Americans Don’t Live in Information Cocoons (The New York Times)

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“In this polarized age, have citizens retreated into information cocoons of like-minded media sources?” asks Assistant Professor of Government Brendan Nyhan in his New York Times Upshot blog.

“In short, while it’s still possible to live in a political bubble of your own choosing, the best evidence suggests that very few people are getting their news only from like-minded outlets,” says Nyhan. “The problem isn’t the news we consume, it seems, but the values and identities that shape how we interpret that information—most notably, our partisan beliefs. In other words, Democrats and Republicans don’t see the world so differently because they see different news; rather, they see the news differently because they’re Democrats and Republicans in the first place.”

Read the full opinion piece, published 10/24/14 by The New York Times.

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