Choice and preference in media use: Advances in selective exposure theory and research
Abstract
Mediated messages flood our daily lives, through virtually endless choices of media channels, genres, and content. However, selectivity determines what media messages we attend to and focus on. The present book examines the factors that influence this selectivity. Seminal books on selective media exposure were published in 1960 by Klapper and in 1985 by Zillmann and Bryant. But an integrated update on this research field is much needed, as rigorous selective exposure research has flourished in the new millennium. In the contexts of political communication, health communication, Internet use, entertainment consumption, and electronic games, the crucial question of how individuals choose what content they consume has garnered much attention. The present book integrates theories and empirical evidence from these domains and discusses the related research methodologies. In light of the ever-increasing abundance of media channels and messages, selective exposure has become more important than ever for media impacts. This monograph provides a comprehensive review of the research on selective exposure to media messages, which is at the heart of communication science and media effects. It is required reading for media scholars and researchers, and promises to influence and inspire future research.
... Although numerous studies have demonstrated the link between drinking behavior and exposure to respective content online in terms of media effects (for an overview, see Alhabash, Park, Smith, Hendriks, & Dong, 2022), scholars have increasingly called to additionally consider the opposing explanation entailing selective social media use (Valkenburg & Oliver, 2019). According to selective exposure theory (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015), dispositions such as offline behavior are not only affected by exposure to media content (exposure effects), but they also guide the selection of media content (selective exposure). Therefore, exposure to alcohol-related content might not be the cause but rather may be the consequence of drinking behavior. ...
... Only recently have social media scholars started to consider that drinking behavior might not only be affected by exposure to alcohol-related content but that it might also predict the tendency to be exposed to such content. Drawing on selective exposure theory (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015;Zillmann & Bryant, 1985), it is assumed that individual predispositions (such as drinking behavior) will guide media use. Consequently, the connection between drinking behavior and exposure to alcohol-related content may be the result of selective exposure (i.e., exposure to alcohol-related content as a consequence of drinking behavior). ...
... First, we did not rely on self-reported exposure to alcohol-related content as previous longitudinal research has (Geber, Frey, & Friemel, 2021; but instead assessed exposure to individual peers who posted the respective content. Such an approach follows the call to consider specific network information when examining online exposure (Strowger & Braitman, 2022) and complies better with an unobtrusive identification of preferences demanded in selective exposure research (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). Second, by investigating the preference toward contacts instead of content, we considered that users customize their engagement online by selecting and deselecting their contacts (Bode, 2016;Thorson & Wells, 2016) and therefore measured selective social media use as a result of common practices among adolescents (Duffy & Chan, 2019;LaBrie et al., 2021). ...
This article applies a network approach to better understand the often-demonstrated link between adolescents’ drinking behavior and their exposure to alcohol-related content on social media. Focusing on social dynamics among adolescents and their peers, we investigate the causes and consequences of exposure to individual peers who share alcohol-related content online. Drawing on social network literature and the perspective of networked communication online, we distinguish between exposure effects and selective exposure as the two core dynamics that can explain the association between drinking behavior and exposure to alcohol-related content online. Based on a two-wave network survey among adolescents aged 14 to 17 (n = 277), we applied a longitudinal network analysis to test both dynamics simultaneously. The findings indicate no exposure effects but robust evidence for selective exposure. This means that drinking adolescents are more likely to become exposed to peers who post alcohol-related content. The stochastic actor-oriented model hereby controls for rivaling explanations, such as the tendency to be exposed to friends, classmates, and peers of the same gender. In addition to these empirical findings, we discuss the value of the network approach, outlining the implications for future research and prevention strategies.
... for an overview see Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). Interestingly, none of these theories takes the role of time constraints explicitly into account (Seufert & Wilhelm, 2014)although media choice is also a decision about using scarce time resources (Schnauber-Stockmann & Mangold, 2020;Thulin & Vilhelmson, 2019;Vilhelmson et al., 2018;Zhang & Ha, 2016). ...
... The surveys were conducted over 12 months in order to avoid seasonal biases. In the surveys, participants kept a time-use diary for several days: two Federal Statistical Office, 1992, 2003, 2015. ...
... 18 Furthermore, we confirmed the predictive power of the postulated timeallocation model of media use. While most theories focus on predictors related to the media device or recipients' characteristics to explain media use behaviors (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015), our findings demonstrate that the amount of disposable time strongly determines adolescents' media use. This particularly refers to digital gaming and watching TV, as these activities mainly take place during adolescents' free time. ...
Since the beginning of the digital age, there have been critical voices claiming that spending time with digital media might reduce time dedicated to school-related obligations, leading to detrimental effects on academic performance. However, findings on this topic are mixed and lack large-scale time-use data that allows the investigation of displacement effects from a long-term perspective. To address this research gap, we tested a Time-allocation Model of Media Use among 12- to 18-year-old students from three different media generations (Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z). The analysis relies on high-quality daily diary data (i.e., all existing data sets of the German Time-Use Survey) collected between 1991 and 2013 (N1991/92 = 1310, N2001/02 = 1329, N2012/13 = 1274). The findings of the PLS-SEM multigroup analysis demonstrate that free time availability is an important predictor of media choice. Moreover, although digital media use considerably increased over time, the effects on school-related obligation time remained largely stable and, most importantly, small. The study offers new insights into changes in media use and their effects on school-related obligation time across different generations from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. It is adaptable for future research, analyzing prospective media generations.
... Concerns over the possible adverse effects of artificial intelligence and news recommender systems (NRSs) on democracy have spawned a raft of literature on the extent to which online news environments are characterized by filter bubbles in which users mainly encounter information that conforms to their own political attitudes and beliefs. Decades of research have repeatedly shown that individuals prefer political news that supports their views, known as selective exposure (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015;Lodge & Taber, 2013). While selective exposure can occur both offline and online (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015), some fear that NRSs that filter the abundance of information online will enable selective exposure on an unprecedented scale by learning audiences' preferences for like-minded content and causally increase the chance that selective exposure occurs by promoting news that audiences agree with at the expense of the news they disagree with (Dylko, 2016;Pariser, 2011). ...
... Decades of research have repeatedly shown that individuals prefer political news that supports their views, known as selective exposure (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015;Lodge & Taber, 2013). While selective exposure can occur both offline and online (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015), some fear that NRSs that filter the abundance of information online will enable selective exposure on an unprecedented scale by learning audiences' preferences for like-minded content and causally increase the chance that selective exposure occurs by promoting news that audiences agree with at the expense of the news they disagree with (Dylko, 2016;Pariser, 2011). ...
... The fourth assumption is that one can use certain online choice environments as baselines. When a choice environment has a limit in terms of browsing time and number of available articles, and contains attitude-consistent and inconsistent stories but does not systematically promote or demote any of these stories, users are more likely to select attitude-consistent content than attitude-inconsistent content (i.e., engage in selective exposure) (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). For analysts to be able to evaluate whether an NRS causally increases or decreases the chance that selective exposure occurs, they need to be able to compare the effects of that NRS to a baseline. ...
Under which conditions do news recommender systems (NRSs) amplify or reduce selective exposure? I provide the Recommender Influenced Selective Exposure framework, which aims to enable researchers to model and study the conditional effects of NRSs on selective exposure. I empirically test this framework by studying user behavior on a news site where the choice environment is designed to systematically influence selective exposure. Through two preregistered online experiments that simulate different NRSs and unobtrusively log user behavior, I contribute empirical evidence that an NRS can increase or decrease the chance that selective exposure occurs, depending on what the NRS is designed to achieve. These insights have implications for ongoing scholarly debates on the democratic impact of NRSs.
... The complexity of multi-media use for crisis communication is further illustrated by selective exposure theory (c. [30,31]), which assumes an active audience [32,33] choosing media forms that are most likely to serve the functions that are personally relevant to them. These functions can include informational utility (e.g., political news), social connection (e.g., social networking sites), or affect management (e.g., researching symptoms online to reduce uncertainty and anxiety). ...
... Nevertheless, it is important to consider specific preferences of the population when designing warning messages for each medium to successfully connects audience needs, warning message content, and media function to maintain trust and continued communication [30,32,33]. Since higher trust in either traditional or new media was associated with said media use, it can be assumed that positive experiences with each medium build trust and informs future media use (c. ...
... On the other hand, younger persons reported a strong reliance on new media, with lower levels of trust in traditional media (e.g., TV), which was surprising. While this points toward an active user taking advantage of media and information selection strategies (e.g., [22,32]), it also poses new challenges since social media fosters the spread of incomplete or incorrect information and conspiracy beliefs, also during a crisis and lacks external validation (e.g., due to a lack of trust in traditional media) (e.g., [19,46,47]). Since many public warnings are still broadcast via traditional media (e.g., TV, radio), this finding questions the reach and acceptance of such warnings as well as subsequent compliance in younger generations. ...
Although disaster research has acknowledged the role of social media in crisis communication, the interplay of new (e.g., mobile apps) and traditional media (e.g., TV, radio) in public warnings has received less attention, particularly from the recipients’ perspective. Therefore, we examined sociodemographic and psychosocial correlates of different types of media use (i.e., traditional, new, mixed) for receiving public warning messages in a population survey (N = 613, 63% female; Mage = 31.56 years). More than two-thirds (68%) reported mixed media use, with 20% relying on new media and 12% on traditional media. Traditional media users were older and reported lower levels of education, while new media users were significantly younger and reported lower trust toward traditional media (i.e., TV). Migrants were more likely to use new but not mixed media. In sum, most participants utilized a mixture of traditional and new media for warning purposes, which has implications for crisis communication. Though, vulnerable populations (e.g., older and less educated participants) mainly rely on traditional media, stressing the need for continued support. Thus, it is paramount to increasingly use mixed methods designs and concurrently examine multiple channels to reflect real-world warning practices and generate ecologically valid results.
... Prior research suggests that information utility is an essential concept for understanding when individuals have greater incentives for cross-cutting exposure (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014;Knobloch-Westerwick & Kleinman, 2012;Sears & Freedman, 1967). When individuals believe the information is useful to handle a particular issue, they are more likely to consume cross-cutting information sources (Mummolo, 2016;Valentino et al., 2009;Wagner, 2017). ...
... Equally important is the understanding that people's exposure to cross-cutting exposure is not static. Instead, citizens' tendency to expose themselves to cross-cutting sources increases the more the information is useful for dealing with uncertainties (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014;Matthes, 2006) and the more it is personally relevant for them (Mummolo, 2016). In light of this, the outbreak of COVID-19 represents an important case to examine how a threatening exogenous shock with extremely high relevance to citizens affects cross-cutting exposure. ...
... These sudden exogenous shocks do not only increase citizens' information seeking in general but can also affect the nature of information citizens are exposed to, specifically whether it is in line with their predispositions. According to this line of research, external threats can increase the utility of information from diverse sources and potentially increase incentives for cross-cutting exposure (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014;Sears & Freedman, 1967). However, empirical evidence on the role of sudden exogenous real-world shocks on cross-cutting exposure is scarce (but see Barberá et al., 2015). ...
A widely believed claim is that citizens tend to selectively expose themselves to like-minded information. However, when individuals find the information useful, they are more likely to consume cross- cutting sources. While crises such as terror attacks and pandemics can enhance the utility of cross-cutting information, empirical evidence on the role of real-world external threats in selective exposure is scarce. This paper examines the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study to test the extent to which citizens were exposed to information from cross- cutting sources on traditional and social media after the outbreak. Utilizing a two-wave panel survey among 14,218 participants across 17 countries – conducted before and after the initial outbreak – we show that citizens concerned about COVID-19 were more exposed to cross-cutting information on traditional and social media. The positive relationship with cross-cutting exposure to traditional news was stron- ger in countries where governments adopted less stringent policy responses, and in countries with greater pandemic severity and weaker democratic institutions. Our comparative approach thus sheds light on the social and political contexts in which cross-cutting exposure can occur.
... In fact, greater choice opportunities mean that people have to become increasingly selective with respect to what media and other types of information they expose themselves to and pay attention to (Luskin, 1990;Prior, 2007). Such selective exposure can be active and goal-oriented, in the sense that people consciously become more selective in their media and information use, but it can also be more passive and result from other patterns of behavior in people's everyday lives (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014;Metzger & Flanigan, 2002). Important in this context is the so-called OMA-model, which stands for Opportunities, Motivations, and Abilities (Luskin, 1990). ...
... One consequence is that people are likely to be selective in terms of what media or other types of information they expose themselves to and pay attention to (Hart et al., 2009;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014;Smith et al., 2008). This selectivity might manifest itself both through selective exposure to attitude-consistent information and through selective avoidance of attitude-discrepant information (Garrett, 2009a(Garrett, , 2009b. ...
... This selectivity might manifest itself both through selective exposure to attitude-consistent information and through selective avoidance of attitude-discrepant information (Garrett, 2009a(Garrett, , 2009b. Numerous studies have also shown that people are selective in their media use and that partisan or ideological preferences have an impact on people's media use -but also that the tendency to prefer attitude-consistent information seems to be stronger than the tendency to avoid media and information that is attitude-discrepant (Dahlgren et al., 2019;Garrett, 2009aGarrett, , 2009bGarrett et al., 2013;Iyengar & Hahn, 2009;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014;Stroud, 2011;Winter et al., 2016). ...
... In fact, greater choice opportunities mean that people have to become increasingly selective with respect to what media and other types of information they expose themselves to and pay attention to (Luskin, 1990;Prior, 2007). Such selective exposure can be active and goal-oriented, in the sense that people consciously become more selective in their media and information use, but it can also be more passive and result from other patterns of behavior in people's everyday lives (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014;Metzger & Flanigan, 2002). Important in this context is the so-called OMA-model, which stands for Opportunities, Motivations, and Abilities (Luskin, 1990). ...
... One consequence is that people are likely to be selective in terms of what media or other types of information they expose themselves to and pay attention to (Hart et al., 2009;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014;. This selectivity might manifest itself both through selective exposure to attitude-consistent information and through selective avoidance of attitude-discrepant information (Garrett, 2009a(Garrett, , 2009b. ...
... This selectivity might manifest itself both through selective exposure to attitude-consistent information and through selective avoidance of attitude-discrepant information (Garrett, 2009a(Garrett, , 2009b. Numerous studies have also shown that people are selective in their media use and that partisan or ideological preferences have an impact on people's media use -but also that the tendency to prefer attitude-consistent information seems to be stronger than the tendency to avoid media and information that is attitude-discrepant (Dahlgren et al., 2019;Garrett, 2009aGarrett, , 2009bGarrett et al., 2013;Iyengar & Hahn, 2009;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014;Stroud, 2011;Winter et al., 2016). ...
... Against this backdrop of potential social change, the present study, with particular attention to gender as a social category, tests theoretical assumptions regarding motivations driving selective exposure, as selective exposure is known to shape political attitudes and behaviors (Knobloch-Westerwick & Johnson, 2014;Sude et al., 2019). While the present work builds on an array of concepts and research in communication and psychology that pertain to responses to attitude-relevant and social information, the theoretical frame focuses on the SESAM model (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015), as this model targets selective exposure to mediated messages as key outcome variable and integrates the relevant concepts. ...
... Importantly, people derive self-worth from connecting with others, which is thought to shape selective exposure to mediated messages. According to the selective exposure self-and affect management (SESAM) model (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015), media users seek out mediated content that allows for self-regulation. An important motivation in self-regulation is self-enhancement. ...
... .]) in the direction of protecting, maintaining, or elevating the positivity of the self" (Sedikides et al., 2003, p. 61). Self-enhancements through selective media use are obviously pleasant for media users and were demonstrated in several studies (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). ...
Building on the SESAM model, influences of self-consistency motivation (evident in bias toward partisanship-consistent messages) and self-enhancement motivation (evident in same-group bias) on selective exposure to political messages were hypothesized. A selective exposure experiment (N = 113) displayed political messages on eight topics, with messages associated either with male or female authors. Selective exposure patterns demonstrated both partisan bias and same-gender bias. Corroborating the notion that self-enhancement motivation affects exposure to even political content, identity importance and perceptions of public esteem were associated with longer exposure times for messages from same-gender authors.
... Because media users can select from vast quantities of information online, it is not feasible to attend to or consume all available content (Tsfati & Cappella, 2003). Media users expose themselves to information based on personal factors (e.g., knowledge, mood), contextual factors (e.g., source cues, algorithmic recommendations), and interactions between those factors-a phenomenon known as selective exposure (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). From a normative standpoint, selective exposure processes are troubling. ...
... If high-NFM groups already believe they are sufficiently knowledgeable about ongoing public affairs and exert little effort toward news engagement, they may feel there is little to be gained from consuming news through traditional news sources. According to models of informational utility, selective exposure to information is driven by the extent to which one finds the information in one's environment to be useful (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). Media users are therefore expected to engage with information (e.g., news content) that they perceive meets their surveillance needs. ...
Individuals harboring perceptions that the “news will find me” (NFM) tend to be less active consuming traditional media, preferring news online and on social media. NFM has also been linked with lower political knowledge and political participation over time. What remains to be seen, however, is whether high-NFM individuals are in fact less likely to expose themselves to news once they do encounter it online. This preregistered study fills this gap in the literature by unobtrusively logging selection behaviors while U.S. adults browsed a mock news website featuring various hard and soft news stories. Consistent with our hypothesizing, NFM was associated with greater exposure to soft news. Additionally, we examined whether genre-specific NFM beliefs would predict less exposure to those news genres. We found support for this hypothesis in the context of science news, but for political news, this relationship depended on the news stories presented.
... This commonly referenced definition emphasizes that 1) there exist multiple channels users select from, 2) such platforms facilitate both the consumption and sharing of (user-generated) content, and 3) these practices entail a variety of communication partners. Based on the assumptions that active media users selectively use media (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015), manage the visibility of shared material through consumption and sharing practices (Treem et al., 2020), and curate both perceived and addressed actors (Thorson & Wells, 2016), scholars have called for a more holistic description of media users' multifaceted engagement with social media (Boczkowski et al., 2018;Hasebrink & Hepp, 2017). ...
... While mass media users actively select channels and content (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015), social media users are even more involved and not only consume but also interact with and share information (Carr & Hayes, 2015;Shao, 2009). Numerous studies have explored the social affordances of social media (Postigo, 2016) and demonstrated that people utilize social media to communicate and self-present (Boczkowski et al., 2018;Neubaum & Krämer, 2017;Phua et al., 2017;Quan-Haase & Young, 2010). ...
Social media play a crucial role in adolescents’ everyday lives and impact their well-being, mental health, and risk behavior. Consequently, it is vital to understand the multifaceted social media use of this age group. However, despite the increasing number of platforms affording the curation of communication and audiences, studies to date have predominantly examined single platforms while neglecting sharing behavior and the variety of communication partners. In this article, we thus apply a holistic repertoire perspective that offers essential descriptive insights. We consider active social media users that 1) use multiple communication platforms, 2) apply various communication practices, and 3) curate distinct communication partners. We analyze data from a representative survey among late adolescents (ages 15–19) in Switzerland and explore the use of six social media platforms (i.e., Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook). We identify social media repertoires, analyze consumption, sharing, and curation practices, and compare perceived and addressed actors across platforms. The implications for future media use and effects research are discussed.
... As a supplement to these two traditional (oversimplistic) media effect models, more complex models have been developed (e.g., Cacciatore et al., 2016;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015;Slater, 2007). They combine both strands of previous researchselective exposure and effects. ...
... The same beliefs, attitudes, and compliance were measured after self-selected exposure to the news item. However, news choice is influenced by many different factors (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). We only focused on the target outcomes of interest (i.e., severity perceptions, political attitudes toward government responses, and compliance). ...
COVID-19 is a news issue that can be covered from many different angles. When reporting, journalists have to select, accentuate, or exclude particular aspects, which, in turn, may evoke a specific, and possibly constricted, perspective in viewers, a phenomenon termed the news-framing effect. Guided by the reinforcing spiral framework, we conducted a multi-study project that investigated the news-framing effect’s underlying mechanism by studying the dynamic of self-reinforcing effects. Grounded in a real-life framing environment observed during the pandemic and systematically assessed via a content analysis (study 1) and survey (study 2), we offer supporting evidence for a preference-based reinforcement model by utilizing a combination of the selective exposure (i.e., self-selected exposure) and causal effects (i.e., forced exposure) paradigms within one randomized controlled study (study 3). Self-selection of news content by viewers was a necessary precondition for frame-consistent (reinforcement) effects. Forced exposure did not elicit causal effects in a frame-consistent direction.
... If some groups are not inclined to consume that kind of content in the first place while going about their daily lives, understanding their reactions to this content (the approach taken in much media messaging research) becomes a moot point. By identifying predictors associated with preferences for media messages, researchers and practitioners can develop a clearer picture of the audience members likely to tune into their content (Knobloch-Westerwick et al., 2015). Second, there is a long history of persuasion research on emotional appeals (Dillard & Nabi, 2006), but we know remarkably little about whether a variety of individual-level factors might influence selection or avoidance of these kinds of emotion-inducing messages when people are given the opportunity to choose. ...
... According to the theory, individuals in a negative mood tend to choose positive over negative media fare because upbeat content is more likely to terminate the unpleasant state (Zillmann, 2000). Empirical tests have generally supported this proposition (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015;Reinecke, 2017), and the theory has fruitfully been applied to study responses to climate change messaging (Jin & Atkinson, 2021). Although alternative theoretical accounts have been proposed to explain situations where the theory's predictions have fallen short (e.g., Knobloch, 2006;Oliver & Bartsch, 2010), we base our hypotheses on mood management because we see it as a useful first step in exploring selection of positively and negatively valenced climate messaging (Becker, 2020;Jin & Atkinson, 2021). ...
The contemporary high-choice media landscape offers users considerable latitude to select media content. When it comes to media messaging about science issues like climate change, it is unclear whether audiences gravitate toward different kinds of emotionally evocative messages and what psychosocial factors underlie those preferences. Here, we presented young adults (N = 1,493) with three climate change videos to choose from (“funny,” “scary,” “informational”) and found more participants selected funny content than scary or informational. Contradicting hypotheses derived from mood management theory, negative mood was associated with selecting the scary video. Conservatives preferred the funny and scary video to the informational video, but gender identity was the strongest predictor of selective exposure with women preferring funny and scary videos to informational.
... Biased news selection decisions are profoundly channeled by implicit biases that operate largely under the radar of conscious awareness and may persist even in the presence of nonprejudiced attitudes on the conscious level. Unconscious mechanisms have been argued to be especially powerful in predicting news choice in socially sensitive domains such as intergroup prejudice, where self-reports likely suffer from impression-management bias (Arendt et al., 2016;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). As a result, unconscious forces may frustrate the selection of diverse perspectives, angles, and sources in news about outgroup members (Arendt et al., 2016(Arendt et al., , 2019Kroon et al., 2020). ...
... Yet, rather than an entirely controlled and rational process recent empirical evidence suggests that, especially in today's high-choice media environments, audience members are generally not aware of the mechanisms channeling news media choice (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). Implicit drivers of confirmation bias are considered especially daunting from a societal perspective, as they may prevent exposure to opposing perspectives without individuals' awareness of such drivers (Arendt et al., 2019). ...
People’s news diets are shaped by a diverse set of selection biases that may be unconscious in nature. This study investigates whether providing individuals with information about such unconscious biases attenuates selective exposure. More specifically, in two selective-exposure experiments among Dutch ingroup members focusing on ethnic (N = 286) and religious (N = 277) minorities, we expose individuals to their unconscious prejudices as measured by the Implicit Association Test (IAT) before documenting their news-selection patterns. Findings indicate that the effectiveness of this awareness-inducing strategy depends upon existing levels of implicit and explicit prejudice and overly expressed acceptance of the IAT scores. This implies that raising awareness of implicit prejudice works as an effective strategy for fighting biased news selection for some, but may backfire for others, and should therefore only be implemented with caution and attention for explicit considerations.
... The perspective of selective exposure states that media consumption is determined by the preferences of the audience, which seeks to confirm or reinforce their opinions through media content. This ideaaxis, which appeared in the early 1940s in communication research (Lazarsfeld et al., 1944), has been recovered in recent decades (Mutz, 2006;Bennett & Iyengar, 2008;Iyengar & Hahn, 2009;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015) to explain the consumption of media messages by audiences in a media context characterized by a greater capacity for selection (Prior, 2007), by the growth of the Internet and social networks as a source of information (Van Aelst et al., 2017) and by customizing the information search (Valentino et al., 2009;Dylko et al., 2017). ...
... The selective exposure perspective holds that media consumption is determined by audience preferences, and that the audience seeks to confirm or reinforce its opinions through media content. This idea-axis, which appeared in the 1940s (Lazarsfeld et al., 1944), has been revisited over the past few decades (Mutz, 2006;Bennett & Iyengar, 2008;Iyengar & Hahn, 2009;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015) to explain the consumption of media messages by audiences in a high-choice media environment, characterized by greater selection capacity (Prior, 2007), the growth of the internet and social media as news sources (Van Aelst et al., 2017) and by the customization of the search for information (Valentino et al., 2009;Dylko et al., 2017). ...
Communication research underlines two types of selective exposure to the media: one guided by ideological-partisan affiliations and one guided by interest in politics. This work will compare both motivations in the consumption of political information through three media types (digital press, television, and radio) by Spanish citizens during the 2019 November General Election. Through multinomial logistic regressions applied to a representative post-electoral survey, results show that ideological-partisan orientations are the most important variables governing selective exposure, especially for the digital press and the radio. Besides confirming ideological selective exposure, the data highlight an important tendency towards selective avoidance of news media perceived as ideologically incongruent. For television, however, both socio-demographic trends and ideological orientations exhibit a similar explanatory weight, which suggests that political segmentation of the Spanish television market is still being deployed by communication groups, in comparison with the press and the radio.
... As divisions deepen, feminist groups with contrasting attitudes and shared interests gravitate towards two opposing poles: radical and moderate stances. People typically exhibit a predisposition to endorse ideas aligned with their own [16][17][18]. This tendency underpins the Echo Chamber Hypothesis, which posits that individuals tend to engage more with ideas that mirror their own, while selectively disregarding divergent viewpoints [19]. ...
The flourishing of feminism in modern China has brought more vitality to the thought of a new era in China, especially today when Internet technology is highly popularized and womens self-awareness is further awakened. However, a large volume of observations and studies have pointed to the severe stigmatization of Chinese local feminism on the virtual society. While previous studies have shed light on the causes of such a social phenomenon, explanations of each individuals psychological mechanism in this phenomenon have yet to be added. This study used Zhihu, Chinas popular universal question-and-answer platform, as a community to collect and code responses on the causes of Chinese feminist stigmatization, and conducted an analysis of internal and external factors leading to the causes of stigmatization based on the general publics perceptions of feminist activities in the virtual society, and found that the general publics responses on Zhihu all converged to point to seven causes, namely: feminist behaviors are radical and there are internal disagreements that are difficult to reconcile, misunderstanding or stereotyping of the original intent of feminism by the general public, deterioration of the relationship between feminists and outgroups by the media, the herd effect among feminist outgroups leading to wider stigmatization of feminism, the constraints of traditional attitudes, and the conflict of social interests between feminism and outgroups. Ultimately, the psychological mechanisms behind the causes of stigmatization were found to be intertwined and interacting.
... Most of the research in this area usually asks participants to report their media usage in a retrospective questionnaire or directly observes participant media choices without measuring RTs (Hartmann, 2009). However, these methods often fail to reveal the psychological processes driving selection, or why one type of media content is preferred over another (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014), or fail to model stochasticity in choices independently from media preference (Alós-Ferrer et al., 2021). Computational behavioral models can overcome these limitations. ...
Behavioral science demands skillful experimentation and high-quality data that are typically gathered in person. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many behavioral research laboratories to close. Thankfully, new tools for conducting online experiments allow researchers to elicit psychological responses and gather behavioral data with unprecedented precision. It is now possible to quickly conduct large-scale high-quality behavioral experiments online, even for studies designed to generate data necessary for complex computational models. However, these techniques require new skills that might be unfamiliar to behavioral researchers who are more familiar with laboratory-based experimentation. We present a detailed tutorial introducing an end-to-end build of an online experimental pipeline and corresponding data analysis. We provide an example study investigating people’s media preferences using drift-diffusion modeling (DDM), paying particular attention to potential issues that come with online behavioral experimentation. This tutorial includes sample data and code for conducting and analyzing DDM data gathered in an online experiment, thereby mitigating the extent to which researchers must reinvent the wheel.
... Estos juicios cognitivos están conectados con las actitudes políticas de los individuos, que evalúan los mensajes de los medios de comunicación para aceptar el contenido (Chaffee & Miyo, 1983;Stroud, 2008;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2012;Arceneaux & Johnson, 2013). Dentro de este enfoque, la selectividad es especialmente relevante, ya que permite comprender cómo funcionan estos marcos de interpretación: está relacionada con sus expectativas, en la medida en la que los ciudadanos esperan que los contenidos consumidos reflejen sus valores ideológicos (Lazarsfeld et al., 1944;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014). Con carácter prospectivo, los individuos ejercen un sesgo de confirmación al seleccionar no solo el medio de comunicación sino también los contenidos específicos más próximos a su enfoque ideológico o partidista (Levendusky, 2013); si bien este sesgo podría aumentar la resistencia de los ciudadanos a aceptar contenidos contrarios a sus actitudes políticas, la evitación selectiva no encuentra todavía un consenso amplio (Prior, 2013;Garrett et al., 2013;Ksiazek, 2016). ...
Diferentes investigaciones han puesto de manifiesto cómo los crecientes procesos de polarización están configurando nuestras sociedades y la relación entre ciudadanos, instituciones y medios de comunicación. Este estudio busca enfocarse en la llamada polarización de audiencias, entendida como una consecuencia de la progresiva exposición selectiva –ideológica, en este caso– que reduce la cantidad de informaciones y contextos a los que están dispuestos a exponerse. Para evaluar este fenómeno en España, se ha realizado un análisis cuantitativo a través de la encuesta postelectoral de las elecciones generales de noviembre de 2019 del Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas mediante una escala de consumo acumulado, en cuyos resultados se advierte del perfil de los sujetos más polarizados mediáticamente: hombres, personas de mayor edad, con más ingresos económicos, interesados por la política y activados electoralmente. Este concepto permite estudiar mejor los procesos de polarización política y afectiva y abre nuevas líneas de investigación sobre la generación de identidades (ideológicas, partidistas…) y sobre sus efectos en la mayor radicalidad en el fenómeno de la polarización.
... According to this narrative, many toxic online phenomena occur because individuals prefer information that aligns with their attitudes, and online environments are designed in ways that maximally cater to this preference for congeniality (Pariser, 2011). The hallmark of the congeniality narrative is the notion of selective exposure (Hart et al., 2009;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014). Rooted in the theory of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957), selective-exposure studies provide participants with the opportunity to select among different pieces of information and typically show that attitudinally congenial information is preferred over uncongenial information (congeniality bias; Hart et al., 2009). ...
Online phenomena like echo chambers and polarization are believed to be driven by humans’ penchant to selectively expose themselves to attitudinally congenial content. However, if like-minded content were the only predictor of online behavior, heated debate and flaming on the Internet would hardly occur. Research has overlooked how online behavior changes when people are given an opportunity to reply to dissenters. Three experiments (total N = 320; convenience student samples from Germany) and an internal meta-analysis show that in a discussion-forum setting where participants can reply to earlier comments larger cognitive conflict between participant attitude and comment attitude predicts higher likelihood to respond ( uncongeniality bias). When the discussion climate was friendly (vs. oppositional) to the views of participants, the uncongeniality bias was more pronounced and was also associated with attitude polarization. These results suggest that belief polarization on social media may not only be driven by congeniality but also by conflict.
... In terms of explaining misperceptions, the most important factors seem to be exposure to misinformation in combination with directional motivated reasoning and confirmation bias (Flynn et al., 2017;Kunda, 1990;Lodge & Taber, 2013). More specifically, research shows that people have an innate tendency to prefer information which confirms their already held beliefs and attitudes, and this influences both their exposure to and avoidance of different information sources and their processing of information (Flynn et al., 2017;Garrett, Carnahan & Lynch, 2013;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014;Kunda, 1990;Nickerson, 1998). Another key factor is laziness, in that people are cognitive misers that often rely on partisan cues and heuristics instead of engaging in more analytical and critical thinking (Pennycook & Rand, 2019). ...
... Prior research has also shown a consistent link between ideological intensity and politically motivated unfriending, wherein those with stronger ideological tendencies, regardless of political affiliation, are more likely to dissolve network ties in the case of political disagreement [18,34,40]. This hypothesis is consistent with the theory that selective avoidance mechanisms may motivate unfriending, as prior research has demonstrated a strong link between preferences for partisan media and ideological intensity [46,47]. ...
Background:
Social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook have been central to the global exchange of health-related information throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but during this time online interactions have arisen as a source of stress and conflict for many SNS-users. Prior research suggests that many users have engaged in significant "boundary regulation", during this period, using online behaviors such as "unfriending" to refine and reorient their social networks in response to pandemic related information.
Objective:
This study examines Facebook "unfriending" during (and related to) the first year of the pandemic in order to better understand how SNS users have managed and maintained their social networks around COVID-19. On one hand, unfriending may be motivated by an attempt to protect the utility/accuracy of a users' informational environment. On the other, it may be motivated by a desire to "tune out" alternative viewpoints/opinions. Both motivations may have significant implications for public health discourse and outcomes.
Methods:
A sample of 824 active Facebook users (drawn from a representative survey of 1,000 American adults) was analyzed using a series of logit regression models. Survey respondents were selected via a stratified quota sampling approach to ensure a representative sample of the U.S. population. Balanced quotas were determined (by region of the country) for gender, age, race, ethnicity, and political affiliation.
Results:
In total, 31.7% (261/824) of active Facebook users unfriended at least one account over COVID-related posts during the first year of the pandemic. The most common reasons for unfriending included "making political comments about COVID-19" (23.2%; 191/824) and "posting information that was inconsistent with public health guidelines" (19.7%; 162/824). As hypothesized, reliance on Facebook for COVID-related news/information was associated with a greater likelihood of unfriending, particularly in response to information that was inconsistent with public health guidelines. Political factors (particularly partisan intensity) were also predictive of unfriending, especially in the case of COVID-related disagreements.
Conclusions:
Both information utility concerns and political factors were associated with a greater likelihood of COVID-related unfriending, though the magnitude of effects associated with utility appear to be greater. While utility-motivated unfriending may lead to more reliable health information experiences for some SNS-users, the tendency of consumers to assess accuracy and credibility on the basis of partisan predilections obscures this finding and warrants further consideration.
... However, identity-related concepts may also play a role. For example, selective exposure research conducted in a conventional news consumption setting shows that identity-related concepts predict news choice (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). A future study could measure implicit and explicit selfconcepts related to political parties and test whether these variables can explain the remaining part of the variance (as we found that attitudes only partially mediated the effect of party identification on selective political listening). ...
Recent theorizing on deliberative democracy has put political listening at the core of meaningful democratic deliberation. In the present experiment (N = 827), we investigated whether news media can improve diverse political listening in the United States via a reduction in party cue salience. Although Republican (Democratic) participants showed a strong preference for listening to speeches given by Republican (Democratic) politicians when party cues were highly salient, this bias in selective political listening was reduced or even absent when news items provided no or only low-salience cues. Conditional process analysis indicated that (automatically activated) implicit and (overtly expressed) explicit party attitudes mediated this effect. There are important implications: Current journalism practices tend to exacerbate tribal us-vs-them thinking by emphasizing partisan cues, nudging citizens toward not listening to political ideas from the other political camp. A more helpful news-choice architecture tones down partisan language, nudging citizens toward more diverse political listening.
... Trust determines how influential information is perceived to be regarding follow-up behaviors (Fareed, Swoboda, Jonnalagadda, Walker, and Huerta, 2021; see also Hovland, Janis, and Kelley, 1953;Tsfati and Cappella, 2003). It serves as a criterion for attributing meaningfulness to information (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015) and determines whether an individual will perform any action based on the acquired information (Blöbaum, 2016). Associated with higher attribution of relevance and utility, these findings suggest that trust influences a source's potential to assist in coping with uncertainties, the extent of need satisfaction, and readiness for decision-making about treatment. ...
Disease-related challenges are often associated with perceived uncertainties in individuals, triggering attempts to cope with the situation. Our study aims to understand patients’ coping strategies regarding health information-seeking behaviors (HISBs). It is guided by the Uncertainty Management Theory, and seeks to grant insights into multi-channel HISB by describing how uses of interpersonal and media channels interact to cope with uncertainties, and how trust influences the process of multi-channel HISB. Patients diagnosed with osteoarthrosis (N = 34) participated in qualitative semi-structured interviews, from which five patterns of multi-channel HISB, ranging from a focus on the physician to a focus on the internet, were identified. These patterns are distinguished by underlying functions of trust – including trust serving as an additional coping strategy, and as an important influencing factor for perceiving information as meaningful – and by whether information needs remain and patients turn to multiple sources. These findings form the basis for further theory development considering the iterative nature of HISB and the role of trust.
... Media choice is a continuum of motivated media preferences, from actively seeking out content to actively avoiding it (Hartmann, 2009;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). Broadly, choosing media is a pattern of disproportionate and systematic bias for some media over others, and encompasses both specific acts of selective exposure to more general patterns of preference (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014). Notably though, these choices may be conscious or unconscious. ...
A heuristic model aims to organize and synthesize the substantial body of work examining the social influences that shape media selection, experiences, and effects. The Social Influences and Media Use (SIMU) model describes three broad social forces (users’ internal social needs, their social environment, and the social affordances of media) and their recursive association with media use. This article (a) brings together diverse subdisciplines interested in the social factors and functions of media use, (b) discusses the micro–macro nature of social phenomena and its potential role in future inquires, and (c) illustrates how the model might foster new developments by applying it in a specific area of study. The model may help us identify cohesive patterns (and points of divergence or uniqueness) among existing findings as well as inform future work examining these relationships across a variety of social contexts and media channels.
... Using news diversity as a selection mechanism, our article also challenges people's selective exposure patterns. Studies have shown that news consumers generally prefer attitude-consistent topic information over counter-attitudinal information (Knobloch-Westerwick 2014;Stroud 2017), indicating that news exposure is strongly biased by people's interests and pre-existing beliefs. As a diversity-based news recommender aspires to overcome these biases, our study tested to what degree an algorithm may "push" audiences towards more exposure diversity. ...
Scholars are increasingly studying how news recommenders can provide audiences with diverse news offers. However, despite their increased interest, little research has been conducted on how news audiences engage with news recommenders. This article assesses how a news recommender’s design affects people’s news exposure behaviours and perceptions. To do so, we conducted an online experiment (n = 337) in a virtual news environment with four different news recommenders, including three news recommenders that aimed to stimulate diverse news exposure. The results show that all diversity-based news recommenders steered users towards more diverse exposure behaviour, with a personalised diversity-based news recommender being the most effective. We also found that people using a diversity-based news recommender did not think they read more diversely, pointing towards a so-called “diversity paradox.” We discuss what this paradox means and how it relates to the secretive nature of news algorithms. We also make a call to policymakers, news organisations and scholars to give transparency and diversity-based news recommenders a more pronounced place in the news environment and in future news recommendation research.
... Novelty orients attention to a given message among overabundant information and rapidly spreading messages on social media. Novel content offers uncommon and unexpected information (Barto et al., 2013;Shoemaker, 1996), which leads individuals to deviate from their routine style of information processing and to attend to a potential threat depicted in the information (Cappella et al., 2015;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015). Novel information with such attention-grabbing and informational utility possesses a greater potential for information sharing (Cappella et al., 2015;Photiou et al., 2021;Vosoughi et al., 2018). ...
Given the amount of misinformation being circulated on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential threat to public health, it is imperative to investigate ways to hinder its transmission. To this end, this study aimed to identify message features that may contribute to misinformation sharing on social media. Based on the theory of social sharing of emotion (Rimé, 1995a) and the extant research on message credibility, this study examined if emotions and message credibility serve as mechanisms through which novelty and efficacy of misinformation influence sharing intention. An online experiment concerning COVID-19 misinformation was conducted by employing a 2 (novelty conditions: high vs. low) × 2 (efficacy conditions: high vs. low) between-subjects design using a national quota sample in South Korea (N = 1,012). The findings suggested that, contrary to the expectation, the overall effects of novelty on sharing intention were negative. The specific mechanisms played significant and unique roles in different directions: novelty increased sharing intention by evoking surprise, while also exerting a negative influence on sharing intention through an increase in negative emotions and a decrease in positive emotions and message credibility. However, consistent with the expectation, efficacy exhibited positive total effects on sharing intention, which was explained by higher levels of (self- and response-) efficacy of protective action increasing positive emotions and message credibility but decreasing negative emotions. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.
... The bulk of research on the confirmation bias pattern has been framed in terms of an individual's need to defend pre-existing views (e.g., Hart et al., 2009;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015a). This framing is grounded in Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory. ...
... However, since people are also likely to have directional goals, such as protecting core values and partisan and political identities (Kahan, 2016a(Kahan, , 2016bKunda, 1990;Taber & Lodge, 2006), they may respond incorrectly because their priors led them to access and/or interpret information in ways that support an incorrect answer. For example, people with strong party identities and attitudes that deviate from those disseminated in mainstream news media may selectively turn to alternative and partisan media for news (Benkler et al., 2018;Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014;Zaller, 1992), which may increase the likelihood of encountering biased or misleading information (Vargo et al., 2017). Similarly, people who sympathize with parties with positions that deviate from the best available evidence (Jerit & Barabas, 2012;Prior et al., 2015;Zaller, 1992), or themselves have such attitudes (Flynn, 2016;Kuklinski et al., 2000), may be more likely to counter-argue factual evidence while uncritically accepting biased or misleading statements. ...
... Both individual and contextual characteristics influence the likelihood of selective exposure and sharing. The strength, importance, and extremity of political attitudes held by individuals have been found to enhance selectivity (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015;Stroud, 2011). That is, people with stronger political ideologies or partisan identities, as well as people who are more politically mobilized, are more likely to engage in selective exposure and sharing. ...
While much research exists on the role of digital media use in protest movements, few studies compare the long-term impact of protests on online use of alternative and mainstream digital media. This holds particularly true in countries of the global south. Our study addresses this knowledge gap by examining the massive demonstrations that occurred in Chile on 18 October 2019. Based on data from 1,221,487 Facebook posts from 31 media outlets collected 10 months before and after the protests, we detected significant discontinuities in users’ interactions with news content. Whereas both media types display different baseline levels, for alternative media, the time series reflects a “step” type of shock—a long-lasting increase in news sharing—whereas for mainstream media, it is a “pulse” type of shock—a burst of interactions that quickly returned to pre-existing levels. These results suggest that social media users relied on alternative news media to amplify counter-public spheres in Chile.
The paper proposes a novel account of justified evidence resistance. When S inquires as to whether p is the case, S resists available counterevidence e if S either fails to countenance e or is insensitive to e ’s probative force. S is justified in resisting available counterevidence e if and only if e is irrelevant.
Um medial vermittelte Meinungsbildung zu verstehen und Strategien gegen Manipulation zu entwickeln, müssen die psychologischen Prozesse betrachtet werden, welche Rezipienten in Online-Kontexten für Einflussnahme, Polarisierung und verschwörungstheoretisches Denken empfänglich machen. Vor allem Narzissmus – eine durch Gefühle eigener Grandiosität geprägte Selbstwahrnehmung - erscheint als relevant, da Online-Medien vielfältige Möglichkeiten zur narzisstischen Selbstdarstellung, zur Selbstauf- und Fremdabwertung bieten.
Die Forschung zeigt, dass höherer Narzissmus mit höherem Verschwörungsglauben assoziiert ist. Die aktuelle Studie untersucht, welche Rolle die Bewertung von Medien für diesen Zusammenhang spielt: Es wird angenommen, dass höherer Narzissmus mit der Neigung einhergeht, sich im Besitz von besonderem Wissen und der breiten Masse der Medienrezipienten überlegen zu wähnen, und daher als etabliert wahrgenommene „Mainstream-Medien“ abzuwerten. Dieser Wirkungspfad, d.h. über Medienbewertung mediierte Effekte von Narzissmus auf Verschwörungsglauben, wurde empirisch in einer Online-Befragung mit 234 Teilnehmenden überprüft. Dazu wurden die narzisstischen Tendenzen zur Selbstaufwertung (agentischer Narzissmus) und Fremdabwertung (antagonistischer Narzissmus), Verschwörungsglaube (Zustimmung zu Verschwörungstheorien), Medienskepsis (verstanden als Zweifel an sachlicher Richtigkeit der Berichterstattung) und Medienzynismus (Wahrnehmung von Medien als gesteuert und manipulativ) erhoben.
Eine Pfadanalyse zeigt, dass Narzissmus über Medienbewertung vermittelt mit mehr Verschwörungsglauben assoziiert ist. Dabei ist es primär Medienzynismus, also die Wahrnehmung von Medien als manipulativ, der mit mehr Verschwörungsglauben verbunden ist, während eher sachlich-orientierte Medienskepsis keinen Effekt hat. Insbesondere die auf Abwertung anderer gerichtete antagonistische Narzissmuskomponente ist mit höherem Medienzynismus und Verschwörungsglauben verbunden.
Die Befunde unterstreichen die Wichtigkeit von rezipientenseitigem Narzissmus für Medienbewertung und medial transportierte Verschwörungstheorien und unterstützen die Diskussion psychologisch fundierter Interventions- und Aufklärungsstrategien.
purpose: The main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of the Expression of the True Self in the use of
Instagram and selfies.
Methodology: This correlational study used 4 questionnaires "Communication Apprehension", "Authenticity
Inventory Scales", "Instagram Use" and "Taking a Selfie" (online) in a random sample of undergraduate students
at the University of Birjand (357 participants).
Findings: Communication Apprehension and selfie use were higher in women than men, but the age of the
participants had no role in the variables. Instagram Use was above average and sending selfies and edited selfies
was below average. With the increase of most of the studied psychological variables, the use of Instagram, selfies,
and edited selfies increased. However, with the increase in communication Apprehension, the Expression of the
True Self on Instagram decreased.
Conclusion: In our study population, most people have a greater tendency to introvert and do not want to show
themselves. Using Instagram may help reduce communication fears. People with high communication phobia
experience more fear or anxiety in their relationships than others, so these people are more likely to avoid
experiencing fear or anxiety in their relationships with others. Expression of the True Self in selfies is directly
related to one's characteristics, but the expression of the True Self on Instagram is not necessarily related to one's
characteristics.
Purpose: Today, social networks and smart phones have become very popular. One of the interesting topics in
the field of information science and cognition is the study of users' information behavior in mobile-based social
networks. In this area, this study examines the role of psychological variables: communication Apprehension,
Expression of the True Self, and Fear of Negative Evaluation in Instagram and Selfie use. The main purpose of
this study was to investigate the role of communication Apprehension, Expression of the True Self, and Fear of
Negative Evaluation in Instagram and Selfie use from the perspective of undergraduate students of Birjand University.
Methodology: This correlational study used 4 questionnaires "Communication Apprehension" (McCroskey,
1982), "Fear of Negative Evaluation" (Leary, 1983), " Instagram Use " (Lazebna, 2015) and "Taking a selfie"
(Lazebna, 2015) (online) in a random sample of undergraduate students at the University of Birjand (357 participants).
Findings: Communication Apprehension and selfie use were significantly higher in women than in men. However,
there was no significant differences shown for the other variables. Instagram usage was above average
and sending and edited selfies were below average. The increase of most of the psychological variables investigated
also showed the increase of use of Instagram, selfies and edited selfies. Also, with the increase of communication
apprehension, the fear of negative evaluation increased.
Conclusion: Review of the literature revealed that there wasn’t any interest in the field of knowledge and information
science for the topic at the national level. Although, there were limited studies presented in the international
arena.
Social media have become important environments for people to express and explore their political views. Yet, relatively little is known about how affordances provided by social media platforms affect whether and how users express political opinions. This work argues that message persistence (i.e., the temporal extent to which messages can be accessed by users) is a central affordance of many social media, which affects not only users’ likelihood of political expression, but also so-called self-effects in terms of users feeling socially committed to their expressed views. In a pre-registered experiment ( N = 994), we varied the level of message persistence in a social media platform and used behavioral measures of opinion expression. Contrary to expectations, high-persistence social media provoked more opinion expressions than low-persistence social media. Only minimal evidence was found of self-effects and the persistence of the social media environment did not influence self-related outcomes. Results are discussed in light of political expression literature and the role of self-effects in social media.
Emerging communication technologies have seen the proliferation of misleading claims, untruthful narratives, and conspiracies. To understand how people perceive and act on different types of misinformation, this study examines how health misinformation varying in falsity (fabrication versus misuse) and evidence type (statistical versus narrative) affects sharing and verification intentions. Using COVID-19 vaccines as cases, the results from an online experiment showed that misused misinformation was perceived as less false than fabricated misinformation and resulted in higher sharing intentions for the issue of vaccine efficacy. Misinformation with narrative evidence, as compared to that with statistical evidence, was perceived as less false and led to lower verification intentions. These findings can be explained by psychological processes such as counterarguing and narrative engagement. Our results can help practitioners develop dedicated misinformation literacy programs.
While loyalty has become increasingly relevant for journalism, it has rarely been examined as a single phenomenon and even less from an audience perspective. The empirical knowledge surrounding loyalty has centred on its role in trust, news choice, and the sustainability of the profession. Nonetheless, we still do not know how a relationship with journalism unfolds and becomes meaningful for news users. This research aims to advance an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of loyalty with journalism. To this end, we conducted 35 semi-structured in-depth interviews with regular news users (18–65 years old). By exploring the language, feelings, emotions, and stories that people use to describe their relationship with journalism, this article offers a holistic and comprehensive examination of what loyalty means as part of audiences’ everyday news consumption. In doing so, we aim to expand journalism’s vocabulary about loyalty, adding width and depth to our understanding of the potential benefits and implications that loyalty entails for the profession.
Underlying many social media platforms are choice recommendation "nudging" architectures designed to give users instant content and social recommendations to keep them engaged. Powered by complex algorithms, these architectures flush people's feeds and an array of other features with fresh content and create a highly individualized experience tailored to their interests.
In a critical realist qualitative study, this research examines how individual agency manifests when users encounter these tools and the suggestions they provide. In interviews and focus groups, 45 participants offered their experiences where they reflected on how they perceived the engines, e.g., their Facebook feed, influenced their actions and behaviors, as well as how the participants felt they controlled it to achieve personal aims. Based on these and other experiences, this study posits the Social Cognitive Machine Agency Dynamic (SCMAD) model, which provides an empirically supported explanatory framework to explain how individual agency can manifest and progress in response to these tools. The model integrates Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory concepts and emergent findings. It demonstrates how users react to the engines through agentic expressions not dissimilar to the real-world, including enacting self-regulatory, self-reflective and intentionality processes, as well as other acts not captured by Bandura's theory.
Ultimately, the research and model propose a psycho-environmental explanation of the swerves of agency experienced by users in reaction to the unique conditions and affordances of these algorithmically driven environments. The study is the first known extension of social cognitive theory to this technology context. Implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations for future research provided. The study recommends that future research and media discourse aim for an individual-level psychological evaluation of these powerful technologies. This stance will afford a greater understanding of the technology's impacts and implications on individuals, particularly as it is anticipated to significantly evolve in the coming years.
This work introduces a simple extension to the recent Cognitive Cascades model of Rabb et al. with modeling of multiple media agents, to begin to investigate how the media ecosystem might influence the spread of beliefs (such as beliefs around COVID-19 vaccination). We perform some initial simulations to see how parameters modeling audience fragmentation, selective exposure, and responsiveness of media agents to the beliefs of their subscribers influence polarization. We find that media ecosystem fragmentation and echo-chambers may not in themselves be as polarizing as initially postulated, in the absence of outside fixed media messages that are polarizing.
Building on the persuasion knowledge model and theories of parasocial relationships (PSRs), our study explored mechanisms underlying the persuasive effects of social media influencers. Our study uniquely considered PSRs as a dynamic process, such that audiences’ responses to persuasive attempts depend on their relational stage with the influencer. A longitudinal experimental design traced participants’ development of PSRs with a YouTube vlogger over four timepoints. Contrary to our hypothesis that early disclosure of corporate sponsorship reduces PSRs and persuasion, the persuasive effect of sponsorship disclosure did not vary depending on the relational stage at which it appeared (zero-history encounter with vlogger vs. after establishing a relationship with vlogger over several episodes). In line with past research, PSR intensity and authenticity promoted persuasion by reducing resistance to persuasion, regardless of sponsorship timing.
This report documents the outcomes of an analysis of user behaviour on social media regarding the approval, assessment and evaluation of information and information sources, feeding into the further development of the EUNOMIA toolkit. Both individual and collective behaviour was analysed. On the one hand, there are factors that cause and explain individual behaviour, such as cognitive biases and psychological effects that influence a single person’s behaviour. An example is the so-called truth effect, i.e. the fact that repetition and familiarity with content make it more believable. On the other hand, group effects and social norms additionally influence the individual’s behaviour. Studies have shown that we are more likely to believe a piece of information if our social circles also accept it (Lewandowski et al. 2012; Eckles & Bakshy 2017; Lazer et al. 2017; Sloman & Fernbac, 2018; Karduni 2019).
The task of user behaviour analysis included (i) a literature review; (ii) a workshop with end users and experts; and (iii) an online survey. We identified explanations for collective and individual user behaviour in assessing, sharing and distributing (mis)information, building on (i) the theory of cognitive dissonance and the theory of selective exposure; (ii) the third-person effect; (iii) the concept of opinion leadership; (iv) the concept of information gatekeeping; (v) the truth effect; and (vi) explanations for the persistence of misinformation and (vii) audience behaviour. Insights explain, for example, how users on social media tend to surround themselves with information that confirms their own interests, values and beliefs in so-called ‘filter bubbles’ or ‘echo chambers’. Furthermore, we were able to identify strategies to influence or reward preferable behaviour to avoid the spread of misinformation in the form of nudges, building on certain heuristics (i.e., mental shortcuts) and psychological or social effects. We also identified approaches for the correction of misinformation (e.g., providing explanations, targeting opinion leaders), as well as strategies to avoid their spread (e.g., triggering a thinking process before information is read).
To date, the role of user behavior in the formation of politically homogeneous online environments (oftentimes called echo chambers) is not fully understood. Building on selective exposure research, we introduce the notion of selective political friending, that is, the preference for political like-mindedness in social affiliations on social networking sites. In a pre-registered laboratory experiment with users of social networking sites in Germany (N = 199), we find that users preferably build connections with those who share their opinions toward controversial political issues. Political like-mindedness outperforms other friending criteria such as popularity or career-related fit with another user. Political friending is pronounced when individuals’ pre-existing opinions are strong. The present study points to the necessity to take the motivational complexity into account when studying phenomena linked to political homogeneity on SNS.
Intergroup contact research demonstrates that contact with outgroups (including mediated contact) improves attitudes about those groups. However, people often avoid such contact, including avoiding outgroup media messages. In two studies, we investigated voluntary exposure to outgroup media. Our research builds on intergroup contact theory and the reactive approach model. The latter suggests (counterintuitively) that, sometimes, anxiety can motivate people to engage with the unfamiliar. Both studies measured potential predictors of voluntary contact, provided musical options for respondents, and measured which options people chose as well as their engagement with and enjoyment of those choices. Study 1 provided a simple choice between two musical options (ingroup versus outgroup); Study 2 used a more extensive array of ingroup and outgroup options, including ingroup-outgroup collaborative music. Findings suggest a limited role of personality traits in determining seeking outgroup media, but a more powerful role for diversity-related attitudes and past exposure to outgroup media. Some evidence supported reactive approach models (e.g., self-expansion motives drove time spent listening to outgroup media in Study 1, but only for people who reported high levels of intergroup anxiety).
Crises allow falsehoods to flourish in communication environments, prompting negative consequences. Corrections issued in response, such as journalistic fact-checks, have difficulty undoing the harm falsehoods cause. This has been attributed to the design and distribution of corrections, presented as diametral to how false / misleading claims are reported; however, this argument has never been tested in a single study. We addressed this research gap through a content analysis of journalistic coverage of health myths surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of journalistic corrections. We found that 86.1 % of the misinforma-tion items addressed in this coverage echoed health myths described in the literature for other outbreaks, suggesting that misinformation is largely recycled and tweaked to apply to new outbreaks. We also found major differences regarding the actors that journalists presented as those in which falsehoods and corrections originated-with the former stemming mainly from the civil society domain and the latter from the science domain. Finally, we found differences in the key properties of misinformation and corrections in the journalistic coverage analyzed, agreeing with existing theorizing. This suggests that corrections have a competitive disadvantage compared with misinformation. To address this, corrections should employ more supporting visuals and decreased complexity.
Humorous media entertainment frequently punctuates the everyday lives of adolescents. Theorists have suggested that this exposure may impact behavior, particularly real-life aggression. Specifically, exposure to prosocial (coping) humor in media entertainment is posited to decrease aggression, whereas the reverse has been argued for exposure to antisocial (disparaging and slapstick) humor. Despite these suppositions, little empirical evidence about this relationship exists. To fill this gap, this study employed a cohort-sequential design using latent growth curve models to estimate the (co-)development of adolescents’ preferences for television shows featuring disparaging, slapstick, and coping humor and aggression from age 10 to 17. Results showed that at the onset of adolescence, especially boys had a higher preference for shows with disparaging and slapstick humor than with coping humor. However, over the course of adolescence, boys’ and girls’ preferences for shows with coping humor increased, while especially girls’ preferences for shows with disparaging and slapstick humor decreased. These preferences were unrelated to adolescents’ aggression. Our findings provide an important addition to the ongoing media effects debate. Taken together, they offer room for optimism and point toward an increased focus on the potential positive rather than the negative sides of humor in the lives of young people.
In a quasi-experiment, high-school students’ (N=252) chronic regulatory
focus, self-esteem, and mood were taken into account to predict patterns of selective
exposure to headlines about the rich and poor. Partly consistent with Gerber et al.
(2017) meta-analysis, there is a strong preference for upward choices in a negative
mood. We nuanced this result by referring to the role of news valence in selective ex-
posure demonstrating that the selection of negative news about the rich is typical in
negative mood. Results regarding the selective exposure to headlines about the poor
corroborate only with Wheeler and Miyakes’ (1992) finding that respondents selected
down-ward comparison targets in a positive mood. The selective exposure self- and
affect-management model (SESAM, Knobloch-Westerwick, 2015) may serve as a
theoretical framework for explaining the result. Besides income inequality literature,
the discussion is based on the Wu et al. (2018) finding, and it suggests that the selec-
tion of headlines about the rich could be linked to a positive stereotyping process. We
would call this process of accepting one’s own culture as it is by social comparisons to
make the unequal word supportable as soothing social comparison. The same logic was
applied to the poor.
The aim of the study is to test the validity of a short-scale measuring reactance to a camera symbol associated with online news, indicating the possibility of viewing video footage. The operationalization of reactance means a mixture of anger and negative cognitions preceded by the sense of danger of losing one’s freedom (Reynolds-Tylus, 2019). As the brief reactance scale elaborated by Hall and colleagues (2017) contains these elements, we assumed that it would constitute the appropriate basis for the elaboration of further brief reactance scales. Thus, we elaborated a brief reactance scale adequate for measuring reactance to camcorder symbols linked to online news. Data collection took place among the students of Sapientia University (Romania). For analysing the adequacy of the scale, we used confi rmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis, and convergent validity analysis. We also checked to what extent the elaborated measuring tool could predict the avoidance of news linked with camcorder symbols. The results of this analysis show that in the case of people with high reactance to camcorder symbols, the increase of reactance leads to these people choosing less and less news linked with camcorder symbols. All these prove that despite its limitations the scale constitutes an adequate tool for the measuring of reactance to camcorder symbols
Scholarly work that seeks to theorize about fragmentation of media audiences has largely been restricted to the experiences of advanced democracies in the west. This has resulted in a preponderance of research endeavors that have sought to understand this phenomenon through ideas that are pertinent, perhaps solely to those contexts, and not as applicable outside, particularly in the Global South. This has potentially limited our imagination into various other ways in which audience fragmentation can manifest in these often-overlooked countries. In this paper, I use the case of online India as an example to offer a theoretical framework – that of news reading publics – for understanding audience fragmentation as a more global socio-political phenomenon that allows for rigorous comparative research, without being restrictive in scope. I draw from existing theories in communication and related disciplines and show how such a framework can be situated within existing social science theory. I argue that this framework should make us think of audience fragmentation in western contexts to be special cases of a more general model. I also show how network analysis can be used as a context-agnostic tool for identifying news reading publics and demonstrate the utility of such a method in complementing this theoretical framework. Finally, I discuss potential future research directions that this framework generates.
This article focuses on how viewers decide what to watch in a context of almost infinite video content availability and a lasting expansion of the process of digitization. We investigate to what extent viewers apply an active search process toward video content. Therefore we applied a focus group methodology. Seven focus group sessions were conducted, totaling 47 participants. We found that this process is guided by a combination of contextual, content-related, and personal factors, which simultaneously free as well as restrict the viewer in his choice. Moreover it can be concluded that a gradual shift is taking place in who fulfills the gatekeeper’s role.
The study described here examined whether knowledge gaps decrease when motivation to acquire information or the functionality of information is similar among more and less educated groups. Surveys at baseline and 12 months compared two groups with differing motivation to acquire cancer and diet information in a community that received a year-long health campaign. The more motivated group (higher on measures of salience, perceived cancer risk, and self-efficacy) was composed of those who self-selected to receive home-based learning, a campaign strategy. They were compared to general population samples. The study found that education-based differences in knowledge were evident even among members of the more motivated group. However, the effect of membership in this group raised knowledge levels higher than the general population irrespective of education level. The study suggested that group membership, information functionality, motivation, and education combined to affect knowledge, rather than motivation alone over-coming the effect of education.
The concept of news media use1 has been at the center of political communication research during the past several decades. Historically, scholars have employed measures of exposure to news (Atkin, Galloway, & Nayman, 1976), attention to news (Chaffee & Schleuder, 1986; McLeod & McDonald, 1985), and reliance on news (Culbertson & Stempel, 1986) to tap this concept. Moreover, they have been interested in determining the influence of the use of news on various political outcomes, including political knowledge, political participation, and public opinion. Despite a massive accumulation of literature on these topics, what is missing is a consistent and validated survey measure of news use (Chaffee, 2001). Given the centrality of this concept and its measurement to the field, it seems appropriate that efforts to better understand the implication of various conceptualizations and measurement approaches be undertaken. Some research on this topic, with an exclusive emphasis on exposure measures, has appeared in recent years (e.g., Althaus & Tewksbury, 2007; Chang & Krosnick, 2003), but more is needed, particularly given the heavy use of both exposure and attention measures in the extant literature. In this study, we focus on the internal consistency, dimensional structure, and some aspects of validity of measures of frequency of exposure and attention to various news media sources as predictors of political knowledge. We also address analysis issues that follow from the measurement issues. Following prior research (e.g., Price & Zaller, 1993), we focus on political knowledge as an important validity criterion, although we certainly acknowledge that other criteria, such as political participation, may be equally important.
Having become fully integrated into the contemporary political landscape, infotainment-oriented media extend Americans’ traditional
news (e.g. newspaper, radio, and television) to include a greater number of sources for political information, and in some
cases, political mobilization. Given the increasing prominence of infotainment-oriented media in contemporary politics, this
study addresses the effects of one particular type of infotainment—late-night comedy—during the 2000 presidential campaign.
Specifically, we are interested in whether watching late-night comedy shows influences viewers’ evaluations of the candidates
who have appeared on these shows; in particular, we investigate priming as the mechanism by which such influences occur. Findings
from the 2000 National Annenberg Election Survey (N = 11,482) indicate that evaluations of candidates are based in part on respondents’ sociodemographics, perceptions of candidates
to handle certain issues, and their character traits. There was a main effect of watching late-night comedy on evaluations
of candidates; more importantly, viewers were more likely than nonviewers to base their evaluations of George W. Bush on character
traits after he appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman.
In a test of dissonance theory the sensitivity of regular smokers to information about smoking and lung cancer was compared to nonsmokers. Smokers were more interested in such information than nonsmokers; but they did not seek out negative evidence about lung cancer and smoking, nor did they reject information about the harmful effects more than nonsmokers. No clear-cut results emerge from the analysis of dissonance reduction in relation to extraversion and neuroticism, though regular smokers were higher in extraversion than nonsmokers.
A regionally balanced sample of fourth graders (253 girls and 239 boys) expressed their literature preferences on a 68-item fictitious annotated titles inventory. The inventory was constructed using 26 categories of fiction and nonfiction based on Schulte's (1968) and Huck and Young's (1961) children's literature classifications. Half of each subject's survey consisted of items that he or she was to consider reading; the other half included items that the subject was to consider watching on video or film. Descriptions of preferences emerged from separate factor analyses of boys' and girls' responses. The following categories were represented in both the girls' and the boys' three top-ranked factors: traditional and modern fantasy, realistic fiction about romance and adjustment, historical fiction, science and health, and biography. Only three factors could be named using category names from the original 26 children's literature categories. Eight factors could be explained in terms of the content of the items and not in terms of the predetermined categories. Thus, content may be a more powerful factor in fourth graders' literature preferences than traditional classifications and genres used by teachers, librarians, and researchers; the traditional categories are not congruent with factors that emerged from fourth graders' expressed preferences. In the analysis of variance, we found a statistically significantly greater preference for items in which responses referred to reading a selection, especially among boys. The effect sizes associated with the read versus watch findings, however, were small.
In a 4 × 2 design the effects of utility and attitudinal-supportiveness of information on message selection were tested. From data obtained in the pretest session, subjects were assigned to one of four Prior Attitude levels (Strongly Anti, Anti, Pro, Strongly Pro), and required to make either a Proabortion or an Antiabortion speech. Statements for and against legalized abortion were reproduced on slides which subjects selected and viewed to prepare their speeches. Unobtrusive measures of the proportion of Proabortion slides viewed and the proportion of time spent viewing Proabortion slides constituted the major dependent variables of the study. A main effect of information utility was hypothesized, and this expectation was strongly supported (p < .001). Within each speech condition subjects were expected to prefer attitudinally supportive information. This hypothesized additivity of supportive and useful information was evident (p < .002) for subjects assigned to make Proabortion speeches, but insignificant differences were obtained for subjects assigned Antiabortion speeches.
This study examined how social and psychological factors, Including the need for activation, interact to produce different lifestyles and patterns of media use. The research identified four lifestyle types whose members differed significantly on a broad range of variables, including newspaper and newsmagazine readership, and gratifications sought from cable television. Persons with a high need for activation had lifestyles involving greater exposure to media sources of public affairs information than those with a lower need for activation and less cosmopolitan lifestyles. Results suggest that the roots of media use are far deeper than previously believed.
This study examined gratifications sought and discrepancies in gratifications obtained from network news programs in an attempt to predict news program choice. The results of both 1-test and discriminant analyses indicate that the decision to view a particular television news program is strongly related to the perception of gratifications obtained (or potentially available from) the various programs. A comparison of means indicates that such choice behavior is not a function of overallperceptions of gratifications obtained from oneS favorite program alone. nor is it usually a function of gratifications sought from television news in general. It is only when an audience member makes a comparison between the gratifications perceived to be obtained from his favorite program and competing programs that a functional relationship with viewing choice emerges. While in certain cases more specific perceptions of anchorpersons, program format. and news quality may be more important, the discriminant analyses indicate that the perception of differential gratifications is at least as strongly related to viewing behavior as the more traditionalmeasures of program attributes.
A study was conducted to assess the reliability and stability of television exposure, and the relationship of various demographic variables to this, presumed hypothetical construct, when measurement error is removed. A secondary analysis of survey data collected from a sample of black adults over two points in time served as the basis for this investigation. Using a LISREL model. the results indicated that: (1) the indicators of television exposure are moderately reliable and any unreliability is almost entirely due to random error; (2) the construct is substantially unstable over the interval assessed and (3) education is inversely related to television exposure. it was concluded that more attention should be given to theoretically defining media exposure, a central concept in communication research, and to taking into account measurement error.
Realizing that worldwide longitudinal television research has exclusively been based on short sequences of cross-sectional data, it is argued that future developmental television research should use people-meter data in combination with time-series methods. To support this claim, several issues are investigated. It is demonstrated how telemetric TV data, which are collected continuously in all industrialized countries, can be used not only to validate findings based on cross-sectional data but also to expand our knowledge about developments in TV use by individuals and groups. This is an implicit plea to use these already-existing data pools for social and media scientific purposes. The examples presented are based on individual and aggregated trajectories of daily television viewing time covering a period of three years.
This investigation provides support for a process model of uses and gratifications based upon an expectancy-value approach. Results of the study supported the hypothesis that gratifications obtained are strongly related to the beliefs about media attributes but are not related to evaluations of those attributes. Also, the belief X evaluation products are correlated with gratifications obtained. When controls were instituted for certain intervening variables posited by the model, the hypothesized reductions in various relationships occurred. The model has significant implications for media consumption processes. Further, the results demonstrated that gratifications sought and obtained may be measured at the same level of abstraction, contrary to earlier speculation.
Various operational problems confronting researchers working in the area of media gratifications are discussed. Strategies are delineated and difficulties inherent in each detailed Data from four studies are presented to provide solutions to some of these problems.
This article tests the traditional two-part hypothesis that partisan predispositions motivate a person to be selectively exposed to political campaign communications, which in turn serve to reinforce those original predispositions. Five hundred one pairs of adolescents and their parents in Wisconsin were interviewed both early and late in the 1980 presidential campaign year. There is some evidence of selective exposure among the adolescents, less among the parents. Exposure to the campaigns of both candidates is associated with greater liking at the end of the campaign, with precampaign liking controlled. These positive effects of exposure contradict the notion that “reinforcement” would include a “negative reinforcement” effect with regard to the opposition candidate. The positive effects do not interact statistically with party identification, which indicates that partisan predispositions do not heighten any presumed reinforcement effect of exposure. In only one of four tests of a causal model in which partisan predispositions are treated as exogenous to the campaign and selective exposure as endogenous is there an indirect path from predispositions to postcampaign liking via selective exposure. This finding, which is limited to the effect of party identification of the adolescents, is more readily explained as the result of a single-object orientation toward the political campaign than it is by the hypothesis that selective exposure is a mechanism for reinforcement.
This study examined the reliability and stability of newspaper and television public affairs exposure; the relationship of social structural variables and media exposure, when measurement error is taken into account; and the effect of these social structural variables on change in exposure. A secondary analysis was performed on a two wave national study composed of 7201 respondents. Using a LISREL model, the results indicated that: (1) the indicators of newspaper public affairs exposure were more reliable than the indicators for television public affairs exposure; conversely, the television public affairs construct was more stable than the newspaper construct, although both yielded fairly high stability estimates; (2) various indicators of location in the social structure (age, education, income, perceived social class, and sex) had effects on exposure to newspaper and television public affairs information, and effects on the change in this type of exposure over time. It was concluded that more attention should be directed toward measurement error issues and toward operationally and theoretically defining media exposure.
Argues that communication scholars must better match content with readership/viewership because audience members can read or view widely different aspects of a particular medium on any given day. Argues that the field will not progress far unless communication scholars develop better measures and locate better fits between media content and audience use. (SR)
To determine what general aspects of photographs appeal to readers--as opposed to subject matter categories that might or might not be tied to events--95 college students reported their readership of three alternate front pages of the daily student newspaper. Specifically, the study examined whether readers were more likely to read stories accompanied by photographs meeting the criteria of animation, relevant context, and depth of meaning, and whether they were more likely to recall facts from stories accompanied by photographs meeting these criteria. Each front page featured a large photograph. One was an action shot, judged by a panel of photojournalists as having at least one of the qualities being studied. One photo, a portrait, was judged as having none of the qualities, while a third photograph was an art photo not related to the story. The results support findings that large photographs increase readership and the recall of facts from stories they accompany. However, the criteria selected did not appear to be valid measures of what attracts readers to a story and encourages them to read it carefully enough to remember what it says. (Copies of front pages used in the study are appended.) (HOD)
Most research on the development of political orientations in children indicates that diffuse support, political efficacy and political participation develop earlier in life than regular and extensive use of television and newspapers for public affairs information. I therefore argue that political orientation variables should be treated as predictor, rather than criterion variables in analyses of political communication.A test of the model utilizing surveys of 190 Mexican‐American, 176 black and 225 white adults shows that of the independent variables used in the regression models, political participation is the strongest predictor of media use for public affairs information. Respondents from all three ethnic groups who were politically active were also heavier users of TV and newspapers for public affairs information. This tendency can be attributed to the social and practical utility of public affairs information for the politically active citizen, as well as to the reinforcement value of the information.Results also indicate that two political orientation predictor variables (political participation and political efficacy) used in the path model for whites significantly predicted media use, while two out of three (political participation and diffuse support) were significant for blacks, and one out of three (political participation) was significant for Mexican‐Americans. Thus, although multiple R's from the models for all three ethnic groups were significant, evidence regarding the predicted relationships is less conclusive for blacks and Mexican‐Americans. This can be attributed to the effects of extraneous variables such as relevance of news to ethnic minorities. Because blacks and Mexican‐Americans are not very visible in public affairs nevus, members of these groups may be less interested in these media contents than whites, regardless of political orientations.I conclude that political orientations to media use path models have some validity, particularly for white samples. Further research should measure the time‐order of the variables more directly, as in longitudinal studies, and use geographically diverse samples.
Numerous media campaign evaluations use self-reported exposure measures in assessing media effects, and many of these measures rely on participant recognition of campaign material. Rather than accepting the utility of such measures at face value, however, we should probe their limits. We can predict at least one theoretically important limit on the basis of what we know about age-related memory changes. Specifically, the utility of a recognition item as an indicator of past exposure should decline as audiences age, especially for the most elderly. Analysis of data from a science communication project evaluation offers support for these ideas, demonstrating that age predicts recognition error and that the relationship between experimentally assigned physical exposure and subsequent self-reported recognition wanes among adults 70 and older. We also examine the possibility that media content might nonetheless affect older adults in ways often overlooked by reliance on recognition items.
Twenty-four-hour diaries of time allocation, kept by respondents representing the employed urban population of the United
States and by respondents in eleven other countries, provide the basis for this analysis of the present and prospective role
of television viewing in leisure time.