The Impact of News Source: Facebook, Online News Sites and Political Ideology

Research examining the impact of news sharing through the social networking site Facebook considered differences between traditional online news and news shared on Facebook as well as the importance of political ideology. This study used an experiment embedded within a survey to test the potential framing and cueing effects of news articles linked through Facebook and provided online while considering the political ideology of the article source and news reader. The experiment manipulated the source type (Facebook or Online) and the source ideology (liberal or conservative), considering participants' ideology after surveys were completed. Hypotheses predicted greater perceived source credibility for articles posted by Facebook friends than posted on online news sites as well as a preference for news articles posted by sources consistent with the reader's ideology. Results did not support the predictions, suggesting that the Facebook manipulation may not realistically capture user experiences. Implications for future research are discussed.