Erik Knudsen

University of Bergen | UiB · Department of Information Science and Media Studies

This paper calls attention to what is arguably the most notable advancement in survey experiments over the last decade: conjoint designs. The benefit of conjoint design is its capacity to study and compare the causal effects of several dimensions simultaneously. Although survey experiments have long been a preferred method for assessing causal effe...

While news outlets still play an important role as a source of news, people increasingly receive their political information and news from social networking sites (SNSs). This study extends the literature on exposure and sharing decisions on SNSs by exploring how different attributes shape such decisions, how the two decision types differ, and by d...

A growing body of comparative studies on partisan hostility – a phenomenon known as affective polarization – is providing evidence that partisan affective polarization is generally no greater in the United States than it is in many European multiparty systems. This article takes the comparative literature on affective polarization one step further...

Under which conditions do news recommender systems (NRSs) amplify or reduce selective exposure? I provide the Recommender Influenced Selective Exposure framework, which aims to enable researchers to model and study the conditional effects of NRSs on selective exposure. I empirically test this framework by studying user behavior on a news site where...

In this study, we extend the literature on the rally ‘round the flag phenomenon, that is, that international crises tend to cause an increase in citizens’ approval of political institutions. We advance this literature and highlight its relevance for political communication research in three ways: 1) by theorizing and empirically testing two argumen...

News recommender systems (NRSs) offer benefits in the realm of information consumption and personalized news delivery. Yet, some critics argue that overly personalized news recommendations can pose a threat to democracy as these systems can potentially increase the occurrence of selective exposure, where individuals seek out political news that con...

In this section, Journalistica puts a spotlight on research methods used in journalism studies and/or journalism practice. Listen to the Journalistica podcast episode about this article on Spotify or in your browser.

Reading or viewing recommendations are a common feature on modern media sites. What is shown to consumers as recommendations is nowadays often automatically determined by AI algorithms, typically with the goal of helping consumers discover relevant content more easily. However, the highlighting or filtering of information that comes with such recom...

Despite the central role that ordinary citizens play as ‘trustors’ (i.e. the actor that places trust) in the literature on news media trust, prior quantitative studies have paid little attention to how ordinary citizens understand and define news media trust. Here, trust tends to be studied from a researcher-defined – rather than an audience-define...

This study investigates the visual objects that are used to either disclose or disguise the commercial nature of native advertising as news articles. We adopt a “material object” approach to explore the potential implications for journalism regarding transparency, trust, and credibility. Methodologically, this study used content analysis covering 2...

Replication material for "Beyond the Limits of Survey Experiments: How Conjoint Designs Advance Causal Inference in Political Communication Research".

Sammendrag I denne studien undersøker vi forskjeller i hvordan folk på høyre- og venstresiden forholder seg til nyhetsmedier som er forankret på høyre- eller venstresiden i norsk politikk. Vi studerer hvordan individer med ulike politiske preferanser anser aviser som betydningsfulle og troverdige nyhetskilder. Vi finner klare forskjeller blant folk...

Several cross national examinations reveal that trust in news media appears to be falling. This begs the question: what makes or break trust in a news source? While a large literature has investigated this question through experimental and correlational studies, previous studies have focused on a small number of explanatory factors and consequently...

Native advertising mimics journalistic content while labelling it as advertising. News and native ads are differentiated through a negotiation between news attributes that form the look and feel of a typical news story and a set of boundary devices. In this paper, we explore how boundary devices are implemented and we compare how they differ within...

Declining revenues from offline and online ads has led publishers to pursue new avenues, such as native advertising: camouflaging ads as news. Critics of native advertising claim that this form of advertising blurs the boundaries between editorial and commercial content, and can reduce the audiences’ trust in editorial content. However, little rese...

Sammendrag I dette essayet argumenterer jeg for at to av de mest fremtredende teoriene i kommunikasjonsforskningen, ramme- og medialiseringsteori, bør integreres tettere. Jeg gir et innblikk i hva de to teoriene innebærer og velger ut én forståelse for hvert av konseptene. Med utgangspunkt i disse to forståelsene belyser jeg hvordan ramme- og media...

This book addresses three core aspects of the literature within communication science: 1) how journalists frame stories in the news, 2) the effects of such frames on citizen’s attitudes, and 3) how such frames can contribute to the mediatization of institutions in society. Although previous research has thoroughly investigated each of these aspect...

This book addresses three core aspects of the literature within communication science: 1) how journalists frame stories in the news, 2) the effects of such frames on citizen’s attitudes, and 3) how such frames can contribute to the mediatization of institutions in society. Although previous research has thoroughly investigated each of these aspect...