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News Selectivity and Beyond: Motivated Reasoning in a Changing Media Environment

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Publizistik und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung

Abstract

Since at least the 1950s, scholars have noted that partisans both select and process information in a biased manner. The latter has often been examined under the conceptual umbrella of “motivated reasoning.” In the last few years there has been a resurgence of interest in the topic, due in part to discussions of the issue in the popular press. In this essay, we review the existing motivated reasoning research. We focus our work on the proposed mechanisms behind motivated reasoning and the implications that the phenomenon carries on public attitudes. In addition, we outline the importance of the phenomenon in light of our changing media environment. We discuss how the new media environment has changed the way people consume media information and speculate on how this will affect motivated reasoning research moving forward. Finally, we discuss motivated reasoning in the context of a shifting paradigm for media effects models, a paradigm that places greater emphasis on the role of audiences in determining communication impacts. We hope that scientists, communication specialists, science writers, political elites, and scholars will benefit from this work by obtaining insight into the theory of motivated reasoning and how it infiltrates their own fields.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Life Science Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hiram Smith Hall, 1545 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1216, USA

    Ph.D. Sara K. Yeo

  2. Life Science Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hiram Smith Hall, 1545 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1217, USA

    Dr. Michael A. Cacciatore

  3. Life Science Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hiram Smith Hall, 1545 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1215, USA

    Prof. Dr. Dietram A. Scheufele

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  1. Ph.D. Sara K. Yeo
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  2. Dr. Michael A. Cacciatore
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  3. Prof. Dr. Dietram A. Scheufele
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Correspondence to Sara K. Yeo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Olaf Jandura

  2. IfD Allensbach, Allensbach, Germany

    Thomas Petersen

  3. Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

    Cornelia Mothes

  4. Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Anna-Maria Schielicke

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Yeo, S., Cacciatore, M., Scheufele, D. (2015). News Selectivity and Beyond: Motivated Reasoning in a Changing Media Environment. In: Jandura, O., Petersen, T., Mothes, C., Schielicke, AM. (eds) Publizistik und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-04704-7_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-04704-7_7

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