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This study explores the relationship between partisan blogs and internal political efficacy. Americans are increasingly turning to partisan, biased news sources for political information in an increasingly fragmented media world. Because partisan blogs deliver this information through trusted sources and partisan cues to like-minded readers, I propose that these messages are strong enough to increase the readers' confidence in the opinions they form, and thus increase internal political efficacy. I explore the possibility that the strength of these messages is enhanced by both the level of trust that partisans place in these blogs, and the effects of the partisan echo chamber of the political blogosphere that amplify these partisan messages. My experiment finds that exposure to partisan blogs did increase readers' internal political efficacy, and did in fact produce a more significant shift in internal political efficacy than those exposed to traditional news media, suggesting that there is a special relationship between partisan content and internal political efficacy that needs to be explored further.
Advisor: | Bailard, Catie |
Commitee: | Loge, Peter, Sides, John |
School: | The George Washington University |
Department: | Media and Public Affairs |
School Location: | United States -- District of Columbia |
Source: | MAI 51/02M(E), Masters Abstracts International |
Source Type: | DISSERTATION |
Subjects: | Communication, Political science, Mass communications |
Keywords: | Blogs, Efficacy, Media, Partisanship |
Publication Number: | 1518762 |
ISBN: | 978-1-267-62083-5 |