סמינר בניהול טכנולוגיה ומערכות מידע

Speaker: Ro'ee Levy, Tel Aviv University School of Economics.

Title: Demand for Online News, Inertia, and Misperceptions 

Abstract: There has been growing concern that individuals consume low-quality, extreme, news on social media. We test whether such news choices may stem from misperceptions and whether simple interventions can decrease the slant and increase the quality of people’s news diets on social media. In a survey experiment, we first elicit perceptions regarding the slant and quality of news and then randomize participants into three groups: a group provided with information on media slant, a group provided with information on media quality, and a group not provided with any information. After the intervention, we offer all participants an option to readjust their news portfolio by following or unfollowing news outlets on Facebook.We find that individuals suffer from misperceptions, especially regarding the quality of outlets. Correcting these misperceptions increases the quality of the outlets individuals choose to follow. However, providing information on slant does not have a significant effect on news choices. Still, we find that simply providing individuals an option to readjust their news choices results in a more moderate news portfolio.