Browsing by Author "Bachmann Cáceres, Ingrid Andrea"

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    A Credibility Divide? Discerning Truth from Misinformation in Chile
    (Oxford University Press, 2024) Bachmann Cáceres, Ingrid Andrea; Valenzuela Leighton Sebastián Andrés; Mujica Holley, María Constanza; Labarca Encina, Claudia; Grassau Bustos, Daniela Constanza; Halpern Jelin, Daniel Matías
    Studies on misinformation often overlook people’s assessment of true information, focusing instead on beliefs in and sharing of false content. This is problematic, as it limits scholars’ ability to produce an accurate assessment of citizens’ capacity to distinguish between true and false content. To shed light on this matter, this study relies on a two-wave online survey (Nrespondents = 465) to examine people’s truth discernment, that is, how much they believe and share true content relative to false content. It does so in Chile over two different crises: after the 2019 protests (Wave 1, November 2019), and at the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (Wave 2, May–June 2020). While true information was deemed credible more often than false information, discernment tended to be better for those who had a better perception of traditional media content and those more politically engaged. Conversely, credibility and sharing of false content tended to be more common with younger people and those with high levels of trust in social media. Over time, levels of credibility and sharing discernment remained stable.
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    Competing Frames and Melodrama: The Effects of Facebook Posts on Policy Preferences about COVID-19
    (2021) Valenzuela Leighton, Sebastián Andrés; Bachmann Cáceres, Ingrid Andrea; Mujica, Constanza; Grassau, Daniela; Labarca, Claudia; Halpern, Daniel; Puente, Soledad
    The tension between health and economic considerations regarding COVID-19 has resulted in a framing contest, in which proponents and adversaries of strong containment measures hold oppositional frames about the pandemic. This study examines the effects of competing news frames on social media users' policy preferences and the moderation of framing effects played by melodramatic news treatment. Results from a pre-registered online survey experiment in Chile (N = 518) show that participants exposed to Facebook posts with an economic frame were significantly less supportive of measures that restrict mobility (e.g., quarantines) than participants in the control group. Contrary to expectations, exposure to a public health frame also reduced support for stay-at-home orders, and the presence of melodramatic features had no significant impact on users' preferences. Other variables, however, did alter these framing effects, such as fear of COVID-19 and frequency of social media news use. These findings paint a rather complex picture of framing effects during the pandemic in a digital media environment.