If It Impacts Me, I Will Support the Campus Protesters: How Campus Protest News Influences Americans’ Digital Engagement and Support for Participants

This study examines how Americans reacted to sensational, conflict-driven news reports about the campus protests in spring 2024 through the lens of motivated partisan issue attention, which leads to divergent perceptions of news impact that shape participative actions. Findings from data collected from a sample of 1,010 Americans in May 2024 show that the extent to which Americans perceive campus protests as an important issue motivates their partisan attention to and elaboration of protest news, resulting in biased perceptions of its impacts. Perceived personal impact, in turn, stimulates engagement in online discussions about the protests and expressions of support for the demonstrators facing disciplinary actions. These findings reveal how sensational news reports about a socially divisive issue lead to partisan consequences in issue attention, perception of news impact, and political behavior, thereby deepening our understanding of the dynamics of motivated partisan issue attention, third-person effects, and digital civic engagement.