Conceptualizing different forms of news processing following incidental news contact: A triple-path model

Abstract

Research on incidental news exposure in the context of social media focuses on ‘successful’ incidental news exposure – when unintended news contacts result in active engagement and knowledge gains. However, we lack both theoretical and empirical approaches to the far more likely case that people keep on scrolling through their newsfeed without any post triggering active engagement. To fill this gap, the article conceptualizes a triple-path model of incidental news exposure on social media as a process. Building upon the Cognitive Mediation Model, dual system theories on information processing and recent empirical findings, three different pathways of incidental news processing are identified: automatic, incidental and active. The triple-path model thus allows to theorize the learning potentials that can plausibly be expected from each incidental news exposure path as a starting point for future research.

Identifying Informational Opportunities in Political Responsibility Reporting: A Study of Television News Coverage During the Coronavirus Pandemic in the UK's Devolved System

“…First, it offers regular access points for the public to be exposed to newsnot necessarily out of a deliberate choice; exposure could include inadvertent 'chance' meetings because of the frequency in which information was available. This chimes with theories around incidental learning, where scholars have explored how people come into contact with different media and the possible impact of these interactions (Wieland and Königslöw, 2020). At the heart of debates about informational opportunities is exploring a normative transaction: whether the public are better informed about politics and public affairs than if they had not been exposed to media coverage.…”

Implications of online incidental and selective exposure for political emotions: Affective polarization during elections

“…Wieland and Kleinen-von Königslöw (2020) further argue that unintended news contact on social media occurs in a continuous, habitual scrolling of passing-by news posts. Hence, it is likely to trigger automatic and heuristic processing that can contribute toward polarization, although attentive, systematic processing of news content is also a possible, albeit less likely path (Wieland and Kleinen-von Königslöw, 2020).…”

Facebook as an Avenue to News: A Comparison and Validation of Approaches to Identify Facebook Referrals

“…Mere encounters of news previews and headlines on social media are demonstrably of restricted democratic value by themselves (Lee & Kim, 2017;van Erkel & van Aelst, 2021). However, if citizens click on links of news articles within Facebook to arrive at original news sites, there is potential for gains in political knowledge and participation traditionally attributed to newspaper use (Wieland & Kleinen-von Königslöw, 2020).…”