Red Media, Blue Media: Evidence of Ideological Selectivity in Media Use

Iyengar, Shanto; Hahn, Kyu S.

doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.01402.x

Cited by 1,426 publications

(1,070 citation statements)

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“…The ability of political information consumers to easily select from among a tremendous variety of sources suggests that citizens have greater control than ever over the number and nature of political information sources they rely on, and thus greater opportunity to selectively expose themselves to attitudinally congruent information exclusively. Research supports this view, showing strong support for selective exposure online (Iyengar and Hahn, 2009;Johnson, Bichard, and Zhang, 2009;Knobloch-Westerwick and Meng, 2009;Stroud, 2007Stroud, , 2008, and an overarching tendency of people to seek out news and political information that supports their preexisting attitudes and beliefs. Moreover, selective exposure behavior is particularly pronounced under conditions of abundant information options (Fischer, Schulz-Hardt, and Frey, 2008), such as the environment of Web-based political information.…”

Section: Selective Exposure and Credibilitymentioning

confidence: 62%

“…Evaluations of trustworthiness are complicated as well, as source identity itself is often elusive in online contexts. Moreover, the rise of narrowcasting has implications for source trustworthiness, since many news consumers today actually prefer sources that are biased toward their perspective because they see them as more credible than less congenial sources (Iyengar and Hahn, 2009;Kahan et al, 2010;Oyedeji 2010). Given this shifting media landscape and evolving news consumption preferences, we next consider what is learned from research on source credibility in newly emerging political communication contexts.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Digital Media and Perceptions of Source Credibility in Political Communication

Flanagin

Metzger

2014

Oxford Handbooks Online

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and KeywordsThe rich research heritage on source credibility is fundamentally linked to processes of political communication and the provision of political information. Networked digital technologies, however, have recently complicated the assessment of source credibility by modifying people's ability to determine source expertise and trustworthiness, which are the foundations upon which credibility evaluations have traditionally rested. This chapter explores source credibility in online contexts by examining the credibility of digital versus traditional channels, the nature of political information conveyed by social media, and the dynamics of political information online. In addition, this chapter considers related research concerns, including the link between credibility and selective exposure, the potential for group polarization, and the role of social media in seeking and delivering credible political information. These concerns suggest challenges and opportunities as information consumers navigate the contemporary information environment in search of the knowledge to make them informed members of a politically engaged citizenry.

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Section: Selective Exposure and Credibilitymentioning

confidence: 62%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Media and Perceptions of Source Credibility in Political Communication

Flanagin

Metzger

2014

Oxford Handbooks Online

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“…After all, people tend to select news coverage that is congruent with their political views (Coe et al, 2008;Iyengar & Hahn, 2009;Morris, 2005). This makes it less likely to be exposed to news that raises hostile media perceptions and evokes anger.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…People's attraction to likeminded news results in selective exposure to opinionated news (Coe et al, 2008;Garrett, Carnahan, & Lynch, 2013;Iyengar & Hahn, 2009;Jamieson & Cappella, 2008;Morris, 2005). Subsequently, people's opinions may polarize, as hearing opinions you already hold echoing in the media provides legitimacy to even stronger believe in these ideas (D. A. Jones, 2002;Sunstein, 2007).…”

Section: Opinionated News and Political Attitudesmentioning

confidence: 99%

News With an Attitude: Assessing the Mechanisms Underlying the Effects of Opinionated News

Boukes

Boomgaarden

Moorman

et al. 2014

Mass Communication and Society

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News with an attitude: assessing the mechanisms underlying the effects of opinionated news Boukes, M.; Boomgaarden, H.; Moorman, M.; de Vreese, C.H. General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. AbstractOpinionated news targets communities of likeminded viewers, relies on dramaturgical storytelling techniques, and shares characteristics with political satire. Accordingly, opinionated news should be understood as a specific form of political entertainment. We have investigated the mechanisms underlying the effects of opinionated news on political attitudes using an experimental design that employed manipulated television news items. Findings confirm that opinionated news positively affects policy attitudes via its presumed influence on others and subsequent perceptions of the opinion climate. However, opinionated news also negatively affects attitudes via hostile media perceptions and evoked anger, especially for people with incongruent political preferences. Due to these opposing processes, we found no total effect of opinionated news on policy attitudes. Conditions are discussed under which either the positive or the negative indirect effect is likely to dominate.

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“…Indeed, it is widely known that citizens selectively expose themselves to information (Bennett and Iyengar 2008;Bolsen and Leeper 2013;Stroud 2011;Kim 2007;Iyengar and Hahn 2009;Iyengar et al 2008;Garrett 2009b,a;Garrett, Carnahan, and Lynch 2013;Feldman et al 2011;Smith, Fabrigar, and Norris 2008) and meta-analysis suggests that political selective exposure is especially potent (Hart et al 2009). While individuals select messages based on prior attitudes, they also appear to engage in selective exposure according to ideology, habit, and topical interests (Bennett and Iyengar 2008;Prior 2007;Iyengar and Hahn 2009;Baum 2002). Given this selectivity, there is value in knowing how individuals are affected by treatments they actually encounter in the real world.…”

Section: Effects Of Self-selected Political Communicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Does Treatment Self-Selection Affect Inferences About Political Communication?

Leeper¹

2017

J Exp Polit Sci

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Ecological validity is vital to experimental research because designs that are too artificial may not speak to any real-world political phenomenon. One such concern is treatment self-selection: if individuals in the real world self-select treatments, such as political communications, how well does the sample average treatment effect estimate the effects of message exposure for those individuals who would -if given the choice -opt-in to and out of receiving treatment? This study shows that randomization masks effect heterogeneity between individuals who would select different messages if given the choice. Yet such selections are themselves complex, revealing additional challenges for realistically studying treatments prone to self-selection. The evidence of effect heterogeneity raises questions about the appropriateness of random assignment experiments for studying political communication and the results more broadly advance our understanding of citizens' selection into and responses to communications when, as they often do, have choice over what messages to receive. * An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Midwest Political Science Association 2012 Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL and the International Society for Political Psychology 2012 Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. Thanks are due to John Brehm, Jamie Druckman, Samara Klar, Jeff Mondak, Marco Steenbergen, and the editorial team at JEPS for feedback on various stages of the project, and to Jamie, Fay Lomax Cook, and Toby Bolsen for sharing survey data from the t1 panel wave. 1Experiments are seen as a gold standard because randomized assignment offers unparalleled internal validity. An important and less studied concern is ecological validity, or the "realism" of the experiment. Ecological validity is vital because studies that are too artificial may not speak to any real world political phenomenon. In particular, the recognition that in the real world individuals self-select their own "treatments" raises a concern that randomized exposure may not constitute a realistic exploration of political communication ( Effects of Self-Selected Political CommunicationsArguments conveyed by media and political elites are widely seen as an important source of information that citizens can use when forming preferences (Disch 2011;Chong and Druckman 2007). Evidence of this influence comes largely from experiments that expose participants to different messages and measure effects on argument evaluations, opinions, issue importance, information-seeking, etc. (see Ansolabehere et al. 1994;Arceneaux and Johnson 2012;Berinsky and Kinder 2006;Brewer and Gross 2005;Iyengar and Kinder 1987;Miller and Krosnick 2000;Nelson, Clawson, and Oxley 1997;Petty and Cacioppo 1986). Questions have been raised, however, about these kind of studies given that, in Hovland's words: "In an experiment the audience on whom the effects are being evaluated is one which is fully 2 exposed to the communication. On the other hand, in naturalistic situations with which surveys are typically conce...

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Red Media, Blue Media: Evidence of Ideological Selectivity in Media Use

Cited by 1,426 publications

References 40 publications

Digital Media and Perceptions of Source Credibility in Political Communication

Digital Media and Perceptions of Source Credibility in Political Communication

News With an Attitude: Assessing the Mechanisms Underlying the Effects of Opinionated News

How Does Treatment Self-Selection Affect Inferences About Political Communication?

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