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When The Wall Street Journal debuted its “Blue Feed, Red Feed” feature last month, the data seemed to confirm what surveys have long suggested: Americans are very good at ignoring points of view other than their own.
Using data from a 2015 Facebook study that highlighted websites preferred by liberals and conservatives, the tool scrapes popular posts to simulate how common news subjects—Hillary Clinton, abortion, Harambe the gorilla—play differently on the newsfeeds of users with divergent ideologies…
…But Americans aren’t as politically divided as they might think. There are quite a few sites that both liberals and conservatives follow—and they’re all part of mainstream media.
These sites—including The Washington Post, the Associated Press, and CNN—are popular among people of both ideologies, despite some claims that they cater to the left. Facebook’s data shows both groups frequently highlight news from established brands. There’s a catch, however: When conservatives and liberals post to Facebook, they share completely different stories. People from each side have little overlap in the news they choose to promote.
The study saw the same effect with Facebook links shared from YouTube and Change.org, which makes a bit more sense: These are putatively neutral platforms, hosting everything from a petition to impeach Barack Obama to a proposal to maroon Donald Trump in outer space. That CNN and the AP see the same dynamic could be a nod to their impartiality…
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