Browsing by Author "Pereira, Henrique Grossmann Gonçalves"
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- Nudges given the impact of sensationalism towards search patterns for information goodsPublication . Pereira, Henrique Grossmann Gonçalves; Silva, João Manuel Lourenço Confraria Jorge eThe contemporary environment of media skepticism coexists with the high-speed, high-choice information environment that the development of the internet helped create, in which the systematic evaluation of the quality of information sources is all but impossible. In this context, sensationalistic discourse becomes an attention-grabbing tool effective enough to be employed by traditional and alternative media alike, even while both are derided for the practice by public perception and one another. The association between sensationalism, bias, and mistrust begs the question as to what effect exposure to sensationalistic messages in our media diet might have on our willingness to expose ourselves to contradicting information, and what can be done given the answer. To help elucidate what areas might warrant the focus of research efforts, this study used insights from scientific literature on concepts related to sensationalism and information search to conceptualize sensationalism and a model of our ability and motivation to search for information, providing various avenues through which these could be related. Sources of information named by survey respondents were evaluated using an instrument to identify sensationalistic elements, supplementing it with a second instrument based on factors associated with sensationalism use taken from previous research. The correlation of these two measures with the number of information sources or mediums survey respondents used was studied using polynomial regressions across seven different categories, and the potential influence of other variables related to information search on this relationship using moderation regressions. Evidence was found for a probable influence of sensationalism on information source variety for most categories, strongest for personal interests and the economy, and suggesting that the nature and factors affecting this relationship vary both across categories and as the degree of sensationalism increases.