Partisanship, Interest, or Friends? Testing Competing Hypotheses of Political News Flows

• In Event: New Research From the 2016 American Elections

Abstract

In this study, we draw on a rolling-cross sectional survey of young adults collected during the U.S. presidential primary season to model political news exposure. We review a series of competing hypotheses about what factors are most important in predicting awareness of political news: partisan selective exposure, topical selective exposure (based on political interest) and incidental exposure via social media. To test these hypotheses, we use an aided recall measure of news story exposure to the most visible political news stories during three weeks of the 2016 U.S. primary election season.

Authors

• Kjerstin Thorson, Michigan State U

• Emily K Vraga, George Mason U

• Christopher Wells

• Samuel Matthias Tham, Michigan State U