Causes and Consequences of Selective Exposure Among Political Blog Readers: The Role of Hostile Media Perception in Motivated Media Use and Expressive Participation

ABSTRACT

Concerns about selective exposure to partisan information have become a mainstay for scholars of political communication in the changing media environment. This study draws on a survey of a unique population—readers of political blogs—to explore the relationship between perceptions of mainstream media bias (as hostile media perception) and selective exposure to media sources that provide like-minded information as well as social support. We find that hostile media perception is an important motivator for partisan selective exposure among this audience, and also that such perceptions can lead indirectly to expressive political participation by encouraging visits to politically homogeneous online spaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Expressive participation
• hostile media perception
• motivated media use
• selective exposure

Notes

1. According to a report from Pew Internet and American Life project (Rainie & Horrigan, 2007), 20% of Americans used the Internet for political purposes in campaign 2006, which corresponds to 6.2% of adult Americans.

2. We also constructed online and offline expressive participation indexes separately in order to examine whether the two participation variables show any different patterns. Our data showed that the two variables not only were highly correlated with each other (zero order r = .75) but also showed similar patterns in their relationships with key variables of the current study. Thus, we decided to use a single-factor measure of expressive participation for simplifying research hypotheses and analyses.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Porismita Borah

Porismita Borah is an assistant professor at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. Her research interests are emerging communication technology and political communication.

Kjerstin Thorson

Kjerstin Thorson is an assistant professor at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California. Her research explores the effects of digital and social media on political engagement, activism, and persuasion, especially among youth.

Hyunseo Hwang

Hyunseo Hwang is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication, University of California, Davis. His research interests are social media and political communication.