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Hate, amplified? Social media news consumption and support for anti-Muslim policies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2022

Nazita Lajevardi ,
Kassra A.R. Oskooii  and
Hannah Walker Open the ORCID record for Hannah Walker [Opens in a new window]
Nazita Lajevardi
Affiliation:
Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA
Kassra A.R. Oskooii
Affiliation:
University of Delaware, Newark, USA
Hannah Walker*
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: hlwalker@utexas.edu
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Abstract

Research finds that social media platforms’ peer-to-peer structures shape the public discourse and increase citizens’ likelihood of exposure to unregulated, false, and prejudicial content. Here, we test whether self-reported reliance on social media as a primary news source is linked to racialised policy support, taking the case of United States Muslims, a publicly visible but understudied group about whom significant false and prejudicial content is abundant on these platforms. Drawing on three original surveys and the Nationscape dataset, we find a strong and consistent association between reliance on social media and support for a range of anti-Muslim policies. Importantly, reliance on social media is linked to policy attitudes across the partisan divide and for individuals who reported holding positive or negative feelings towards Muslims. These findings highlight the need for further investigation into the political ramification of information presented on contemporary social media outlets, particularly information related to stigmatised groups.

Keywords

Muslim Americanspolitical communicationpublic opinionracial and ethnic politicssocial media
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , December 2022 , pp. 656 - 683
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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