The long-term cultivation of sociotropic beliefs

May 5, 2026 · 1 min read
Site Project period: 2017 - 2021
projects

A project on whether citizens who get their news from different media sources adopt and cultivate different beliefs about society. By combining a four-year panel survey with longitudinal media content analysis, the project studies long-term effects of news media use on beliefs about antibiotic resistance, climate change, integration of immigrants, and unemployment.

Selected publications

  • A. Shehata, J. Johansson, B. Johansson, K. Andersen (2022). Climate Change Frame Acceptance and Resistance: Extreme Weather, Consonant News, and Personal Media Orientations. Mass Communication and Society, 25(1), 51–76.
  • K. Andersen, J. Johansson, B. Johansson, A. Shehata (2022). Maintenance and Reformation of News Repertoires: A Latent Transition Analysis. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 99(1), 237–261.

Principal Investigator

Adam Shehata

Responsibilities

  • Analysis.
  • Research design.

Funding

Supported by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet).

Project size

5 800 000 SEK

Media Effects Public Opinion Selective Media Use
Johannes Johansson
Authors
Johannes Johansson
Associate Researcher
I am an Associate Researcher at the Department of Sociology and Work Science and a Guest Lecturer and PhD candidate at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication (JMG), University of Gothenburg. My research focuses on the application of advanced statistical modelling, experimental designs, and mixed-methods approaches to social processes and relationships. I work with multi-country surveys, survey experiments, longitudinal data, and computational text analysis to study inequality, institutional contexts, and the formation and expression of attitudes and public opinion. My doctoral research applies this methodological focus to theories of media effects and audience behaviour, treating them as temporally contingent social processes. It examines public opinion, news framing, agenda-setting, and selective media use. My PhD research is affiliated with the Varieties of Media Effects (ERC) research programme. Before starting my PhD, I worked at the SOM Institute and the Laboratory of Opinion Research (LORE) as Deputy Chief Analyst.