Selective Exposure and Political Polarization: An Online Field Experiment on News Consumption

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donghee Jo
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
News Consumption

scholarly journals A Media Repertoires Approach to Selective Exposure: News Consumption and Political Polarization in Eastern Europe

2022 ◽  
pp. 194016122110725
Author(s):  
Fanni Tóth ◽  
Sabina Mihelj ◽  
Václav Štětka ◽  
Katherine Kondor
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
News Consumption ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
Media Repertoires

In recent years, links between selective news exposure and political polarisation have attracted considerable attention among communication scholars. However, while the existence of selective exposure has been documented in both offline and online environments, the evidence of its extent and its impact on political polarisation is far from unanimous. To address these questions, and also to bridge methodological and geographical gaps in existing research, this paper adopts a media repertoires approach to investigate selective news exposure and polarisation in four Eastern European countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Serbia. Using a combination of population surveys, expert surveys and qualitative interviews, the data for the study were collected between November 2019 and May 2020. We identify five types of news repertoires based on their relative openness to counter-attitudinal sources, and show that selective news repertoires are present in 29% of the entire sample. Our findings also reveal significant cross-country differences, with the more selective news repertoires more prominent in countries characterised by higher levels of polarisation. Furthermore, while the selection of news sources is in line with people's electoral (and to a lesser extent ideological) preferences, our findings show that exposure to counter-attitudinal sources can also be strongly correlated with political and ideological leanings. Our qualitative data suggest that this is because exposure to counter-attitudinal sources can reinforce attitudes, and potentially contribute to polarisation. Qualitative data also highlight the influence of environmental factors (e.g., family), and suggest that selective news consumption is associated with normatively different conceptions of media trust.

Partisan selective exposure in online news consumption: evidence from the 2016 presidential campaign

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Peterson ◽  
Sharad Goel ◽  
Shanto Iyengar
Keyword(s):  
National Sample ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Online News ◽  
Presidential Campaign ◽  
Absolute Level ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Political News ◽  
News Consumption ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Election News

Abstract Where do partisans get their election news in the contemporary media environment? We track the online news consumption of a national sample during the 2016 presidential campaign. We find levels of partisan isolation in news exposure are two to three times greater than in prior studies, although the absolute level of isolation remains modest. The partisan divide for election-related news exceeds the divide for non-political news. This tendency of partisans to follow like-minded news providers occurs despite the relatively small differences in the partisan slant of the content offered by the majority of sources they visited. Finally, we find that partisans who gravitated to congenial news providers did not shift their evaluations of the presidential candidates during the campaign.

scholarly journals Reinforcing spirals at work? Mutual influences between selective news exposure and ideological leaning

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M Dahlgren ◽  
Adam Shehata ◽  
Jesper Strömbäck
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Online News ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Print News ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Reciprocal Influences ◽  
Consistent Information

The growth of partisan news sources has raised concerns that people will increasingly select attitude-consistent information, which might lead to increasing political polarization. Thus far, there is limited research on the long-term mutual influences between selective exposure and political attitudes. To remedy this, this study investigates the reciprocal influences between selective exposure and political attitudes over several years, using a three-wave panel survey conducted in Sweden during 2014–2016. More specifically, we analyse how ideological selective exposure to both traditional and online news media influences citizens’ ideological leaning. Findings suggest that (1) people seek-out ideologically consistent print news and online news and (2) such attitude-consistent news exposure reinforces citizens’ ideological leaning over time. In practice, however, such reinforcement effects are hampered by (3) relatively low overall ideological selective exposure and a (4) significant degree of cross-cutting news exposure online. These findings are discussed in light of selective exposure theory and the reinforcing spirals model.

scholarly journals Fragmentation, homogenisation or segmentation? A diary study into the diversity of news consumption in a high-choice media environment

2020 ◽  
pp. 026732312096684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arno Slaets ◽  
Pascal Verhoest ◽  
Leen d’Haenens ◽  
Joeri Minnen ◽  
Ignace Glorieux
Keyword(s):  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Diary Study ◽  
Selection Procedures ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
News Consumption ◽  
Ideological Attitudes ◽  
Weak Influence

A weeklong diary study ( N = 460) into the exposure to news of Belgian (Flemish) adult media users (aged 25–45) shows that their information consumption is currently relatively diverse. An explanation for the observed diversity is that news consumers in Dutch-speaking Belgium have a wide array of internally balanced news titles and channels at their disposal, which they also actively consult. In addition, the study demonstrates that news consumption patterns span across all media platforms. This study thus illustrates that there is a weak influence of ideological attitudes and psychosocial dispositions on news consumption, measured in time of consumption per media title or channel. These findings call for a revision of theories of selective exposure that disregard the influence that the diversity of information supply can have on the selection procedures of recipients.

Partisan Selective Exposure in TV Consumption Patterns: A Polarized Developing Country Context

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imad Bou-Hamad ◽  
Nadine A. Yehya
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Developing Country ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Affiliation ◽  
Partisan Media ◽  
And Gender

Partisan media are often accused of reinforcing partisan views and contributing to political polarization. Drawing on the literature on selective exposure and media effects, we survey a representative sample of 784 Lebanese citizens who consume partisan media in a highly polarized context. In the absence of centrist nonpartisan channels in Lebanon, we differentiate between extreme and moderate partisan channels and test the prevalence of partisan selective exposure among the viewers. Results show that partisan viewers exhibit partisan selective exposure when selecting channels to watch the news but not in case of entertainment. Neutral viewers avoided extreme partisan channels and were indifferent to the political leaning of the moderate partisan channels. In this study, we present profiling models that predict the likelihood of viewers to seek/avoid extreme and moderate partisan channels based on their political affiliation, religion, age, socioeconomic status, and gender.

Mediating empathy: The role of news consumption in mitigating attitudes about race and immigration

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-238
Author(s):  
Kelly Kaufhold
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Media Consumption ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Election Cycle ◽  
News Consumption ◽  
National Instrument

Controversies over racism and xenophobia during and after the campaign of President Donald Trump contributed to big increases in media consumption—and racist incidents. This study examines whether and how much news media consumption mitigates perceptions of 12 measures of attitudes about race and immigration, using a national instrument of 64,600 cases. Selective exposure played an outsized role in media consumption during this election cycle and was highly predictive of partisan attitudes, which predicted attitudes on race and immigration. News media use—especially newspaper use—does soften attitudes about race and immigration, although it is not as predictive as party identification.

scholarly journals Beyond polarization and selective trust: A Citizen’s Jury as a trusted source of information

Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 026339572110244
Author(s):  
Maija Setälä ◽  
Henrik Serup Christensen ◽  
Mikko Leino ◽  
Kim Strandberg
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Selective Trust ◽  
Source Of Information

In this article, we examine whether a deliberative mini-public can provide a trusted source of information in the context of a polarized referendum. Political polarization gives rise to selective distrust of those on the ‘other side’. The Citizens’ Jury on Referendum Options in Korsholm, Finland, was organized in conjunction with a polarized referendum on a municipal merger. Our analysis is based on a field experiment measuring the effects of reading the jury’s statement. We find that trust in all public actors was selective, that is, dependent on views on the merger, the Citizens’ Jury being the only exception. Overall, reading the jury’s statement increased trust in all public actors, including those perceived as being on the ‘other side’. With some caveats, our findings suggest that mini-publics can alleviate selective distrust in polarized contexts.

scholarly journals Only “sheep” trust journalists? How citizens’ self-perceptions shape their approach to news

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110181
Author(s):  
Jacob L Nelson ◽  
Seth C Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Early Phase ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
News Consumption ◽  
Folk Theories ◽  
The Relationship

The all-consuming nature of coronavirus news coverage has made the COVID-19 pandemic a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between audience trust in and engagement with news. This study examines that relationship through 60 Zoom-based qualitative interviews conducted with a diverse sample of US adults during the early phase of the pandemic. We find that how people approach the news stems not only from how they perceive the trustworthiness of individual news outlets, but also from their own self-perceptions. News consumers believe journalism generally suffers from issues of bias, but that they are savvy and independent-minded enough to see through those biases to find the truth. Putting the concept of partisan selective exposure into conversation with folk theories of news consumption, we conclude that people’s approach to and trust in news is as dependent on what they bring to the news as it is on what news brings to them.

Political Behavior in Social Network Sites

2012 ◽  
pp. 1050-1062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiwu Zhang ◽  
Sherice Gearhart
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Governmental Institutions ◽  
And Behavior

The increasing popularity of social network sites (SNSs), such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter, in political campaigns and governance, has captivated researchers in the past several years. This entry aims to provide a comprehensive review and synthesis of the burgeoning empirical research literature on political behavior in SNSs by leading researchers from various fields. Research domains under review include how citizens use SNSs for political purposes and the effects of SNSs on political attitudes and behavior such as social capital, civic engagement, and political participation, how candidates and voters utilize SNSs during election campaigns, how governmental institutions employ SNSs, and the potential dark side of SNSs such as selective exposure and political polarization. Finally, future research directions of the field are discussed.

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