Westerwick, A., Sude, D.J., Robinson, M., & Knobloch-Westerwick, S. (in press). Peers versus pros: Confirmation bias in selective exposure to user-generated versus professional media messages and its consequences. Mass Communication and Society. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15205436.2020.1721542
Our finding:
The more personally important an issue was to people, the more they preferred attitude-consistent content, from fellow peers (user-generated content). For professional journalists, confirmation bias (preference for attitude-consistent political content) did nto depend on topic personal importance. However, as in Sude, Knobloch-Westerwick, Robinson, & Westerwick (2019), time spent reading content from either peer or professional (journalists) sources impacted perceptions of national public opinion, and in turn one’s own attitudes.
Garrett, R.K., Sude, D.J., & Riva, P. (in press). Toeing the party lie: Ostracism promotes endorsement of partisan falsehoods. Political Communication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2019.1666943
Our finding:
Social ostracism leads people to reject partisan-targetting political fact-check messages, even when they think their responses will be private.
Sude, D. J., Knobloch-Westerwick, S., Robinson, M., & Westerwick, A. (2019). “Pick and choose” opinion climate: How browsing of political messages shapes public opinion perceptions and attitudes. Communication Monographs, 4, 457-478. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2019.1612528
Our finding:
People moderate their political attitudes in response to headlines alone; more so if they read the articles. This attitude change happens in part because the articles act as a national public opinion cue and people “tune” (in part) to trends in national public opinion.
Knobloch-Westerwick, S., Westerwick, A., & Sude, D.J. (2019). Media choice and selective exposure. In M.B Oliver, A. Raney, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media Effects (4th Ed.). London, UK: Routledge.
This chapter reviews the concept of selective exposure (selection of and engagement with media messages). It reviews different eras in selective exposure research and their associated methodological and theoretical approaches. It ends with cutting edge developments and future directions.