The reliability and temporal stability of self-reported media exposure - a meta-analysis
The measurement of media exposure is essential to not only traditional audience research, but also media effects research which relies on accurate estimates of media exposure. Even in the age of digital trace data and passive audience measurement, the workhorse of basically all communication research is self-report data. In this paper, I present a meta-analysis of the reliability and temporal stability of media exposure self-reports. Results show that media self-reported exposure was moderately reliable and highly stable. The estimated reliability was lower in youth samples, while rank-order stability was very similar for a adults and adolescents. Moderation analyses showed that exposure to specific outlets yielded more reliable information in adult samples, while media-specific differences in reliability were only found in youth samples.