compared between liberal-Democrats, moderate-Independents, and conservative-Republicans. In Study 1, participants could select only from articles about climate change. In Study 2, climate change news competed for attention with other news topics. Results show that a public health frame increased exposure to climate change news relative to other frames; however, these increases were confined to liberal-Democrats and, in Study 1, also moderate-Independents. Conservative-Republicans' exposure to climate news was unaffected by framing. Overall, the findings suggest framing plays only a limited role in driving exposure to climate change news.
Human Communication Research
Journal of Environmental Psychology
Abstract This study examined how utilizing different frames to contextualize negative impacts of ... more Abstract This study examined how utilizing different frames to contextualize negative impacts of power plant emissions influenced belief in those impacts and support for policies to regulate emissions. Using a U.S. national YouGov sample (n = 1000), we examined how discussing emissions in terms of climate change or air pollution, and in terms of health or environmental impacts, influenced individuals with different partisan affiliations. The analysis utilized a moderated-mediation model, with belief in negative impacts of power plant emissions as the mediator, support for government action as the dependent variable, and political party as a moderator of the link from the message frame to belief. This analysis revealed that using a climate change frame relative to an air pollution frame lowered policy support both directly and indirectly via belief in negative impacts, with the strongest indirect effect observed for Republicans. There were no effects of discussing environmental versus health impacts. The results suggest that communicators may be more successful in increasing support for mitigating carbon pollution from power plants by focusing on non-climate change oriented risks that the pollution poses, rather than linking the pollution to climate change.
Mass Communication and Society
Using a pretest–posttest and delayed recontact experimental design with a national sample, this s... more Using a pretest–posttest and delayed recontact experimental design with a national sample, this study examines shifts in U.S. public attitudes about Syrian refugees after watching a topical satirical news segment on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, compared with a CNN news segment. To investigate synergistic effects between satire and news, the design varied whether the news and comedy segments were viewed alone or in sequence (news before comedy or comedy before news). The results show that all four treatments (news only, comedy only, news-comedy, comedy-news) significantly increased support for refugees from pretest to posttest, and these effects were maintained after a 2-week delay. However, the effects were significantly greater in the three comedy conditions relative to news only. Finally, a serial mediation analysis demonstrated that perceived entertainment value is a positive mediator of comedy’s persuasive effects and serves as a buffer against negative indirect effects through message discounting and argument quality.
Journal of Communication
Narrative is essential for public engagement with global poverty. Stand Up Planet, a documentary ... more Narrative is essential for public engagement with global poverty. Stand Up Planet, a documentary about global development, was produced to evaluate the effects of a little-utilized nonfiction comedy narrative. Using a pretest–posttest experimental design, this study examines shifts in U.S. audience engagement with global poverty after watching Stand Up Planet, compared with a somber documentary, The End Game. Both documentaries increased awareness of global poverty, support for government aid, knowledge, and intended actions. However, Stand Up Planet produced significantly larger gains in awareness, knowledge, and actions; these effects were mediated by the narrative's relatability, positive emotions, and entertainment value. The End Game's effects were mediated by narrative transportation and negative emotions. Implications for narrative in social change campaigns are discussed.
Oxford Handbooks Online
Because satirical news programs such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report pay substantial att... more Because satirical news programs such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report pay substantial attention to science, this chapter considers their significance as sources of science attitudes and information. The first section of the chapter discusses general attributes of satirical news and how these may help foster public attention to, active engagement with, and understanding of science. The chapter then highlights limitations on the capacity of satire to communicate science, including the challenge of conveying the seriousness of certain science issues while using humor, the potential for audience misreading of satiric intention, the inherent divisiveness of satire, and the tension between communication goals and the authenticity of satiric performance. The chapter draws on studies that have explicitly analyzed the role of satirical news programs in a science communication context while also raising important unanswered research questions.
Risk Analysis, 2017
Using a national sample, this study experimentally tests the effects of news visuals and texts th... more Using a national sample, this study experimentally tests the effects of news visuals and texts that emphasize either the causes and impacts of climate change or actions that can be taken to address climate change. We test the effects of variations in text and imagery on discrete emotions (i.e., hope, fear, and anger) and, indirectly, on support for climate mitigation policies. Political ideology is examined as a moderator. The findings indicate that news images and texts that focus on climate‐oriented actions can increase hope and, in the case of texts, decrease fear and anger, and these effects generally hold across the ideological spectrum. In turn, the influence of emotions on policy support depends on ideology: Hope and fear increase support for climate policies for all ideological groups but particularly conservatives, whereas anger polarizes the opinions of liberals and conservatives. Implications for climate change communication that appeals to emotions are discussed.
Applied Developmental Science, 2008
Proceedings of the 15th ACM Web Science Conference 2023
Multiple recent efforts have used large-scale data and computational models to automatically dete... more Multiple recent efforts have used large-scale data and computational models to automatically detect misinformation in online news articles. Given the potential impact of misinformation on democracy, many of these efforts have also used the political ideology of these articles to better model misinformation and study political bias in such algorithms. However, almost all such efforts have used source level labels for credibility and political alignment, thereby assigning the same credibility and political alignment label to all articles from the same source (e.g., the New York Times or Breitbart). Here, we report on the impact of journalistic best practices to label individual news articles for their credibility and political alignment. We found that while source level labels are decent proxies for political alignment labeling, they are very poor proxies-almost the same as flipping a coin-for credibility ratings. Next, we study the implications of such source level labeling on downstream processes such as the development of automated misinformation detection algorithms and political fairness audits therein. We find that the automated misinformation detection and fairness algorithms can be suitably revised to support their intended goals but might require different assumptions and methods than those which are appropriate using source level labeling. The results suggest caution in generalizing recent results on misinformation detection and political bias therein. On a positive note, this work shares a new dataset of journalistic quality individually labeled articles and an approach for misinformation detection and fairness audits.
A Comedian and an Activist Walk into a Bar
Abstract: Recent years have introduced American news audiences to new models of opinionated broad... more Abstract: Recent years have introduced American news audiences to new models of opinionated broadcast journalism, as exemplified by the cable news programs of Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Lou Dobbs, and others. This trend has fueled an ongoing ...
This study investigates how The Daily Show and The Colbert Report portray global warming in their... more This study investigates how The Daily Show and The Colbert Report portray global warming in their satirical news segments and guest interviews. Quantitative content analysis is used to examine the explicit claims made regarding the reality, causes, and severity of global warming; the intended targets of the shows’ satirical critiques about global warming; and how the issue is framed. Results show that a large majority of segments on both programs explicitly affirmed the reality of global warming, and the most frequent targets of global warming humor were climate skepticism, in general, as well as specific individuals and groups associated with skepticism. Although the programs were most likely to frame global warming in terms of political conflict, a majority of coverage simultaneously critiqued this frame.
International Journal of Communication, 2020
Educational achievement gaps exist between racial and ethnic groups in the United States; early c... more Educational achievement gaps exist between racial and ethnic groups in the United States; early childhood readiness, fostered in part by parents and caregivers, is crucial. To respond to this challenge, the Univision television network produced content that aired across 3 storytelling genres (scripted drama, reality, news) to entertain and educate Hispanic parents and primary caregivers of children ages 0–5 years about early brain development interventions. This pretest/posttest experimental study assessed the impact of each genre and found significant direct effects on knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions; the effects were mediated by perceived entertainment value and positive emotions.
The Journal of Climate Change and Health
Science Communication
This experiment examines how framing power plant emissions in terms of air pollution or climate c... more This experiment examines how framing power plant emissions in terms of air pollution or climate change, and in terms of health or environmental impacts, influences perceived benefits and costs of policies to reduce emissions and intentions to take political action that supports such policies. A moderated-mediation model reveals that focusing on air pollution, instead of climate change, has a positive significant indirect influence on intended political action through the serial mediators of perceived benefits and costs. Political ideology moderates the association between perceived benefits and political action. No framing effects are observed in the comparison between health and environmental impacts.
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
This study investigated whether increased technological affordances, characterized by the rise of... more This study investigated whether increased technological affordances, characterized by the rise of social media, diversified communication in climate change discourse. Extending the literature of intermedia agenda setting, this study examined agenda and frame contagion across Twitter and online news media. Using a large dataset of media content about climate change, time-series analysis showed that news media played a major role in setting agendas and frames, but Twitter has increased its dominance in climate change discussions. The findings address both opportunities for strategic science communication and challenges resulting from unverified scientific claims (e.g., hoax frames) spread on social media.
Global Environmental Change
This study examines how public support for four specific low-carbon energy policies (renewable en... more This study examines how public support for four specific low-carbon energy policies (renewable energy investment, revenue-neutral carbon tax, fuel efficiency regulations, expansion of nuclear power) varies when these policies are framed as a way to reduce either climate change, air pollution, or energy dependence. A survey question wording experiment with a nationally representative U.S. sample is utilized. We find framing effects only among Republicans, whose policy support was lower in response to the climate change frame versus the air pollution and energy security frames for all policies except nuclear power. This suggests that framing effects are conditional on political partisanship and policy content. When testing the processing mechanism behind these effects, we find no evidence that the climate change frame functions as a simple heuristic; rather, the findings are consistent with motivated reasoning, whereby the framing effects on policy support are mediated by the policy's perceived relative benefits and costs.
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media
This study analyzes the predictors of two types of media selectivity: interest-based (i.e., choic... more This study analyzes the predictors of two types of media selectivity: interest-based (i.e., choice of entertainment over politics) and partisan (i.e., choice of pro-attitudinal over counter-attitudinal or balanced news). Relying on a large survey-based experiment, we find that issue-specific engagement variables, including perceived issue understanding, issue importance, and issue attitude strength, predict interest-based and partisan selectivity above and beyond the influence of general political knowledge, news interest, and strength of political leanings. These results show that the drivers of selectivity are more complex than general political attributes; rather, they are contextual and reflect people's engagement with particular issues.
Journal of Communication
Two online news browsing experiments were conducted with national samples of U.S. adults to test ... more Two online news browsing experiments were conducted with national samples of U.S. adults to test the effects of six different climate change frames on selective exposure to climate change news; the frames emphasized the implications of climate change for either public health, the economy, national security, the environment, morality, or political conflict. Effects were compared between liberal-Democrats, moderate-Independents, and conservative-Republicans. In Study 1, participants could select only from articles about climate change. In Study 2, climate change news competed for attention with other news topics. Results show that a public health frame increased exposure to climate change news relative to other frames; however, these increases were confined to liberal-Democrats and, in Study 1, also moderate-Independents. Conservative-Republicans' exposure to climate news was unaffected by framing. Overall, the findings suggest framing plays only a limited role in driving exposure to climate change news.
Human Communication Research
Journal of Environmental Psychology
Abstract This study examined how utilizing different frames to contextualize negative impacts of ... more Abstract This study examined how utilizing different frames to contextualize negative impacts of power plant emissions influenced belief in those impacts and support for policies to regulate emissions. Using a U.S. national YouGov sample (n = 1000), we examined how discussing emissions in terms of climate change or air pollution, and in terms of health or environmental impacts, influenced individuals with different partisan affiliations. The analysis utilized a moderated-mediation model, with belief in negative impacts of power plant emissions as the mediator, support for government action as the dependent variable, and political party as a moderator of the link from the message frame to belief. This analysis revealed that using a climate change frame relative to an air pollution frame lowered policy support both directly and indirectly via belief in negative impacts, with the strongest indirect effect observed for Republicans. There were no effects of discussing environmental versus health impacts. The results suggest that communicators may be more successful in increasing support for mitigating carbon pollution from power plants by focusing on non-climate change oriented risks that the pollution poses, rather than linking the pollution to climate change.
Mass Communication and Society
Using a pretest–posttest and delayed recontact experimental design with a national sample, this s... more Using a pretest–posttest and delayed recontact experimental design with a national sample, this study examines shifts in U.S. public attitudes about Syrian refugees after watching a topical satirical news segment on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, compared with a CNN news segment. To investigate synergistic effects between satire and news, the design varied whether the news and comedy segments were viewed alone or in sequence (news before comedy or comedy before news). The results show that all four treatments (news only, comedy only, news-comedy, comedy-news) significantly increased support for refugees from pretest to posttest, and these effects were maintained after a 2-week delay. However, the effects were significantly greater in the three comedy conditions relative to news only. Finally, a serial mediation analysis demonstrated that perceived entertainment value is a positive mediator of comedy’s persuasive effects and serves as a buffer against negative indirect effects through message discounting and argument quality.
Journal of Communication
Narrative is essential for public engagement with global poverty. Stand Up Planet, a documentary ... more Narrative is essential for public engagement with global poverty. Stand Up Planet, a documentary about global development, was produced to evaluate the effects of a little-utilized nonfiction comedy narrative. Using a pretest–posttest experimental design, this study examines shifts in U.S. audience engagement with global poverty after watching Stand Up Planet, compared with a somber documentary, The End Game. Both documentaries increased awareness of global poverty, support for government aid, knowledge, and intended actions. However, Stand Up Planet produced significantly larger gains in awareness, knowledge, and actions; these effects were mediated by the narrative's relatability, positive emotions, and entertainment value. The End Game's effects were mediated by narrative transportation and negative emotions. Implications for narrative in social change campaigns are discussed.
Oxford Handbooks Online
Because satirical news programs such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report pay substantial att... more Because satirical news programs such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report pay substantial attention to science, this chapter considers their significance as sources of science attitudes and information. The first section of the chapter discusses general attributes of satirical news and how these may help foster public attention to, active engagement with, and understanding of science. The chapter then highlights limitations on the capacity of satire to communicate science, including the challenge of conveying the seriousness of certain science issues while using humor, the potential for audience misreading of satiric intention, the inherent divisiveness of satire, and the tension between communication goals and the authenticity of satiric performance. The chapter draws on studies that have explicitly analyzed the role of satirical news programs in a science communication context while also raising important unanswered research questions.