Boukes Mark, A W J van Esch Femke, A Snellens Jeroen, C Steenman Sebastiaan, Vliegenthart Rens
Assistant professor in the Department of Communication Science at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Associate professor of European integration at the Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Public Opin Q. 2021 Feb 10;84(3):599-628. doi: 10.1093/poq/nfaa040. eCollection 2020 Fall.
Cognitive complexity is a concept that allows scholars to distinguish unidimensional thinking from multidimensional thinking, which allows citizens to identify and integrate various perspectives of a topic. Especially in times of fake news, fact-free politics, and affective polarization, the news media would ideally foster such complex political understanding. The current paper introduces the method of cognitive mapping to measure cognitive complexity regarding citizens' understanding of the financial crisis, one of the most pressing political issues of the past decades. Linking content-analytic data to panel-survey data, we examine how exposure to news about the crisis relates to cognitive complexity. A wide variety of news sources (print, television, and online) were analyzed to take the high-choice media environment into account. Results show that news consumption generally is related to a less cognitively complex understanding of the financial crisis. However, actual exposure to news about the crisis (combined measurement of content analysis and survey data) is positively related to cognitive complexity, particularly among less-educated citizens. In addition, the most prominent topics in news coverage were more frequently associated with the financial crisis, as reflected in the cognitive maps of less-educated citizens exposed to more crisis news. These findings demonstrate the potential of news media to increase citizens' complexity of understanding, especially among the less educated.
认知复杂性是一个使学者能够区分一维思维和多维思维的概念，而多维思维能让公民识别并整合一个话题的各种观点。尤其是在假新闻、无事实依据的政治以及情感两极分化的时代，新闻媒体理想情况下应促进这种复杂的政治理解。本文介绍了认知映射方法，以衡量公民对金融危机的理解方面的认知复杂性，金融危机是过去几十年中最紧迫的政治问题之一。将内容分析数据与面板调查数据相联系，我们研究了接触危机新闻与认知复杂性之间的关系。为考虑到高度多元化的媒体环境，我们分析了各种各样的新闻来源（印刷媒体、电视和网络）。结果表明，新闻消费总体上与对金融危机的认知复杂性较低的理解相关。然而，实际接触危机新闻（内容分析和调查数据的综合测量）与认知复杂性呈正相关，尤其是在受教育程度较低的公民中。此外，新闻报道中最突出的话题在接触更多危机新闻的受教育程度较低的公民的认知地图中更频繁地与金融危机相关联。这些发现证明了新闻媒体在提高公民理解复杂性方面的潜力，尤其是在受教育程度较低的人群中。
