Exposure Diversity and Selective Exposure

Exposure diversity represents a shift in focus in the discussions surrounding media diversity (Hovden et al., 2021). The quick shift from traditional media to modern media, characterized by an influx of media content and platforms, led to a divergence in policy debates from supply-side and media ownership to exposure diversity (Hovden et al., 2021). Exposure diversity addresses the dynamics of media consumption from the citizen’s perspective: "how different media are available for, and actually used by, different groups of people" ( Hovden et al, 2021, p. 149).

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The Deconstruction of Exposure Diversity

Napoli (1999) distinguishes between source, content and exposure diversity, with each having multiple subcomponents: source diversity, content diversity and exposure diversity.

Source Diversity

The established media policy goal of promoting a diverse range of information sources or providers in terms of the diversity of:

a) ownership of content or programming,

b) ownership of media outlets, and

c) the workforce within individual media outlets (Napoli, 1999, p. 11).

Content Diversity

The diversity of ideas, viewpoints or content options available either within a single outlet or across a media market (Hovden et al., 2021).

Exposure Diversity

The range of content that people actually consume.

Exposure diversity '"refers to the diversity of information and viewpoints that people actually access and use, as opposed to all the content that is available in principle" (Hovden et al., 2021).

Example of exposure diversity used in Norwegian citizenry (Hoveden et al., 2021).

Selective Exposure

According to Dahlgren (2019), selective exposure is the notion that citizens’ personal political preferences may lead them to "select news and information that confirm—rather than challenge—their political preferences" (Dahlgren, 2019, p. 249).

Selective exposure is based off the principles that:

1. People prefer information that confirms their beliefs, attitudes or behaviors;

2. People avoid information that contradicts their beliefs, attitudes or behaviors; and

3. People have to have a choice when selecting information (Dahlgren, 2019).

Both exposure diversity and selective exposure reject the sufficiency of traditional supply-side or content diversity metrics by focusing on the actual consumption patterns of the audience.

However, exposure diversity is about the content that individuals actually consume, while selective exposure focuses on the content the audience selects for consumption. Exposure diversity is concerned with analyzing the access diverse audiences have to different media sources, while selective exposure aims to explain why people make the choices they do for media content (Dahlgren, 2019; Hovden et al., 2021).

The shift toward exposure diversity changed how media diversity is understood. Rather than focusing solely on the availability or ownership of media content, exposure diversity emphasizes what media is actually consumed by diverse audiences. Furthermore, while selective exposure helps explain the psychological and social factors guiding media choices, exposure diversity provides a framework for assessing the inclusivity and range of media accessed across audiences.

References

Dahlgren, P. (2019). Selective exposure to public service news over thirty years: The role of ideological leaning, party support, and political interest. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 24(3), 293–314. 10.1177/1940161219836223

Hovden, J. F., Karppinen, K. & Moe, H. (2021). Operationalizing exposure diversity. European Journal of Communication, 36(2), 148–167. 10.1177/0267323120966849

Napoli, P. M. (1999). Deconstructing the diversity principle. Journal of Communication, 49(4), 7–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1999.tb02815.x