Selective exposure in political communication

Abstract

People exhibit preferences, or seek out information that is consistent with their political beliefs and opinions, when they engage in selective exposure in politics. The theory of motivated reasoning states that people's pursuit of knowledge is driven by two distinct goals: accuracy goals (which promotes drawing accurate inferences) and directed goals (which encourage the making of conclusions that people want to make, and which corresponds to their attitude). In general, people rarely have complete or adequate political knowledge, but even in these situations, they oft en shape their political opinions using informational shortcuts such as partisan cues. Today's political media messages are so persuasive, particularly with the growth of the Internet, that the audience is powerless to ignore them. Partisan selectivity is a concept that holds that people tend to prefer news and political content that supports their political beliefs. People may be inspired to seek out more information if they are exposed to a variety of political beliefs. On the other hand, those who tend to avoid political information that challenges their beliefs cause the community to become more politically divided. Studies have shown that social norms and community expectations affect selective exposure, which differs depending on the country's cultural environment.