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Abstract. Recent work highlights individual-level variation in negativity biases in news selection. There has, however, been limited work exploring the source of this individual-level variation. This study considers predispositions in information processing as a source of difference in news selection. We explore individual differences in learning biases identified using Hot Rod, a new purpose-built online game. Asymmetries in respondents' learning of negative and positive information in Hot Rod are correlated with news selection decisions. It thus appears that valence-based differences in news consumption are at least partly a function of the same biases that govern learning and information processing more broadly.

Past work suggests that the priorities for information propagation in social media may be markedly different from the priorities for news selection in traditional media outlets. We explore this possibility here, focusing on the tone of both newspaper and Twitter content following changes in the U.S. unemployment rate, from 2008 to 2014. Results strongly support the expectation that while the tone of newspaper content exhibits stronger reactions to negative information, the tone of Twitter content reacts more strongly to positive economic shifts.

This study examines the dynamics of the framing of mass shooting incidences in the U.S. occurring in the traditional commercial online news media and Twitter. We demonstrate that there is a dynamic, reciprocal relationship between the attention paid to different aspects of mass shootings in online news and in Twitter: tweets tend to be responsive to traditional media reporting, but traditional media framing of these incidents also seems to resonate from public framing in the Twitterverse. We also explore how different frames become prominent as they compete among media as time passes after shooting events. Finally, we find that key differences emerge between norms of journalistic routine and how users rely on Twitter to express their reactions to these tragic shooting incidents.