Nhung Nguyen

Key scholars

• Joseph Klapper
• L. Festinger
• P. Fischer

Seminal reading(s)

Festinger, L. (1964). Conflict, decision, and dissonance. Stanford U. Press.

Klapper, J. T. (1960). The effects of mass communication. Free Press.

Lazarsfeld, P. F., B. Berelson, and H. Gaudet. 1948. The people’s choice: How the voter makes up his mind in a presidential election. New York: Columbia University Press.

Fischer, P., & Greitemeyer, T. (2010). A new look at selective-exposure effects: An integrative model. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19, 384-389.

Kim, Y. M. 2009. Issue publics in the new information environment: Selectivity, domain specificity, and extremity. Communication Research, 36: 254–284.

Prior, M. 2007. Post-broadcast democracy: How media choice increases inequality in political involvement and polarizes elections. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Key concepts

Attitudes- Beliefs- Values

Media Exposure

Selective exposure

Selective perception

Selective retention

Main premises

Selective exposure is the motivation behind selecting media and the message matching a person’s beliefs.  This premise was originally looked at after the 1940 presidential campaign.  Researchers, Lazarsfeld, Berleson and Gaudet found that partisan viewers encountered congenial messages more often than non congenial messages during the election.  This evolved into Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory, where people may avoid information that contradicts their views.  In his research he found that if people were inundated with opposing information they might change their views, but if they were only moderately shown information it would result in selective exposure.  After further research it was believed that people typically encounter or seek out like-minded people or media which reinforces their attitudes.

Explanations as to why selective exposure occurs:

1. Cognitive Dissonance – This was the first explanation.  People chose to avoid information that they do not agree with.
2. Motivation – Certain motivations may inspire people to seek certain information.  They may seek congenial information.
3. Ease – Processing information of like-minded congenial information is easier than finding opposing information.
4. Mood and Emotions- The way a person feels can have an effect on the information they seek.
5. Quality of Information- People may seek out information based on sources they find to be higher quality.

Types of Selective Exposure:

1. News or Entertainment – if people are given a choice, will they choose to watch the news or seek entertainment.  There are more options now than when this idea was introduced and people can more easily avoid the news.
2. Motivation – What motivates people to gather more information and what drives them to avoid information.  If an issue is personally important people may seek information on the subject.
3. Trust – People will choose an outlet or medium based on whether they trust them.  If they disagree with an outlet they may go somewhere else if there is an option.
4. Like-minded information – People will seek information from people or outlets who agree with their values and beliefs.

The following are Klapper’s five mediating factors and conditions to affect people:^[26]

• Predispositions and the related processes of selective exposure, selective perception, and selective retention.
• The groups, and the norms of groups, to which the audience members belong.
• Interpersonal dissemination of the content of communication
• The exercise of opinion leadership
• The nature of mass media in a free enterprise society.

Common methods

Laboratory Studies- Experiments

Self-Report Studies

Unobtrusive studies through tracking online behavior

Limitations

Some limitations to the theory are how do we know if it is selective exposure?  Selective exposure can be affected by other sources. 

Are people solely engaging with like-minded people and information or are they avoiding information and participating in cognitive dissonance?

Different ways of measuring and perceiving motivation such as Attitudes- Beliefs- Values

There has been a recent push to explain a difference in selective exposure and selective avoidance. These two can be coupled when someone is motivated to avoid messages that go against their beliefs.

There is also a question of the limitation of bias as far as the researcher since this often involves qualitative research, specifically ethnography and autoethnography.

Developments

As more media choices have become available people have more choices.  This allows them to avoid information that does not match their beliefs.  People seek information and people who are like-minded with their beliefs.

As more media outlets and different methods of finding information became available this theory has had a resurgence.

This is being studied today in the way people process information they find in the news.  An example would be what motivates someone to follow a media outlet, such as a choice between Fox and CNN.  A person may follow an outlet based on their beliefs or political views. They will follow the outlet that matches their ideals.

As media continue to evolve, especially with new digital platforms, there are arguments about the best approaches to studying selective exposure.  There are questions about how to label audiences.  Are they active, less active, or passive? 

 Typical research questions

• How long does one have to be exposed to a source to be affected?
• How does someone choose their media sources?
• To what extent people choose one source of information over another based on their personal views?
• Why do people choose to associate with like-minded people?
• What beliefs motivate selective exposure?
• How does incidental exposure to media affect selective exposure?