Curated Flows: A Framework for Mapping Media Exposure in the Digital Age

Abstract

Advancing theory in media exposure and effects requires contending with an increasing level of complexity and contingency. Building on established theoretical concerns and the research possibilities enabled by large social datasets, we propose a framework for mapping information exposure of digitally situated individuals. We argue that from the perspective of an individual's personal communication network, comparable processes of "curation" are undertaken by a variety of actors-not only conventional newsmakers but also individual media users, social contacts, advertisers, and computer algorithms. Detecting the competition, intersection, and overlap of these flows is crucial to understanding media exposure and effects today. Our approach reframes research questions in debates such as polarization, selective and incidental exposure, participation, and conceptual orientations for computational approaches.

Incidental Exposure, Selective Exposure, and Political Information Sharing: Integrating Online Exposure Patterns and Expression on Social Media

“…Although some have speculated on how these two forms of exposure might work together to affect political engagement online (e.g. Bode, 2016; Thorson & Wells, 2016), to our knowledge ours is the first study to empirically test how incidental and selective exposure simultaneously influence political information sharing. Prior research has nearly universally studied these two phenomena independently, when in reality they are in no way mutually exclusive.…”

“…While patterns of political information exposure have typically been studied in isolation, the complexity of contemporary online information environments requires us to consider the link between incidental exposure and selective exposure. Extant research makes clear that the ability for users to control their information exposure in social media is significant, but by no means total (Bode, ; Thorson & Wells, ), suggesting the two exposure patterns are related. We first explore the possibility that incidental exposure to counter‐attitudinal political information online may motivate users to engage in further information seeking and sharing.…”

News Media, Knowledge, and Political Interest: Evidence of a Dual Role From a Field Experiment

“…This is only natural, as news consumers now have an almost unlimited choice of political news media outlets at their disposal (Neuman, 1996;Prior, 2007). This multiplication of news channels has gone hand-in-hand with more political information in both traditional media outlets (Esser et al, 2012) and in new arenas (e.g., Thorson & Wells, 2016). These changes have contributed to a fragmentation of audiences (Webster, 2005), and selective and opinion-consistent media use behaviors among citizens further increase information gaps.…”

The POPC Citizen: Political Information in the Fourth Age of Political Communication

“….For POPC users, a multiplicity of information flows intersect, compete, and feed into one another, leading to a dizzying array of channels and opportunities through which they may get exposed to political information. The contemporary political information ecology is increasingly complex and contingent (Thorson & Wells, 2016), and the affordances of smartphones and other mobile ICTs as well as the POPC mindset of many citizens today contribute significantly to that complexity and contingency in the reception of political news.…”

“…On Facebook, for example, posts of friends are listed in a singlecolumn content stream so that users are virtually forced to at least take note of every post-be it one with political content or without. However, as a result of "learning" algorithms of the SNS politically uninterested users will find progressively fewer political messages on their SNS, because--the less interest in and engagement with political posts they have demonstrated in the past, the less content of this kind will be displayed to them (Thorson & Wells, 2016).…”