活在資訊孤島中？以社會網絡分析探討政黨驅動的閱聽人區隔化現象

Abstract

為探討臺灣新聞環境中是否有政黨驅動的閱聽人區隔化現象，本研究整合社會網絡分析觀點與閱聽人重複的研究取徑，使用來自TCS臺灣傳播調查資料庫第二期第三次問卷調查資料的全國代表性樣本進行分析（N = 2,000），運用羅吉斯二次指派程序迴歸分析與E-I指數，分析新聞媒體的閱聽人重複網絡。主要研究發現有兩個：第一，新聞媒體的政黨傾向和新聞媒體閱聽人的政黨傾向是導致閱聽人區隔化現象的重要因素；第二，政黨驅動的閱聽人區隔化多發生於特定媒體的閱聽人。在理論與方法上，有兩大貢獻：首先，基於過往研究的不一致結果，釐清政黨驅動的閱聽人區隔化現象的四個重要內涵，其次，提出適用檢視政黨驅動的閱聽人區隔化的社會網絡分析方法與指標。整體而言，本研究發現閱聽人有政黨選擇性暴露和政黨選擇性逃避的傾向。雖然整體閱聽人受到新聞媒體政黨傾向而產生區隔化的程度並不高，但卻發現少數閱聽人處於資訊孤島中，此結果對於民主社會而言，具有警示效果。

The aim of current study is to examine the partisanship-driven audience fragmentation in Taiwan's news environments. Based on a Taiwan nationally representative survey from 2019 Taiwan Communication Survey (N = 2,000), the current study examined how political orientation of news media influence audience duplication by QAP regression analysis and E-I index, from the perspective of social network analysis and audience duplication approach. The finding revealed that partisan selective exposure and partisan selective avoidance positively predicted audience duplication, and partisan enclaves occurred in specific news media outlets. There are two theoretical and methodological contributions. First, we clarify the inconsistent results of prior research and propose four essential arguments for partisanship-driven audience fragmentation. Second, we propose appropriate analytical strategies and index to examine partisanship-driven audience fragmentation by using social network analysis. In sum, our findings show low level of partisanship-driven audience fragmentation in Taiwan. However, few audiences did live in partisan enclaves. The implications for democratic politics were discussed.