Commenters and lurkers: Navigating the two-step flow of communication in online news discourse
2025-09-06
This study examines how different opinion formation processes in digital spaces differentially influence commenters, conceptualized as modern opinion leaders, and lurkers, passive observers. Using a 2 (news bias: liberal vs conservative) × 4 (comment bias: liberal, conservative, mixed, or apolitical) between-subjects experimental design, the study reveals that commenters are more susceptible to news bias that cues the issue stance of their preferred party. In contrast, lurkers are more affected by comment bias, interpreting comments as indicator of the general public opinion climate. These findings suggest a cascading process, wherein news bias influences commenters’ opinions, and commenters’ posts subsequently shape lurkers’ perceptions. Two cognitive mechanisms underlie these effects: Partisan cue-taking explains the influence of news bias on commenters, whereas the bandwagon heuristic accounts for the impact of comment bias on lurkers. This study highlights the multi-layered nature of public opinion formation in digitized news environments.