mass-communication-theory

selective exposure
The idea that
people tend to
expose themselves
to messages
that are consistent
with their preexisting
attitudes
and beliefs
selective retention
The idea that
people tend to
remember best
and longest those
messages that are
most meaningful
to them
selective
perception
The idea that
people will alter
the meaning of
messages so they
become consistent
with preexisting
attitudes and
beliefs
Chapter 6 The Rise of Limited-Effects Theory 155
how these selective processes protect media content consumers from media’s impact
neatly echoes Festinger’s own presentation. Klapper wrote:
By and large, people tend to expose themselves to those mass communications that are
in accord with their existing attitudes and interests. Consciously or unconsciously, they
avoid communications of opposite hue. In the event of their being nevertheless exposed
to unsympathetic material, they often seem not to perceive it, or to recast and interpret
it to fit their existing views, or to forget it more readily than they forget sympathetic
material. (1960, p. 19)
Attitude-change researchers studied three forms of selectivity: (1) exposure, (2)
retention, and (3) perception. Keep in mind that these notions have since been
widely criticized and should be interpreted very carefully. We will point out some
of the major limitations as we discuss each.
Selective exposure is people’s tendency to expose themselves to or attend to media
messages they feel are in accord with their already-held attitudes and interests and the
parallel tendency to avoid those that might create dissonance. Democrats will watch
their party’s national convention on television but go bowling when the GOP gala is
aired. Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet, in their Erie County
voter study, discovered that “about two-thirds of the constant partisans (Republicans
andDemocrats)managedtoseeandhearmoreoftheirownside’s propaganda than
the opposition’s…. But—and this is important—the more strongly partisan the person,
the more likely he is to insulate himself from contrary points of view” (1944, p. 89).
In retrospect, we now realize that during the 1940s people commonly had
media-use patterns strongly linked to their social status and group affiliation.
Newspapers had definite party connections. Most were Republican. Thus,
Republicans read newspapers with a strongly Republican bias, and Democrats
either read Democratic newspapers or learned how to systematically screen out
pro-Republican content. Radio stations tried to avoid most forms of political content
but occasionally carried major political speeches. These weren’t hard to avoid
if you knew you didn’t like the politics of the speaker. Labor unions were very
influential during this era and structured the way their members used media.
Selective retention is the process by which people tend to remember best and
longest information consistent with their preexisting attitudes and interests. Name
all the classes in which you’ve earned the grade of A. Name all the classes in which
you’ve earned a C. The As have it, no doubt. But often you remember disturbing or
threatening information. Name the last class you almost failed. Have you managed
to forget it and the instructor, or are they etched among the things you wish you
could forget? If selective retention always operated to protect us from what we
don’t want to remember, we would never have any difficulty forgetting our problems.
Although some people seem able to do this with ease, others tend to dwell
on disturbing information. Contemporary thinking on selective retention ties that
retention to the level of importance the recalled phenomenon holds for individuals.
Keeping in mind that these processes are not discrete (you cannot retain that to
which you have not been exposed), selective perception is the mental or psychological
recasting of a message so that its meaning is in line with a person’s beliefs and
attitudes. Gordon Allport and Leo Postman’s now-classic 1945 study of rumor is
among the first and best examples of selective perception research. The two psychologists
showed a picture of a fight aboard a train to some people. The
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