Selective Exposure

The term selective exposure denotes people’s tendency to allocate unequal attention to available media offerings. Media use is highly selective and mirrors, among others, audience members’ current values, motives, and mood states. Measuring individuals’ exposure to media products, including advertisements, is relatively common in communication research studies, and a multi-billion dollar market for commercial audience research institutes as well. The academic selective exposure research tradition examined primarily how specific media and message attributes (e.g., source, topics, price), audience characteristics (e.g., motives, mood states, demographic factors), or situational aspects (e.g., presence of other people, social acceptance of media use) affect media choices. Media exposure is also commonly assessed in studies that examine individuals’ daily media routines, evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns, or relate specific exposure patterns ...