Getting attention online in election coverage: Audience selectivity in the 2012 US presidential election

Abstract

This study investigates how citizens select election news online. Voluntary national samples (n = 372) browsed a news website featuring four types of election news (horserace, candidates’ issue positions, campaign trails, and voters). Their online activities, including article selection and the length of exposure, were unobtrusively measured by behavior tracking software. The results revealed that participants tended to choose issue-based election coverage but avoided news stories about campaign trails. The horserace was not more popular than the other types of election news. The findings also supported negative bias by showing that participants preferred election news headlines that contained negative words.

Keywords

Campaign coverage election news horserace negativity selective exposure

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