ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what we know–and what we don't know–about our media selections and their consequences. It also explores the extent to which our political beliefs govern our choices, a behavior known as selective exposure. The chapter describes other factors that influence which sources garner our time and attention, including negativity, issue interests, and entertainment preferences. Selective exposure is the motivated selection of pro-attitudinal messages and the motivated avoidance of counter-attitudinal messages. A number of psychological theories have been proposed to explain selective exposure. It focuses on three: cognitive dissonance, cognitive misers, and information quality. Selective exposure can be seen as consisting of two separate behaviors, however: selective avoidance, where people avoid contradictory messages; and selective approach, where people seek confirmatory messages. Partisan selective exposure relates not only to political participation and held beliefs about the world, but it also seems to affect our attitudes about politics.
