Page 225 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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anger and aggression? The answer is “not necessarily.” Angry, hostile
citizens may choose not to watch television comedy. Similarly, citizens
with low levels of knowledge and political sophistication, who stand
in principle to benefit most from an information-rich environment,
are less likely to take advantage of new information resources. 29 In
addition, research shows that among a variety of possible contributors
to news recall, background knowledge is the strongest predictor of an
individual’s ability to recall current news – more so than education or
level of news media use, which are also strong predictors. 30
Schema research comes to a similar conclusion. When people have
well-developed schema about an issue, they tend to be the most selective
in assimilating information that reinforces existing ideas. Where they
have the least well-developed prior schema, they are most influenced by
the ways that elites frame and present information. Uses and gratifica-
tions research generally supports this view. Because citizens often feel
most gratified when information reinforces existing knowledge, prefer-
ences,orworldviews,theyareselectiveintheirattentionandassimilation
of information. This means that they do not necessarily acquire infor-
mation in ways that optimally identify alternatives and reduce objective
31
uncertainty about them. A purposive search for information is equally
likely to reinforce a misperception as to correct it.
Media research also suggests that exposure to conflicting sources of
information may legitimate opposing perspectives and views, which is
desirable from a normative perspective, but which may be associated
with less inclination to participate. As Mutz and Martin show, when cit-
izens are given greater capacity to select among multiple media sources,
they are more likely to make selections that expose themselves to nar-
rower and more compatible viewpoints. That is, citizens do not use a
richer and more diverse media environment to better inform themselves
about conflicting ideas and positions, but instead to select a narrower
and more parochial set of sources. Paradoxically, then, the more het-
erogeneous and controllable the information environment, the more
homogeneous will be citizens’ exposure to information. These various

29
Dolf Zillman and Jennings Bryant, eds., Selective Exposure to Communication
(Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1985).
30
Vincent Price and John Zaller, “Who Gets the News? Alternative Measures of News
Reception and their Implications for Research,” Public Opinion Quarterly 57, no. 2
(1993): 133–164.
31
From Doris A. Graber, Mass Media and American Politics, 5th ed. (Washington,
D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1997); Zillman and Bryant, eds., Selective Exposure
to Communication.
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