Checking social media platforms is now synonymous with reading news articles for most San Jose State students. Relying on one or two tweets might only reinforce your beliefs, rather than providing unbiased information.
Consumers who follow certain outlets they prefer could echo information that is already consistent with their own agenda. This idea is commonly known as “echo chambers.”
Echo chambers are environments people encounter within others’ beliefs or opinions coincided with their own. Their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered.
They operate on confirming your bias, according to a Hoover Institution essay, such as when media news consumers tend to pay more attention to sources and articles that reinforce their views.
Melinda Jackson, political science professor and department chair, said the tendency to believe information that confirms someone’s own views is inherently unavoidable.
“Even if we come across information that goes against our beliefs we may just dismiss it, we may ignore it, we may not even notice it,” Jackson said. “Where as if someone come across information that confirms what we believe, we’re most likely to say, ‘Oh yeah that makes sense, I knew that already.’ ”
With elections coming up, Jackson said it was important to fact-check the information that doesn’t support one political view so that voters can make informed and unbiased decisions on politicians and their plans.
“We know that our elections are being targeted by people who are actively trying to manipulate voters,” she said.
Whether it’s about gun control, climate change or any other polarizing topic, subjects prefer information that is consistent with their prior political attitudes, according to a 2009 article in the Oxford Academic Journal of Communication.
Design studies senior Robin Klinger said she primarily gets her news from social media. Even though she’d never heard of the term “echo chambers,” she did recognize how the pages she follows on social media reaffirm her own bias.
“I guess [echo chambers] keeps me from seeing the other sides,” Klinger said.
However, Klinger said she sees how the unwillingness to seek out additional information about things could lead to misinformation.
Jackson stressed the idea of fact-checking every source of information and putting in the extra effort of simply doing a web search on the media outlet you got your information from.
“If you follow certain websites or accounts for a certain amount of time you can tell that they’re credible,” Klinger said.
The idea of media literacy and determining which credible sources to believe is a burden people have to deal with, Jackson said.
“It is a really important 21st century skill to just learn how to be a savvy consumer of information,” Jackson said.
According to a preliminary result of a VOX-Pol social media study, consumers formulate political opinions in their media environments and learn to follow their echo chambers.
These formulated opinions rapidly lead people to concentrate on news sources that share their specific political viewpoints, sorting their ideals by these imaginary lines. These are amplified even more during major news events.
“I definitely see a lot of people who don’t change their minds about things no matter what information comes out . . . there is an issue with that,” Klinger said.
In 2017, the American Association for the Advancement of Science published an article about an experiment conducted in the United States to understand how certain news stories influence spikes in polarized public discussion of a specific topic.
The report included 48 mostly-small media outlets, who wrote and published articles on approved subjects on dates that were randomly assigned.
Discussion increased in each broad policy area by about 63% after each of these articles were published.
The study estimated website pageviews and Twitter discussion of the articles’ specific subjects, and distal ones, such as national Twitter conversation in broad policy areas.
The experiment showed how social media posts increased by almost 20% the first day after the publication of news stories on a wide range of topics. Furthermore, the posts were relatively evenly distributed across political affiliation, gender and region of the United States.
Overall, the experiments revealed large news media effects on the content of the national conversation across 11 important areas of public policy, political party, gender, region and level of social influence.
This represents the importance and substantial increases in national policy discussions on important issues, and how the media causes more people to express themselves publicly on issues that would otherwise be the case.
Junior mechanical engineering major Max Marinovich said he rarely uses social media but sees the same problem with people who rely on their phones for news. He said they get stuck to their existing perspectives and don’t analyze the information.
“Never just take information for what it is, always critique it,” Marinovich said. “Make your own opinions of everything.”
Marinovich said the only way to avoid echo chambers is to look for as many sides of the story as possible.
“Thoroughly look for each specific side of the topic rather than just grabbing the first link or article that you see on it and sticking with that one,” Marinovich said.
However, political science professor Jackson believes it’s not about exposing yourself to every news outlet – it’s about finding sources you trust and researching the source to make sure it’s credible. Even if it is a mainstream outlet.
She said mainstream news doesn’t always have to be associated with “fake news” and explained the difference between being informed and being entertained.
“When you want to be informed, it’s not about being entertained,” Jackson said.
Jackson also said it’s not about the cable or talk shows that just have commentators screaming at each other.
“Avoid the people who are screaming at each other and go for the straight, boring news,” Jackson said.
Environmental studies junior Hayde Gonzalez Lorenzo said she pays attention to TV outlets rather than social media for most news topics.
“I know that some [social media outlets] can be very biased to certain topics,” Gonzalez Lorenzo said. “Though it is news, [social media outlets] are supposed to give out facts, but in reality they just go towards one side instead of giving us a bigger picture of both sides of the problem.”
Jackson wants to teach more people at SJSU tips to avoid getting stuck in these social media echo chambers.
Jackson said she will make sure the political science professors at SJSU emphasize fact-checking in their classrooms.
She said she believes that even though the internet is one of the biggest platforms for spreading misinformation, it’s also one of the best tools in fighting it.
“The internet is just a set of tools that can be used for good or bad purposes and it also makes it easier than ever for you to find good information,” Jackson said.
For students like Gonzalez Lorenzo, fighting against misinformation really depends on the individual to go out of their way to
challenge their own opinions.
She said if they don’t make the change they will continue relating to perspectives within their own bias.
“We have to step away from our personal bubble,” Gonzalez Lorenzo said. “It’s all about your mindset.”
