社交媒体平台的第三人效果及其影响机制

The Third-Person Effect in Social Media and its Influence Mechanism

与传统媒体相比,社交媒体内容生产者通常高度重视读者用户细分,内容策略亦定位明晰,易引发不同读者差异化的感知和行为。基于此,研究以第三人效果为理论架构,以咪蒙微信公众号这一争议性对象为案例,使用问卷调查法,探讨社交媒体信息对读者认知和行为意向的影响。研究发现了第三人效果的存在,读者对内容的负面程度评价和可信度评价是预测第三人效果和文章限制意愿的主要因素。然而,感知的信息对自己和对他人的影响不能预测读者对咪蒙文章和其他类似文章的限制意愿。读者可能倾向于惩罚负面内容生产者的想法而支持社交媒体内容限制,但较不会出于保护其他读者不受信息影响的动机而形成限制意愿。

Different from traditional media,social media content producers put greater emphasis on segmenting users and targeting at specific readers.The content from public social media accounts are more likely to lead to different perceptions and behaviors among readers of diverse backgrounds.Taking the articles on marriage and love topic from the controversial social media platforms run by Mimeng as the case,this study employs the framework of the third-person effect theory to explore the influence of the social media information on the cognition and behavioral intention of college students.The survey results supported the third-person assumption.Perceived negativity and credibility of the social media articles are significant predictors for third-person perceptions and the intention of restricting social media information.However,students’perception of influence on themselves and others could not predict the intention of restricting articles from Mimeng account and other accounts.The study suggests that college readers’support for media restriction implies their attitude of penalizing the media for producing harmful content,rather than reflecting their intention to protecting others from the media effects.