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The Dress vs. Ebola: The Effect of Different News Sources on Social Action.

Author: Deborah Tuggy

Institution: Grove City College

Professor: Dr. Anderson

Course: Social Research Methods

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The Dress vs. Ebola: The Effect of Different News Sources on Social Action.

Deborah Tuggy

Grove City College

Abstract

This study looks at how different types of news media affects social action. It predicts

that infotainment consumption is related inversely with social action, while news consumption is

positively correlated with societal action. Findings show that most respondents use both social

media and online news as news sources, and that while there is a relationship between different

types of news media sources and different types and varying frequencies of social action, other

factors such as religiosity, political party, sex, SES and class year have an impact as well. Thus

the casual model is a much more complex and complicated one than expected, and it would be

fascinating to further explore this phenomenon.

How does media influence society? This is a question which the Dress Incident of last

left in its wake. The big question of the week was, “is the dress black and blue or is it white and

gold?” It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but everyone debated passionately

about it. Meanwhile, thousands of people in Western Africa died of Ebola. Both news items were

trending on Facebook at the same time, but people nationwide were talking more about the dress

than about a life and death situation happening in our world. Thus, the purpose of this research

is to understand the reasons how people respond to news in different ways and through different

venues. One possible explanation for the Dress Incident is that our modern society is afflicted

with broken primary relationships and weak social ties, leading to a strong desire to “fit in” and a

perception of an inability to create social change. What emerges then is an online community

linked by their discussions and debates about the Dress. Thus, it makes sense that people would

read and talk about the Dress because it was trendy and cool, while pushing the Ebola outbreak

to the back of their minds because it was inconvenient, disturbing, and they felt like they could

do nothing about it. In order to discover how types of online news sources influence social

action a review of the literature was conducted, and a survey study developed.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Conceptualizations of News Media

With the rise of the internet and mass communication in modern society, news media has

begun to define news differently from each other depending their perceived market niche

(Project for Excellence in Journalism, 1998). In addition, news has become portable,

personalized, and participatory (Mitchell, 2015).

Conceptualizations of Social Action

Through a review of the literature, social action has been conceptualized in the form of

political involvement and participation in social movements (Corrigall-Brown 2014 and

Klandermans 1987). Furthermore, one study distinguished between online and offline action, and

pointed out that while in Latin America online activism translates into offline activism, it is more

common for activism to occur online in the U.S. (Harlow, 2012). In addition, Oser (et al.)

conducted a class analysis which indicates that in the face of the increasing availability of the

Internet and an emergence of new forms of political participation, online activism is distinct

from offline activism.

Independent Variables Which Affect Social Action

McAdam (1986) found that an ideological identification with the values of a movement

disposes an individual to participate, and a prior history of action as well as integration into a

social network creates the structural pull for an individual to act. Corrigall-Brown (2014) studied

media exposure and political participation, and concluded that action is driven by both

knowledge and efficacy. Bond (2012) found that strong network ties are instrumental for both

online and real world behavior. In 2007, Sullivan studied the effect that information networks

and involvement in church have on social and political activism of blacks. She concluded that the

data suggests that these variables are strong predicators of social and political activism. A study

conducted by Hong (1987) looked at the effects of primary relationships on social participation

in a Korean city and a positive relationship was found, indicating that primary relationships play

a role in driving action. Livingstone (2008) studied media use and the variance of civic

participation, concluding that news is a means of engaging the public.

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THE STUDY

These studies shed some light on how past researchers have conceptualized social action,

what variables influence it, and the interaction between news media and social action. There are

quite a lot of studies on the effects that media has on online social interaction, but there are no

studies which addresses how people actively respond to world news depending on what type of

media and news they tend to consume. It is important to know what influences and drives social

action so we can better understand the relationship between evolving forms of news media and

social action. Thus, in my study I will further distinguish between different types of news media

and discover how this influences a conceptualized social action. To further explore this

relationship, I will control for sex, SES, class year, and political party.

I will also control for religiosity to see how integration through religion plays a role in

driving social action. Martinson (et al. 1982) studied the relationship between religion and social

integration and found that those who are not religious are less integrated. Similarly, Ellison and

George (1994) studied how religious participation enhances the social resources of individuals

and found that frequent churchgoers have access to greater resources and stronger communities

than their unchurched counterparts. Thus I am expecting to find that those who are not religious

will be less integrated and less disposed towards social action.

Many theorists such as Durkheim, Cooley, Mead, etc. have examined the effect that the

modern individualistic society has on humanity and most would conclude that it results in broken

primary ties, alienation from community, and alienation from one’s Self. Therefore I am

predicting that in today’s individualistic society people are alienated from community and

inactive in society due to a lack of efficacy and a lack of knowledge due to the consumption of

social media news. However religion often overcomes this by creating strong ties to community

and driving social action due to high levels of knowledge gained through online news.

METHOD

My research project hypothesizes a relationship between types of media consumption and

social action. My hypothesis is that infotainment1 consumption is related inversely with social

action, while news consumption is positively correlated with societal action. I expect that those

1 Broadcast material that is intended both to entertain and to inform. (Merriam-Webster)

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who consume primarily news media will be more likely to engage in societal action than those

who consume a combination of both types of media, and that those who consume primarily

infotainment media will be less likely to engage in societal action than those who consume a

combination of both, and those who do engage in action will likely engage in online action.

Based on my review of the literature my dependent variable, social action, can be

conceptualized in two aspects; online and offline action (Harlow, 2012). Both can be described

as having two dimensions; communication and participation. An indicator for online

communication would be slacktivism.2 An indicator for online participation would be

contributing creatively by writing articles or blog posts about a relevant issue (a news item that is

important to them). An indicator for offline communication would be discussing or debating a

relevant issue with friends. An indicator of offline participation would be volunteering for a

relevant cause or getting politically involved through lobbying or protesting.

These indicators were composed into questions with appropriate response categories.

Stated concisely, the indicators and questions with response categories ranging from ‘Less than

monthly’ to ‘Daily” are as follows. For the indicator of slacktivism: “On social media sites

(Facebook, Twitter, etc.), how often do you ‘like’ or ‘share’ news articles or blog posts about

relevant issues (i.e. issues that are important to you)?” For discussion with friends: “How often

do you discuss or debate relevant issues (i.e. issues that are important to you) with your friends

on campus?” For the indicator of personal sacrifice, “In the past year, how many times have you

volunteered for a relevant issue? For the indicator of political involvement, “How often did you

engage in a political activity such as demonstrating, lobbing, or writing to a politician in the past

year?” The question for the indicator of writing had response categories ranging from ‘None’ to

‘10+’ and read, “How many news articles or blog posts about a relevant issue have you written in

the past year?”

The independent variable, types of media consumption, includes two dimensions;

infotainment, and news. Each of these were measured with the following indicators and

responses. The question, “How often do you use social media (Facebook, Buzzfeed, Upworthy,

etc.) as your news source?” measured infotainment consumption. To indicate the dimension of

news consumption the following question was composed: “How often do you use online news

2 Actions performed online in support of a political or social cause but regarded as requiring little time or involvement such as liking or sharing articles and posts, signing petitions, etc.) (Oxford Dictionaries)

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anchors (CNN, Fox News, BBC news, etc.) as your news source?” The possible responses for

both questions ranged from “Less than monthly” to “Daily.”

Diagram 1 below illustrates my model, noting the variables, their concepts and

dimensions as well as the indicators within each dimension. In addition, the predicted path is

shown through arrows connecting the independent and dependent variables. This diagram shows

how all the variables relate to each other. To prove this as a causal model I have to explain it

nomothetically. In short, strong social ties leads to consumption of online news sources, which

informs and equips towards action while in contrast, weak social ties lead to consumption of

social media news sources which leaves one ill-informed and ill-equipped towards social action.

Diagram 1

My questions are original to the questionnaire and all seven were composed by the

researcher. Reliability and validity, consequently, were tested thoroughly. I relied heavily on

ensuring the reliability of research workers such as the interviewers and coders through careful

training for those conducting the surveys as well as specific and clear coding methods. I tested

for validity using face validity to ensure that the indicators logically seem to be a reasonable

measure of my variables. In addition I used construct validity to show that all of my measures

relate to other variables as expected within the system of my theory. Additionally we tested the

survey and conducted a panel review of the questions in advance of giving out the survey.

Media Consumption through the medium of TV, radio, internet, and newspapers

———————————————————————————————————Tuggy argues that is infotainment consumption is related inversely with social action, while news consumption is positively correlated with societal action.

Tuggy’s Theory of Media driven Societal Action.

Perceptions of weak social bonds and a responsibility to fit into society by keeping up with the Kardashians increase the likelihood of consuming infotainment.

Perceptions of strong ties to society and a responsibility to contribute to society by keeping up with what is going on in the world. Increases the likelihood of consuming news media. Education about world issues

Education about world issues gives an understanding, appeals empathetically. News media gives high education about world issues, while infotainment does not provide adequate information.

High education about issues in the world leads to a strong sense of being equipped to make an impact in the world and desire to do so.

Low education about issues leads to feeling overwhelmed by what is going on in the world and a perception of inadequacy to impact the world

Societal Action

Includes behavior such as discussion and debate, “liking” or “sharing” posts on social media platforms, contributing by writing articles or blogs, donation, volunteering, and political involvement such as voting, picketing, and lobbying.

———————————————————————————————————

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Finally I used content validity to ensure that the measures I used covered the range of meanings

included in the concept. Each shows that these questions met minimum thresholds for reliability

and validity.

Research for this project was conducted through administering an anonymous survey to

students enrolled at a four-year undergraduate college of approximately 2,500 students. This

college is a private, Christian, arts and sciences institution located in the eastern Midwest with a

traditionally-aged student body. It also is notable for being conservative politically and

religiously. It is coed with around a 50/50% gender ratio. The student body is over 95% White.

Because of the racial and ethnic homogeneity of the student body, the Institutional Review Board

discouraged collecting data on race and ethnicity, lest individuals be too easily identified.

The survey is part of a Social Research Methods project and was administered by

students in that course. The survey itself is composed of 109 questions which together include

the individual class projects of eleven students.

Surveys were administered to 1742 students. Some professors gave permission to

students to administer them in their classes. We also set up four opportunities to take the survey

after classes in a class room. In addition, researchers recruited people they knew to take the

survey at their own convenience. Thus, it was not a probability sample and this may have

affected the reliability and validity of our study. Parameters for completing the survey were two:

One, that respondents must be 18 years or older (as per the Institutional Review Board), and two:

not have completed the survey in another class. All respondents were promised anonymity.

The criticism could fairly be raised that surveys administered to these classes did not

produce a representative sample. However, given the types of classes, a representative sample of

the college campus is more likely than not. Most classes were general education types of courses

which all students are required to take; thus, they are most likely to reflect a cross-section of

students. They include students from liberal arts and sciences along with engineering and other

disciplines. Having noted this, however, it is significant that the age range of respondents, the

nature of the college itself, and the relative homogeneity of the student body certainly limit the

generalizability of the results. In other words, the contours and characteristics of the sample

certainly differ markedly from national norms—be it the general population or the college-aged

population in the U.S. Generalizability, therefore, is broadly limited to the sampled campus and,

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perhaps weakly, to other college students of similar age, background, and institutions of higher

learning with similar academic, cultural and organizational characteristics and missions.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

To test the hypothesized relationship between news media and social action, correlation,

time order, and non-spuriousness were established. First, time order must be established,

meaning that those who are socially active have been influenced or disposed to action by some

sort of news media. It is very difficult to establish this with certainty for my research so I will

need to take this into account when interpreting the results.

Secondly, to establish correlation between news media and social action, the correlation

coefficients of Crammer’s V and Pearson’s r were used. Category zero (no response) was

converted to missing data and a correlations matrix created, as shown in Table 1, of all the

variables in order to see if they correlate. According to this, the independent variables of online

news and social media news are inversely and insignificantly correlated with one another, while

all of the dependent variables are positively significantly correlated. This indicates that my

dependent variables are all measures of the same concept, while the independent variables are

mutually exclusive.

All dependent variables significantly and positively correlated with the independent

variable of online news. In addition, online news is more strongly correlated with talking and

volunteering. Social media news is positively and significantly correlated with like/share and

write posts. It is negatively and significantly correlated with discussion and political action, and

not significantly correlated with volunteering.

All of this supports my hypothesis that there is a relationship between types of media

consumption and social action. I predicted that infotainment consumption is related inversely

with social action, while news consumption is positively correlated with societal action. From

this correlation matrix, it is clear that those who use social media news as their news source

engage less in social action, and the action that they do engage in is of the slacktivism type. In

contrast, those who use online news sites as their news source engage more in social action.

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Table 1

Table 2 shows a correlation matrix of the dependent variables to calculate a measurement

of internal consistency between these indicators of the construct of social action. Cronbach’s

Alpha is .518. This does not meet the .7 threshold required to be considered having a high

internal consistency, thus although these variables are all highly correlated together, they do not

have high internal consistency. Internal consistence measures show whether several variables

which claim to measure the same general concept produce similar scores. Thus, these variables

which claim to measure social action do not generally produce similar scores. This could indicate

that respondents participate in different types of social action and different combinations of

actions, so these indicators measure different types of action, not one single construct of it.

Table 2

To further understand how the dependent variables relate to the independent variables,

cross tabulations of the variables were run, and although they did appear to support my

hypothesis there was not an immediately visible pattern to the data. The categories within the

variables are all very similar so at first glance it is difficult to see which respondents are active

and which are not. This is what I am interested in answering according to my theory. Therefore,

I collapsed all of variables into two categories; “<monthly” (monthly or less frequently), and

“Every 2wks” (every two weeks or more frequently).

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Table 3 shows another correlation matrix with all of the recoded variables. This indicates

that the independent variables do not correlate. Dependent variables all correlate together

significantly and positively, with the exception of political action with relevant discussion. All

dependent variables correlate with online news. Online news is most strongly correlated with

relevant discussion and volunteering. All except for volunteering correlate with social media

news. Relevant discussion and political action are correlated negatively and weakly with social

media news. In general, social media news is still more strongly correlated with liking/sharing

and inversely, very weakly, or not at all correlated with the other variables. This does indeed

support the hypothesis that social media news will be inversely related to social action while

online news will be positively correlated with social action.

Table 3

To measure the level of association between the independent and dependent variables, I

used Cramer’s V by cross tabulating the recoded variables. This indicated that social media

news is significantly and most highly correlated with Like/share (V=0.154**). This independent

variable is also significantly correlated with Write posts (V=0.074**) and Political action

(0.069**). It is not significantly correlated with Discussion (V=0.047) or Volunteering (0.034).

The independent variable of Online News is significantly correlated with all of the dependent

variables except for Political action. It also is most strongly correlated with Discussion

(0.200**) and Volunteering (0.158**), and more weakly with like/share (0.093**) and write

posts (0.130**) respectively. These values of the correlation coefficient indicate that my

hypothesis is supported, and in addition it shows that certain types of social action are more

strongly associated with the respective types of news sources.

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Table 4 shows a cross tabulate of the independent variables together in order to see what

percentage of students fall into each category. The data indicates that the majority of students on

campus use both online news and social media news. By cross tabulating these independent

variables and collapsing the categories into two categories of monthly- and every two weeks+,

we see that 30% seldom consume any sort of news, 70% use social media news more frequently

than online news, 32% use online news more frequently than social media news, and 67.1% use

both types of news sources.

Table 4

Although there is a slight inversion between the independent variables, most respondents

use both. This may indicate that there is something else, a third variable, which is influencing the

dependent variable. I will address this further on in the study. In addition, this also indicates that

students on campus fall into one of four categories in regards to the type of news they consume.

In order to see which combination of news sources produces which types of social action, I

combined the independent variables using Typology Recode. This new variable was named

TypeNews and divided into four categories; 1) Neither (Use both equal to or less than monthly,

2) Social media news primarily (use social media news every 2 weeks or more AND online news

less than or equal to monthly), 3) Online news primarily (use online news every 2 weeks or more

AND social media news less than or equal to monthly, and 4) Both (Use both online news and

social media news every two weeks or more).

Table 5 shows a univariate graph of this new variable. We can see that the majority of

students on campus use social media news primarily, followed by those who use both types, then

those who use neither, and lastly, those who use online news primarily.

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Table 5

In order to test for the reliability and validity of this new variable, I correlated it with

online news and social media news. TypeNews is strongly and significantly correlated with

online news, with a correlation coefficient of (0.820**) and a high internal consistency as

indicated by the Cronbach’s alpha of 0.878. However, although TypeNews has a Pearson’s r of

0.356**, indicating that it is moderately strongly and significantly correlated with social media

news, it does not have a high internal consistency. This indicates that some caution must be taken

in the interpretation of the data.

Table 6 shows yet another correlation matrix of all recoded variables. All recoded

dependent variables (except political action which has a positive and insignificant Pearson’s r of

0.015) are significantly correlated with type news. Thus, it can be said that there is indeed a

positive relationship between the type of news and social action. Cronbach’s alpha is 0.392. This

is calculable when you remove political action from the correlation matrix because political is

negatively correlated with relevant discussion, and is not significantly correlated with the

independent variable. This measurement indicates that there is not strong internal consistency.

Table 6

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This relationship can be better described by cross tabulating TypeNews with all

dependent variables. An analysis of these cross tabulations shows use several important

distinctions. First, those who use both types of news source are the most active, those who use

mainly social media news are second most active, and those who use neither are least active.

Secondly, more regardless of the type of news source, people tend to be more active in talking,

liking/sharing, and volunteering, more so than writing posts and political action.

Thirdly, the dependent variable of liking/sharing tends to get their news first through use

of both types of news, and secondly through social media news primarily, third through news

primarily. In contrast, all of the other dependent variables (except for political action) tend to get

their news first through both OR news primarily, secondly through the opposite of the first, and

thirdly through social media news primarily OR neither. This indicates that those who get their

news via social media news tend to be more active in slacktivism type activities, whereas those

who get their news via both or news primarily tend to be more active in the other types of

activities. This is as I hypothesized and is consistent with the rest of the data.

All of the data supports the hypothesis that the type of news source is indeed correlated

with the type of social action performed. It shows that respondents who use primarily social

media news are much less active, and the action they take tends to be slacktivism type activities,

whereas respondents who use primarily online news or both types of news are much more active

in all types of action, and especially in discussion and volunteering.

Control

Lastly, to protect against spuriousness in this relationship as well as to address the fact

that students typically use both types of news source which indicates there may be a third

variable affecting this relationship, I will control for several other variables which may have an

impact based on my theory, review of the literature, and common sense. Thus I will control for

sex, SES political party, religiosity, and class year.

The literature indicates that integration has an impact on action. Many theorists

(Durkheim, Cooley, etc) have found that religiosity is a good indicator of one’s integration into

community because of how it strengthens primary group relationships, builds values and

tradition, and separates the sacred from the profane. Thus, religiosity’s relationship with the type

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of social media news consumed as well as the type of social action performed may have big

implications upon my theory. Due to this, I will control for religiosity in order to discover if the

independent variables still correlate with the dependent variables.

The correlation index of Table 7 shows which indicators of religiosity impact the

dependent variables of social action. The variable, writing posts, does not appear to be highly

affected by religiosity. The indicators of religiosity which are significantly correlated with all of

the dependent variables, except for writing posts, are Often Pray, Very Religious, and the

Religiosity Index (which is an index of all of the religiosity indicators). This supports the theory

that high religiosity leads to high social action. This may very well be a third variable which

influences the relationship between news source and social action.

Table 7

I will use the indicator of religiosity, OftPray. Based on face validity it is a good indicator

of religiosity because those who pray frequently are typically religious and intentional about

their faith. I found that it is significantly correlated with all of my variables except for

WritePosts, whereas most other indicators of religiosity correlate with some or most, but not all

of my variables.

Table 7 outlines the correlations between OftPray and my other variables. It shows that

Praying is positively and significantly correlated with Discussion and Volunteering. It is

negatively and significantly correlated with Like/share and Political Action. It is not significantly

correlated with Write posts.

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Table 7

Upon cross tabulating dependent variables with TypeNews while holding OftPray

constant, it appears that this indicator of religiosity is indeed a variable which affects social

action, because some of the correlation coefficients were rendered to be insignificant after

controlling for religiosity.

In addition to religiosity, other variables which could have an impact the type of news a

person uses and the type of social action a person engages in are sex, SES class year, and

political party. Below in Table 8 is a correlation matrix of these control variables with my

variables.

Table 8

Most control variables except for sex and SES are significantly correlated with the

independent variable. Class year is only significantly correlated with political action. Political

party is significantly correlated with all except for write posts. Sex is significantly correlated

with all except for Like/share and Volunteering. SES does not correlate with any of the variables.

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To cross tabulate the dependent and independent variables while controlling for sex

shows that like/share, discussion, and volunteering have a statistically significant relationship

with type of news used. For the dependent variable of writing posts, for females, there is no

significant relationship between writing posts and the type of news they use, but there is for

males. Political action is not significantly correlated with type of news, and controlling for sex

does not change this.

Using multiple regression to measure how strongly the independent variables influence a

dependent variable, we can see that Political party (0.100**), OftPray (-0.056*), and the type of

news one uses (0.169**) is significantly correlated with like/share as pictured in Table 9.

Table 9

For Write Posts, the only significant variable is type news (0.158**). For Discussion, all

relationships are significant. Type news is the strongest (0.179**), followed by political party

(0.142**). For volunteering, type news (0.168**) and political party (0.078**) are the only

significant variables. For political action, OftPray (-0.151**) is the only significant variables.

This indicates that certain types of social action are indeed influenced by variables other than the

type of news they consume, while others, such as writing posts, have a direct significant

relationship with the type of news they consume.

Analysis

Through all of this, it is evident that although my hypothesis appears to be supported,

there is much more at play in this relationship than was allowed for in my original theory and

hypothesis. It appears that religiosity, political party, and, to some extent, sex both play a role in

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social action. This makes sense at face value, and my theory could be easily reworked to take

these into account, because some strong patterns were uncovered in regards to the type of news

sources people use and the type of social action they engage in. these other variables may be

antecedent and play more of a role in determining the type of news people use and also the type

of social action they engage in, and both news source and social action may feed off each other

indirectly, or perhaps directly.

SUMMARY

At the beginning of this study, I theorized that the individualistic society of today

produces alienation which leads to consumption of social media news which produces inaction,

while in contrast religion overcomes this by producing strong social ties which leads to the

consumption of online news sources driving social action. I hypothesized that infotainment

consumption is related inversely with social action, while news consumption is positively

correlated with societal action. I expected that the primary consumption of news sources will be

more likely to engage social action than those who consume both, and, contrasting with this, that

the primary consumption of infotainment will be less likely to engage in social action than those

who consume both types, and those who do will likely engage in online, slacktivism-type action.

I set operationalized the study as a survey with five indicators of social action; slacktivism

(like/share), writing posts, discussion (talk), volunteering, and political engagement.

I found that the data supports my hypothesis for the most part, because online news is

positively correlated with social action, while infotainment consumption is related inversely with

social action, and those who do act engage in slacktivism-type activities. However, I found that

those who consume both types of social media are the most actively engaged in society, followed

by those who consume just online news, then just social media, and lastly neither. In addition,

the introduction of control variables explains more fully the relationship between type of news

source and social action. I found that religiosity plays a huge role in driving social action and

determining the type of media used as a news source. Other variables which come into play are

sex, political party, and class year.

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CONCLUSION

The findings support the hypothesis, but there is much which the hypothesis did not take

into account, such as the role that religiosity plays in this relationship. In addition there are

several limitations to this study. Our sample limits the analysis and the implications of our

research because we drew from a very unique sample of students from a small, Christian, liberal

arts college which is not representative of the general population. It would be fascinating to

recreate this study drawing a probability sample from a more representative population. Another

limitation is found in the operationalization of my concepts. The question categories were not

specific enough to indicate whether or not someone actually engaged in the indicated action. I

would suggest categories running from 1)Never, 2)<monthly, 3)2wks, 4)weekly+, 5)Daily for

questions such as Volunteering, political action, and writing posts which people tend to do more

infrequently by nature of the activity. In addition, the indicators of social action had low internal

consistency which indicates that my theory did not take into account that not all action is equal.

My theory was incomplete. This led me to hypothesize in a way which doesn’t take into

account the impact of religion on the types of media used and social action. This made the

analysis of the data very complicated, and resulted in a modified theory which is depicted in the

following casual model.

Tuggy’s Theory of Media Driven Societal Action the Second.

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This model predicts that although it is impossible to escape the effects of the

individualistic society of today, there are three ways people deal with it based on their respective

backgrounds of sex, SES, class year, political party, and level of religiosity. Through the

meaning and community and values of religion, they gain strong social ties and a sense of

agency and responsibility to contribute to society as well as the perception of efficacy to do so.

A context of social commitment and obligation towards others makes them more likely to

consume news media in order to keep up with what is going on in the world and gain the

knowledge needed in order to do something to better it. This knowledge produces the actual

efficacy to remove barriers to acting. They are more disposed towards all forms of social action

for this reason. If then they do act, this cultivates their integration into their group as well as

strengthens their perceived as well as actual efficacy to act again. Secondly, through religion and

the values instilled in them they gain a sense of responsibility and a perception of efficacy to

make a difference. However, the modern individualistic society produces a sense of disconnect

from community and a perception of barriers. They are more disposed to consume infotainment

which provides them with inadequate knowledge of issues, inefficacy to remove barriers, and a

lessened sense of the urgency of issues. Because of this coupled with their sense of

responsibility, their activism is mainly conducted through slacktivism online. Finally, for those

without religion, there is a lack of integration and overwhelming disconnect from society. This

drives a perception of inefficacy to make a change in the world, and thus disposes them to

consume either infotainment or nothing at all. Therefore, such people are ill equipped to do

anything, so they are more likely to do nothing.

This theoretical model ties in to previous literature because it gives credit to religion’s

role in creating integrated communities which are active in society. It also takes into account

how the growth of the technological era has influenced how social action is done. On one hand,

much action can be done without leaving the computer. On the other hand, one can utilize

technology to inform oneself and discover who to help, why to help, and how.

In addition, my findings support this model more strongly than they do my initial model.

It includes my original theory while also expanding it to be more sophisticated. Within it, the

hypothesis that online news source is positively correlated with social action while infotainment

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news source is inversely related to social action holds true, while also taking into account

antecedent variables such as sex, SES, political party, and religion.

Implications for Further Research

These findings have great implications for further research. First, it would be a

fascinating study repeat when drawing a sample from a population which is more representative

of the general population. In addition, when repeated, care should be taken in the

operationalization. Categories should be narrow enough that they are precisely measuring the

frequency of respondents’ activity but still broad enough to be relevant to the respondents. In

addition, there is not much internal consistency between the variables which I used, so it would

be interesting to look at it from the theoretical standpoint that not only does the type of news

source used drive social action, but it also drives specific types of action.

The findings of this study have implications for the Dress/Ebola Incident of last year,

because the majority of people who knew about these events gained that knowledge through

social media. Because they were alienated from a community and ill-informed about the major

issues in the world, they felt a sense of inefficacy to do anything about the situation, driving

them talked more about the unimportant topic of the Dress. In addition, they have implications in

all of modern society, because we are all impacted by the alienation that is derived from a society

which values individualism and making it on your own, but this can be overcome. Such studies

as this help us better understand what drives social action so that we can effectively make a

positive impact on our world.

21

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