Selective Exposure to Cable News and Immigration in the U.S.: The Relationship Between FOX News,CNN, and Attitudes Toward Mexican Immigrants

In the past 2 decades, cable television and the Internet have greatly increased the availability of media content. The phenomenon has reinvigorated a longstanding debate about the effects of this media landscape, as people selectively get exposed to specific content. Based on U.S. national survey data, this article advances research in this area by analyzing the interplay between individuals' ideological predispositions, their selective exposure to cable news, and the relationship between selective exposure and their attitudes toward an issue with key policy-making implications: Mexican immigration. Results indicate conservative Republicans are more likely to watch FOX News, which is associated with negative perceptions of Mexican immigrants and higher support for restrictive immigration policies. Findings also suggest that liberals who get exposed to FOX News also show less support for Mexican immigration.     

Affective Responses and Exposure to Frightening Films: The Role of Empathy and Different Types of Content

Young adults (N = 172) completed questionnaires that measured empathy, affective responses and exposure to frightening films, and perceptions of how aspects of scary content (suffering, danger, excitement, and a happy ending) affect enjoyment. Empathic concern was associated with less enjoyment of suffering, but more enjoyment of danger, excitement, and happy endings. Enduring negative affect was associated with higher personal distress and less enjoyment of suffering. Exposure to frightening films was associated with lower personal distress, more enjoyment of danger, and less enjoyment of happy endings. Interpretations of the findings are discussed.     

Selective Exposure: New Methods and New Directions

This special issue of Communication Methods and Measures tackles difficult questions relating to the empirical study of politically motivated selective exposure. In this brief response, I reflect on the state of the research area and attempt to bring these articles into conversation with one another and with the larger field. My essay is organized in terms of four broad themes: the debate over selective avoidance, the value of big data, the changing technological landscape, and the emphasis on boundary conditions. Collectively, the works in this issue raise important methodological questions and provide theoretical and empirical guidance for how scholars might answer them going forward. Coupled with innovative theorizing, these insights promise to advance our field in important ways.     

It's Not That We Don't Know,It's That We Don't Care: Explaining Why Selective Exposure Polarizes Attitudes

Today audiences can select content that is consonant with their political notions, and they take advantage of this opportunity. Such partisan selective exposure to media outlets has been identified as one of the reasons for attitude polarization. Little research attention, however, has been devoted to the processes underlying this phenomenon. This article advances the understanding of selective exposure by testing whether its effect on attitude polarization is attributable to people's familiarity with arguments that reinforce or challenge their own opinions. A sample of politically engaged extremists (N = 440) was subjected to a structured interview. As hypothesized, users of partisan media were more familiar with arguments reinforcing their views and, as a result, more prone to polarization. Knowledge of challenging arguments, however, was not affected by consumption of partisan media, nor did it promote depolarization. Results are discussed in light of two conflicting theories: the persuasion and the motivational-reasoning model.     

Assessing Selective Exposure in Experiments: The Implications of Different Methodological Choices

Selective exposure has been studied for more than half a century, but little research has systematically analyzed the implications of various methodological choices inherent in these designs. We examine how four choices affect results in studies of selectivity in political contexts: including an entertainment option, including or excluding moderates, post-hoc adjustment of the subjects through a question about likelihood of selecting content in the real world, and assessing selectivity on the basis of issue attitudes or political ideology. Relying on a large experimental survey (N?=?2,300), we compare the effects of these choices on two results: probability of selective exposure to like-minded political news and predictors of selective exposure (attitude strength, political interest, knowledge, and participation). Our findings show that probability estimates and, to a lesser extent, predictors of selective exposure are sensitive to methodological choices. These findings provide guidance about how methodological choices may affect researchers’ assessments and conclusions.     

Challenges to Selective Exposure: Selective Seeking and Avoidance in a Multitasking Media Environment

The present research investigated selective exposure online, treating selective seeking and selective avoidance as independent phenomena. A behavior tracking measure was employed. Study 1 used an online quasi-experiment with voluntary national samples (n = 271). Consistent with early reviews on selective exposure, participants sought out attitude consonant information but did not systematically avoid attitude dissonant information compared to neutral information. Study 2 involved an experiment with student samples (n = 185) to examine the impact of cognitive load on selective behavior. The results revealed that those who were asked to multitask during an information search did not exercise any selectivity in information selection. The implications of information selection behavior in a multitasking media environment are discussed.     

The Relationship Between Exposure to Sexual Music Videos and Young Adults' Sexual Attitudes

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between exposure to sexual music videos and young people's sexual attitudes (i.e., premarital sexual permissiveness and endorsement of the sexual double standard). Items gauging exposure to 75 music videos ranging in sexual explicitness were used to measure sexual video viewing among a sample of 266 undergraduate students. As expected, exposure to more sexually explicit music videos was associated with more permissive attitudes toward premarital sex and stronger endorsement of the sexual double standard, regardless of gender, overall television viewing, and previous sexual experience. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Impact of Popularity Indications on Readers' Selective Exposure to Online News

Selecting news online may differ from traditional news choices, as most formal importance indicators in traditional media do not convert directly to online news. However, online portals feature news recommendations based on collaborative filtering. To investigate how recommendations affect information choices, 93 participants browsed online news that featured explicit (average rating) or implicit (times viewed) recommendations or no recommendations (control group) while news exposure was logged. Participants picked more articles if the portal featured explicit recommendations, and stronger explicit recommendations instigated longer exposure to associated articles. Implicit recommendations produced a curvilinear effect with longer exposure for low and high numbers.     

信息行为领域选择性暴露研究:视角、方法、动向

[目的/意义]选择性暴露在信息行为领域受到了新的关注,对其内容的梳理有利于丰富信息行为的相关研究,并提供新的研究视角。[研究设计/方法]以国内外会议、期刊发表的相关文献为研究对象,采用综合归纳法,梳理选择性暴露在信息行为领域的研究进展。[结论/发现]通过对研究方法和研究主题的分析,归纳了信息行为领域选择性暴露的研究方法,并从信息选择行为、信息获取行为、信息分享行为三个方面揭示了该主题的研究动向。[创新/价值]构建对于选择性暴露这一交叉学科概念的系统认知体系,总结现有研究成果并对未来研究进行展望。     

社交媒体接触对社会运动参与的影响研究——基于政治自我概念的交互效应

社交媒体在全球社会运动与政治变革中发挥的作用已引起高度关注,不过其具体的影响机制仍不明确且充满争议。本文利用TCS2015年的数据,使用Logistic回归模型对社交媒体接触(自变量)与线上、线下社会运动参与(因变量)之间的关系进行实证分析,并引入"政治自我概念"中的一系列心理变量(政治知识、政治兴趣、内在政治效能感、外在政治效能感)对个体性差异进行检验。研究发现,社交媒体展现出显著的、不可被抵消的动员效应。政治知识不会单独对社会运动参与程度产生影响,但可以与社交媒体产生交互效应,放大其对运动参与的正向效应。内在政治效能感既会对社会运动参与产生正向影响,又能强化社交媒体的动员效应。线上、线下两种运动模式的作用机制大致类似,但存在微妙的差异。上述结果部分支持了研究假设,反映出社会运动往往是个体心理与新媒介工具共同作用的结果。这些结论放置于台湾社会的现实政治语境中,可以带来思考与启发。     

Expanding the Scope of Selective Exposure: An Objective Approach to Measurement of Media Ideology

The literature on selective exposure has made inestimable advances in our understanding of media and its effect on politics and the general public. However, much of the research on this topic has relied on potentially inaccurate assumptions. In our paper we apply an open-source, publicly available, high-dimensional measurement of meaning through word co-occurrence context (Shaoul & Westbury, 2010), which has historically been applied to questions of semantic relationships between words. This method allows scholars to avoid pitfalls from previous assumptions and determine previously unknown ideological positions of previously unknown sources. We demonstrate the validity and range of this method and provide a series of best practices for scholars who wish to employ this tool in their own research. Our method will ultimately expand the variety of research questions available as well as improving inferences, opening up new lines of research for scholars studying media consumption and political behavior.     

A Meta-Analytical Review of Selective Exposure to and the Enjoyment of Media Violence

A primary argument for the widespread production of media violence is that audiences want to watch violent content. This assumption is examined in this meta-analytic review of existing research on both selective exposure to and enjoyment of violence. The results show that violence has a significant effect on both selective exposure and enjoyment, but in different directions. Specifically, violence increases selective exposure but decreases enjoyment of content. Potential explanations for these effects and moderators that could influence the results (e.g., sex, aggressive personality traits, type of content) are considered, and the practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Effect of Perpetrator Motive and Dispositional Attributes on Enjoyment of Television Violence and Attitudes Toward Victims

Previous research (Zillmann & Bryant, 1975 Zillmann, D. and Bryant, J. 1975. Viewer's moral sanction of retribution in the appreciation of dramatic presentations.. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 11: 572–582. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) suggests that over-retributive and under-retributive violent acts are deemed unjust, enjoyed less, and influence attitudes toward perpetrators and victims of violence. This study extends this research to examine how disposition and motive influence enjoyment and liking of victims and perpetrators. An experiment manipulating perpetrator disposition and motive for violence showed that liking for neutral targets is decreased by incongruous perpetrator disposition and motive, whereas liking for perpetrator was affected only by motive. Balance Theory is offered to explain how dispositional considerations influence the evaluation of characters and other features of a story line.     

Adopting an Integrated Behavioral Model Approach to the Study of News Media Exposure: A Focus on Experiential and Instrumental Attitudes Toward Politics

Stepping beyond traditional mass communication and political communication frameworks, this study utilizes the integrated behavioral model to predict traditional broadcast and print news media exposure. Specific focus is given to experiential (Is politics interesting?) and instrumental (Is politics important?) attitudes. A secondary analysis is performed on 2010–2014 World Values Survey data (N = 6,961) consisting of representative samples collected from the United States, Germany, Australia, and Sweden. Interest is a statistically significant predictor of both types of news media exposure, but importance and Interest × Importance are statistically significant for broadcast only. The positive predictive value of political interest for broadcast is isolated to only those individuals who perceive politics to be of low personal importance. Discussion focuses on task difficulty when comparing broadcast and print news media exposure and the theoretical implications of the study’s findings. In addition, a research agenda based on the integrated behavioral model is proposed for the study of news media engagement.     

Maintainers of Ethnic Hierarchies? Investigating the Relationship Between Media Use and Attitudes Toward Perceived Remote Versus Perceived Close Immigration

The immigration issue seems to have consolidated a top position on the European political agenda, and the body of literature devoted to explaining attitudes toward immigration continues to expand. Alongside established models focusing on threat perceptions as the central mechanism behind anti-immigration attitudes, increased attention has been paid to the role of media. The aim of the present study is to test the effects of media use on attitudes toward immigration from regions that are perceived to be remote versus those close to the host society. Moreover, the study goes beyond previous research by investigating reciprocal relationships between the use of specific media types and attitudes toward immigration. While the empirical findings suggest that the effects of using traditional news media is weak, right-wing alternative media appears more powerful in influencing immigration attitudes. Specifically, the results indicate that the use of right-wing alternative media reinforces negative attitudes toward perceived remote immigration. At the same time, the use of right-wing alternative media appears to stimulate more positive attitudes toward perceived close immigration. Further, reciprocal relationships were found between right-wing alternative media use and attitudes toward immigration.     

图书馆延伸服务的含义与边界

图书馆服务分为基础服务和延伸服务,基础服务是图书馆职责要求的、图书馆界长期形成的常规性服务,延伸服务是图书馆职责要求之外的外延性服务。延伸服务是近几年从其他领域引入的概念,是基础服务的外延。我们可以利用时间、空间和内容三维坐标大致描绘出延伸服务的边界,延伸服务与个性、创新、自助、特色等服务存在着交集关系。     

Mapping Political Attitudes: The Impact of Concept Mapping on Ideological Constraint

People with more political knowledge tend to have more coherent ideologies (Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1996; Judd & Krosnick, 1989; Stimson, 1975; Zaller, 1992). Drawing on prominent theories of attitude structure (e.g., Dinauer & Fink, 2005; Hunter, Levine & Sayers, 1976), we propose an explanation for this relationship, testing whether people who spend time thinking about how political concepts relate to one another are more likely to exhibit ideologically coherent attitudes (Judd & Krosnick, 1989). We find that participants who are instructed to participate in an exercise that requires them to think about how political concepts are related exhibit greater correlations between social- and economic-policy attitudes than nonparticipants and find some evidence that participants’ policy attitudes are more consistent over time. Contrary to expectations, there was no evidence of greater consistency between policy attitudes and underlying values, including party identification.