Closing Gaps in International Knowledge and Participation: News Attention,Online Expression,and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake |
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| Authors: | Jason A Martin |
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| Institution: | 1. College of Communication , DePaul University jmart181@depaul.edu |
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| Abstract: | The effects of international news have been relatively underexamined despite evidence that socioeconomic-based gaps in knowledge and participation tend to be the widest for foreign news. This study investigated international news use, online expression, foreign affairs knowledge, and monetary donations in the context of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Regression analysis of national survey data found that high levels of attention to news about the disaster narrowed the knowledge gap for foreign news questions. Also, attention to news about the earthquake was the strongest predictor of monetary donation to the relief effort after controls and was more than twice as likely as income to predict donation. Three measures of online expression (exchanging information about the Haiti earthquake via social media website, e-mail, and text message) also produced positive independent associations with donation, and produced a complementary effect with news attention when interaction terms were considered. |
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