The Impact of Web-Based Communication on Public Attitudes

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date The Impact of Web-Based Communication on Public Attitudes and Political Policy Making The dissemination of online media has greatly influenced how individuals obtain information concerning current events. One of the many dimensions of this change involves a significant amount of information that can be shared online. The abundance of web communication facilitates selective exposure, whereby, the user requires little effort to choose a channel that suits their personal opinion. Nonetheless, frequent exposure to the content shared online can affect the public’s attitude. This is due to certain online conditions such as anonymity and low threshold evaluations. A majority of individuals in the online community prefer to be in the majority group on an issue. To do so, users closely monitor their social environment using the mass media, and the content shared in these platforms dictates their opinion on the issue. In most cases, the opinion perceived as a majority opinion is often aired out in public and more people are likely to second the opinion to be part of the majority group, whereas, that which is viewed as a minority opinion hardly gains ground. In support of this claim, Baccini, Sudulich, and Wall (411), studied how communication, via the internet, can influence the public’s attitudes in a time of political crisis. The researchers evaluated how online news consumption can influence people’s attitudes towards the European Union. Results revealed that citizens who relied on online information were more likely to blame the European Union for the unfortunate economic situation. Similarly, a study by Xiong and Liu indicates that people’s attitudes towards a particular topic are likely to be influenced by a dominant opinion. The study, which investigated the sharing of information via Twitter, analyzed how opinions are brought up and the behavior patterns of individuals which shift ...