Digital and Traditional Media Perceptions

We test how social media affects perceptions of news events and social groups. We theorize that information embedded in social media, such as the tools for social networking and signaling approval, fuels intergroup competition and changes how we perceive events compared to traditional news media and face-to-face interactions. Social networking sites communicate, through likes and shares, the degree that social movements and ideas are gaining power. Thus, we predict that digital social movements attract counter movements that attempt to suppress them and that exposure to these conflicts hurts users' psychological well-being.