This article outlines the Political Incidental News Exposure Model. The Political Incidental News Exposure Model understands incidental news exposure as a dynamic process and distinguishes two levels of incidental news exposure: the passive scanning of incidentally encountered political information (first level) and the intentional processing of incidentally encountered content appraised as relevant (second level). After encountering political information incidentally, recipients briefly check the content for relevance (i.e., first level). If content is appraised as relevant, recipients switch to more intensive processing (i.e., second level incidental news exposure). Importantly, second-level incidental news exposure is assumed to have stronger effects on political outcome variables like participation and knowledge than first-level incidental news exposure. The Political Incidental News Exposure Model further acknowledges intention-based (i.e., incidental news exposure while not looking for political news) and topic-based incidental news exposure (i.e., incidental news exposure while looking for other political news) and it conceptualizes incidental news exposure with respect to political and non-political content. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.

This article aims to explain learning outcomes of incidental exposure (IE) to political information in online environments. Drawing on the Political Incidental News Exposure Model, we predict learning outcomes by distinguishing between first-level (i.e., scanning of incidentally encountered information) and second-level IE (i.e., effortful processing of incidentally encountered information appraised as relevant). Furthermore, we conceptualize intention-based IE (i.e., while looking for non-political content) and topic-based IE (i.e., while looking for different political content). In a 2x2 experiment (N = 290), we manipulated respondents’ initial processing goal (i.e., political or non-political information) and low (i.e., first-level IE) versus high (i.e., second-level IE) relevance of the incidentally encountered information. Results show stronger learning effects for second level than for first-level IE. Learning effects do not differ between topic-based and intention-based IE, but second-level IE decreases learning related to the initial processing goal. Theoretical implications are discussed.

In the last two decades, communication research dedicated substantial attention to the effects of incidental exposure (IE) to political information. In this meta-analysis, we analyzed the relationship of IE and five outcomes relevant for democracies. Including 106 distinct samples with more than 100,000 respondents, we observed positive cross-sectional relationships between IE and news use, political knowledge, political participation, expressive engagement, and political discussion. These effects shrink substantially but remain significant for panel studies. While we found a stronger relationship with knowledge for experiments compared to surveys, the relationship between IE and discussion and participation was not significant for experiments. Overall, findings suggest that IE matters, but its effects are smaller and more nuanced than previously thought. Also, the effects of IE are strongest when there is congruence between the exposure setting and the outcome setting. We discuss theoretical and methodological implications for IE research and the field at large.

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This study investigates antecedents and consequences of incidental and intentional exposure behavior to political information on social media. Based on the Social Media Political Participation Model (SMPPM), we investigated how political and non-political motivations predict intentional and incidental exposure modes while accounting for moderators (i.e., personal curation skills and the frequency of social media political exposure). We also examined how intentional and incidental exposure modes affect low- and high-effort political participation. We rely on data from a two-wave panel survey based on representative quotas for the Austrian population (N = 559) to run autoregressive models. Political information motivation predicted the intentional mode, and this relationship was stronger with rising levels of curation skills. By contrast, entertainment and social interaction motivations increased individuals’ incidental exposure mode. The intentional mode led to low-effort political participation but not to high-effort participation. However, the incidental mode was unrelated to both low- and high-effort participation.

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