Selective Exposure Theory

 

 

I think that Selective Exposure Theory is a practice that almost everyone partakes in. An example of such that comes to mind is people who have a preference when it comes to their favorite news channel. Fox News is often associated with republicans, whereas a channel like CNN is the opposite of this. This is also applicable towards social media sites like Twitter. People get to choose who they want to follow, which in turn they are exposed to media that they want to see.  When it comes to hedonic use of apps and media consumption, I do not think it is necessarily bad to be selective. It also makes sense as to why this is a common practice. Why would someone want to listen to or watch something that challenges or opposes their beliefs?  However, I do think there are downsides to selective exposure. Seeking information that conforms to your beliefs can lead to biases. In addition, you are limiting yourself with the knowledge or news that could possibly benefit you even if the ne...

The Effects of Selective Media Exposure Selective media exposure can influence one’s political ideology. Statista (2023) reports that Fox News is one of the United States’ most viewed cable news networks, in which they gain 2.2 million viewers during primetime. Fox News is infamously known to be a rightwing news channel that has occasionally spread misinformation (Gabbatt, 2022). Those who watch Fox News are most likely to align with these political views. On the other hand, a report shows that most democrats use CNN as a trustworthy news source as opposed to Fox News (Sanders, 2020). Again, this is likely due to CNN confirming the biases that these viewers may have.  This is not just an occurrence with news channels, but since social media has taken off, Facebook has become a source for news. Pew Research Center (2021) has found that one-third of U.S. adults rely on Facebook as a news source. As convenient as this may sound, one of the ongoing issues with news on Facebook is t...