Politics, media use and affective polarisation in Spain

This research studies the relationship between the frequency with which political information is consumed through different media (television, social networks and digital newspapers) and the individual affective polarisation level, both toward parties in the abstract sense and toward the elites of those parties. To analyse this relationship, data from the Second National Survey of Political Polarisation in Spain, conducted in 2022 by CEMOP (the Murcian Centre for Public Opinion Studies), were used, and an analysis of differences in means with the ANOVA test carried out, to later apply multiple linear regression models that enable checking the influence of the frequency of use of media on the affective attitudes of Spaniards. The results confirm that those individuals who consume news more frequently are also those who are, on average, more polarised; at the same time, it is found that the greater consumption of information through social networks and digital newspapers increases the individual affective polarisation with regard to parties and their leaders. The more frequently political information is consumed, the more likely it is to come into contact with polarising content, hence the cognitive and attitudinal effects of the media will become more present.