Evaluating the Relationship Between News Source Sharing and Political Beliefs

Evaluating the Relationship Between News Source Sharing and Political Beliefs | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Evaluating the Relationship Between News Source Sharing and Political Beliefs Sofía M. del Pozo, Sebastián Pinto, Matteo Serafino, Tomás Cicchini, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4492467/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 02 Jan, 2025 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted 12 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract In an era marked by an abundance of news sources, access to information significantly influences public opinion. Notably, the bias of news sources often serves as an indicator of individuals' political leanings. This study explores this hypothesis by examining the news sharing behavior of politically active social media users, whose political ideologies were identified in a previous study. Using correspondence analysis, we estimate the Media Sharing Index (MSI), a measure that captures bias in media outlets and user preferences within a hidden space. During Argentina’s 2019 election on Twitter, we observed a predictable pattern: center-right individuals predominantly shared media from center-right biased outlets. However, it is noteworthy that those with center-left inclinations displayed a more diverse media consumption, which is a significant finding. Despite a noticeable polarization based on political affiliation observed in a retweet network analysis, center-left users showed more diverse media sharing preferences, particularly concerning the MSI. Although these findings are specific to Argentina, the developed methodology can be applied in other countries to assess the correlation between users’ political leanings and the media they share. Physical sciences/Physics/Statistical physics thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics/Complex networks Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing/Computational science news sharing social media correspondence analysis political leanings. Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 02 Jan, 2025 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 18 Sep, 2024 Reviews received at journal 17 Sep, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 01 Sep, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 24 Jul, 2024 Reviews received at journal 12 Jul, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 28 Jun, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 03 Jun, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 31 May, 2024 Editor assigned by journal 31 May, 2024 Editor invited by journal 30 May, 2024 Submission checks completed at journal 30 May, 2024 First submitted to journal 28 May, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4492467","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":310942371,"identity":"b31fe0f1-b8d5-41af-9ed4-761ead1ceaef","order_by":0,"name":"Sofía M. del Pozo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Física. 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