Impact of exposure to gender issue content on attitudes towards gender equality: the mediating role of emotional resonance

Abstract

In recent years, new media platforms have seen a rapid growth in the content of gender equality issues, such as anti-sexual harassment and the defense of women's rights, often with storytelling, testimonials and emotional expressions that trigger public engagement. As young people aged 18-30 years old become the main users of social media, the frequency of exposure to gender-related content may have a subtle impact on their gender attitudes in the daily information flow. However, the relationship between media use/exposure and gender attitudes has been inconsistent, and the explanation of the influence mechanism is still insufficient. This study proposes a mediation model in which emotional resonance mediates the relationship between exposure to gender-related content and gender equality attitudes. The study will use questionnaires to collect data from college students aged 18-30, and utilize descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and mediation effect test to test the hypotheses. The study will help to supplement the explanation of the psychological mechanism of gender communication in new media in theory and provide a reference for the content production and public communication strategy of gender issues in practice.