ABSTRACT
Facebook communication also increased, as sharing of political fare was common. The campaign was rife with examples of media coverage and discussion of various demographic group-related issues. Much of the research on group differences in the uses and effects of social media for political news has focused on partisan and political ideological differences. In addition to demographic group differences, party affiliation is an additional group-related variable that influences media selection during political campaign seasons. Political communication scholars have renewed their interest in selective exposure research after the diffusion of Internet technologies that gave people greater access to news information, such as social-networking sites, search engines, and news aggregators. Evidence shows there has been an increase in partisan news exposure over time, which has political consequences. Research also has indicated that when given the choice, online newsreaders are less likely to avoid counter-attitudinal information than select pro-attitudinal information.
