The unexpected source of political information online

When people get political information online, it's coming from a news website, right? Not so much. According to a new study by a team of researchers led by Magdalena Wojcieszak of UC-Davis, non-news sites expose people to more political content than news sites do. This is partly due to infrequent news consumption, with just 3.4 percent of online browsing dedicated to news sites. But the larger and more interesting point is this: political information encountered on non-news sites has sometimes stronger effects on democratic attitudes and behaviors than do news sites.

The study does not address misinformation, which seems to us a critical piece of the puzzle. Is it possible to ensure basic editorial standards for non-news-site-derived political information? We don't have the answer, but we are grateful this study has kicked off the discussion with a careful assessment of the flow of political information.