High-Choice Revisited: An Experimental Analysis of the Dynamics of News Selection in High-Choice Media Environments

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Communication and Technology Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Explosive growth in the number of options available to media users prompts researchers to consider how selection behavior has changed as well as how researchers' theories should change to suit an era of higher-choice media. Two experiments demonstrate that choice environments offering options in smaller sets lead users to be more likely to select news content, in particular “hard news” content such as stories related to international politics. A third study incorporates theories of information processing to explain the observed effects of choice environment. The study provides evidence that smaller sets of options lead users to compare the merits of each option while larger sets prompts users to quickly scan the environment for an acceptable option. A consideration of the selection behavior observed in these studies reveals that greater numbers of available options in the media environment actually decrease the diversity of selection behavior among a population. These findings suggest that subtle changes to the media choice environment, such as a change in the number of headlines presented on news websites, can have large effects on news selection behavior.

Author

• Elliot T. Panek, University of Alabama