Selective Exposure Research Articles

The Public Service Approach to Recommender Systems: Filtering to Cultivate

Online media consumption has been radically transformed by how media companies algorithmically recommend content to their users. Public service media (PSM) have also realized the potential of recommender systems and are increasingly using these technologies to personalize their online offering. PSM are on the other hand required to disseminate diverse content, which can be incompatible with the logics of commercial recommender systems that primarily seek to drive up media consumption. Drawing on previous research on selective exposure and media diversity, this study presents the results from interviews with ten PSM informants across Europe, revealing that data scientists within these organizations are highly aware of the effects recommendations have on media consumption, and design the PSM online services accordingly. This study contributes with in-depth knowledge of how diversity has been interpreted at operational levels in PSM and how recommender systems are being adapted to a non-commercial setting.

Discovery and optimization of selective RET inhibitors via scaffold hopping

Aberrant alterations of rearranged during transfection (RET) have been identified as actionable drivers of multiple cancers, including thyroid carcinoma and lung cancer. Currently, several approved multikinase inhibitors such as vandetanib and cabozantinib demonstrate clinical activity in patients with RET-rearranged or RET-mutant cancers. However, the observed response rates are only modest and the ‘off-target’ toxicities resulted from the inhibition of other kinases is also a concern. Herein, we designed and synthesized a series of RET inhibitors based on the structure of selective RET inhibitor BLU-667 and investigated their biological activities. We identified compound 9 as a novel potent and selective RET inhibitor with improved drug-like properties. Compound 9 exhibits a selective inhibitory profile with an inhibitory concentration 50 (IC50) of 1.29 nM for RET and 1.97 (RET V804M) or 0.99 (RET M918T) for mutant RETs. The proliferation of Ba/F3 cells transformed with NSCLC related KIF5B-RET fusion was effectively suppressed by compound 9 (IC50 = 19 nM). Additionally, compound 9 displayed less ‘off-target’ effects than BLU-667. In mouse xenograft models, compound 9 repressed tumor growth driven by KIF5B-RET-Ba/F3 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Based on its exceptional kinase selectivity, good potency and high exposure in tumor tissues, compound 9 represents a promising lead for the discovery of RET directed therapeutic agents and the study of RET-driven tumor biology.

Anger, Anxiety, and Selective Exposure to Terrorist Violence

We examine the political consequence of exposure to widely available video content of terror violence. In a two-wave survey of Americans, we assess who is exposed to, and seeks out, terror-related video content in the first wave and then observe who decides to watch raw video footage of the Boston marathon terror attack in the second. We focus centrally on anxiety and anger as differing emotional reactions to the threat of terrorism and document their influence on exposure to terror violence. Anxiety generates avoidance of violent terror content whereas anger increases its consumption. Moreover, we find that anger increases exposure to violent terror content and in addition enhances support for punitive and retaliatory anti-terrorism policy. We discuss the implications of our findings for the broader dynamics of terrorist violence and the emotional basis of selective news exposure.

Thrombogenicity of microfluidic chip surface manipulation: Facile, one-step, none-protein technique for extreme wettability contrast micropatterning

Surface engineering of well-defined micro-nanoscale surface topographies on polymeric materials of microfluidic chip has been explored as a promising strategy for platelet function testing and clinical diagnostics. However, the current methodologies of constructing platelet-patterned surfaces require different bioactive ligands with laborious and complicated steps, and bioactive proteins are expensive and easy to deactivate. To address these issues, by selective exposure of the nanoparticles in a silica doped silicone and surface topography tuning via an ultraviolet laser, we introduced a simple, one-step, cost-effective strategy for tuning of different states of wetting characteristics simultaneously and serve as a thrombogenic polymer surface. Microscale in situ observations show that the specific micro-nano hierarchical structure and mechanism of extreme wettability conversion in turn trigger the platelet activation and aggregation. In-vitro investigations show that both the micro-topography and wettability of microchannel are important factors for fabricating blood compatible, or high thrombogenic materials. We expect such a simple, no-protein technique could serve as a low-cost platform for biomaterials and biosensors, and may lead to a new protein-free methodology for coagulation tests and clinical diagnosis.

Adapting the Selective Exposure Perspective to Algorithmically Governed Platforms: The Case of Google Search

Experimental research on selective exposure on online platforms is generally limited by a narrow focus on specific parts of the information selection process, rather than integrating the entire sequence of user-platform interactions. The current study, focusing on online search, incorporates the entire process that stretches from formulating an initial query to finally satisfying an information need. As such, it comprehensively covers how both users and platforms exercise agency by enabling and constraining each other in progressively narrowing down the available information. During a tailored online experiment, participants are asked to search for social and political information in a fully tracked, manipulated Google Search environment. Although the results show a structural impact of varying search result rankings, users still appear to be able to tailor their information exposure to maintain their prior beliefs, hence defying that algorithmic impact. This corroborates the need to conceptually and methodologically expand online selective exposure research.

Choice Matters: Responses to Political Information Vary in Randomized vs. Selective Exposure Contexts

ABSTRACT Three studies (study 1, 2a and 2b) were conducted to examine the effects of exposure type (randomized, selective) to negative and positive political information. Study 1 focused on a randomized exposure situation whereas study 2a and 2b investigated selective exposure conditions. Participants (N = 274 for study 1, N = 197 for study 2a, and N = 197 for study 2b) were recruited on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Drawing from the literature on negativity bias and socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), we found young individuals, as compared to older individuals, were more affected by negative political information, but only when exposure to the information was randomized. When given the opportunity for selective exposure to positive, negative, or neutral political information, effects associated with SST and the negativity bias were weakened while effects associated with political uses and approaches were bolstered. Implications as to how different types of exposure to negative and positive political information influence responses to information and their relation to SST, negativity bias, and uses and gratifications are discussed.

Effects of News Factors on Users’ News Attention and Selective Exposure on a News Aggregator Website

ABSTRACT Do journalistic relevance criteria still matter in digital news environments where news is selected and aggregated by algorithms? This article investigates how news factors (e.g., conflict, power elite) influence users’ news attention and selective exposure on the news aggregator website Google News. Alongside direct effects, the study also examines indirect effects of news factors on users’ news selection processes via media cues of news items on the news aggregator website (e.g., picture, position, and recency). The study relies on the news value theory and analyzes observations of users’ news attention and selective exposure on Google News via eye tracking (N = 47 participants, N = 751 news items). We conducted a content analysis on all news items on Google News that users paid attention to. The results show that news factors do not have direct effects on news attention and selective exposure, but rather indirect effects mediated via media cues of news items. Consequently, the traditional idea of newsworthiness based on professional journalistic norms continues to play a role on a news aggregator where news is selected by algorithms.

Saving the World by Your Self: Comparing the Effects of Self-Assessment and Self-Improvement Message Strategies on Pro-Environmental Information Selection and Persuasive Outcomes

ABSTRACT The effectiveness of behavioral change message strategies invoking the self-assessment (i.e. focusing on evaluating current behaviors) and the self-improvement (i.e. focusing on improving future behaviors) motives on pro-environmental information selection and subsequent pro-environmental beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions were examined. The Selective Exposure and Self- and Affect Management (SESAM) model and the self-affirmation theory offered predictions for audiences with varying levels of environmental domain importance and perceived self-discrepancy. An online experiment was conducted, and the results showed that consistent with expectations, self-assessment message strategy was more effective for audiences with low perceived self-discrepancy, and self-improvement message strategy was more effective for audiences high on this individual characteristic. This interaction was most pronounced for audiences with high domain importance. Implications of the findings on theory and practice were discussed.

What drives selection of online children’s news articles?

Individual news consumers’ decisions to select specific news articles online are an important part of the present journalistic landscape, spurring scholars’ interest in ‘selective exposure’ and the factors that influence news selection. In the present study, we investigated predictors of young news consumers’ self-selection of individual news articles. We used a dataset containing information on upwards of 18,000 news articles that were published in the smartphone and tablet application of the Dutch children’s news television program. The dataset contained the headline of each published news article and the number of views that the article generated in the application. This made it possible to investigate which characteristics of the headlines were predictive of children’s selection of the article, that is, number of views. In particular, we investigated the effects of emotion and exemplification on selection. The results showed that anxiety-related information and the use of exemplars significantly increased an article’s likelihood of being selected by young news consumers. Information related to anger, sadness and positive affect did not significantly predict selection.

Treatment with Bacterial Biologics Promotes Healthy Aging and Traumatic Brain Injury Responses in Adult Drosophila, Modeling the Gut-Brain Axis and Inflammation Responses.

Drosophila are widely used to study neural development, immunity, and inflammatory pathways and processes associated with the gut–brain axis. Here, we examine the response of adult Drosophila given an inactive bacteriologic (IAB; proprietary lysate preparation of Lactobacillus bulgaricus, ReseT®) and a probiotic (Lactobacillus rhamnosus, LGG). In vitro, the IAB activates a subset of conserved Toll-like receptor (TLR) and nucleotide-binding, oligomerization domain-containing protein (NOD) receptors in human cells, and oral administration slowed the age-related decline of adult Drosophila locomotor behaviors. On average, IAB-treated flies lived significantly longer (+23%) and had lower neural aggregate profiles. Different IAB dosages also improved locomotor function and longevity profiles after traumatic brain injury (TBI) exposure. Mechanistically, short-term IAB and LGG treatment altered baseline nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κβ) signaling profiles in neural and abdominal tissues. Overall, at select dosages, IAB and LGG exposure has a positive impact on Drosophila longevity, neural aging, and mild traumatic brain injury (TBI)-related responses, with IAB showing greater benefit. This includes severe TBI (sTBI) responses, where IAB treatment was protective and LGG increased acute mortality profiles. This work shows that Drosophila are an effective model for testing bacterial-based biologics, that IAB and probiotic treatments promote neuronal health and influence inflammatory pathways in neural and immune tissues. Therefore, targeted IAB treatments are a novel strategy to promote the appropriate function of the gut–brain axis.

Dense and influential core promotion of daily viral information spread in political echo chambers

Despite the intensive study of the viral spread of fake news in political echo chambers (ECs) on social networking services (SNSs), little is known regarding the underlying structure of the daily information spread in these ECs. Moreover, the effect of SNSs on opinion polarisation is still unclear in terms of pluralistic information access or selective exposure to opinions in an SNS. In this study, we confirmed the steady, highly independent nature of left- and right-leaning ECs, both of which are composed of approximately 250,000 users, from a year-long reply/retweet network of 42 million Japanese Twitter users. We found that both communities have similarly efficient information spreading networks with densely connected and core-periphery structures. Core nodes resonate in the early stages of information cascades, and unilaterally transmit information to peripheral nodes. Each EC has resonant core users who amplify and steadily spread information to a quarter of a million users. In addition, we confirmed the existence of extremely aggressive users of ECs who co-reply/retweet each other. The connection between these users and top influencers suggests that the extreme opinions of the former group affect the entire community through the top influencers.

The paradox of pluralism: A key to interpreting the online public sphere in the time of ‘encastellation’

This viewpoint makes a theoretical effort to label the organization of the virtual sphere under new concepts: ‘encastellation’ and the ‘paradox of pluralism’. The former is a metaphorical synthesis of already-known concepts (selective exposure, polarization, homophily, echo chambers and filter bubbles). In the second case, we emphasize the existence of a ‘paradox of online pluralism’: the internet has increased the possibility for everyone to make their voice heard (in quantitative terms), but at the same time it appears to also be increasing the distance between voices, putting in jeopardy the achievement of the aims of the pluralist political system (in qualitative terms). In conclusion, we express doubts about the feasibility of the deliberative vision of democracy in the current virtual sphere.

Molecular-scale axial localization by repetitive optical selective exposure.

We introduce an axial localization with repetitive optical selective exposure (ROSE-Z) method for super-resolution imaging. By using an asymmetric optical scheme to generate interference fringes, a <2 nm axial localization precision was achieved with only ~3,000 photons, which is an approximately sixfold improvement compared to previous astigmatism methods. Nanoscale three-dimensional and two-color imaging was demonstrated, illustrating how this method achieves superior performance and facilitates the investigation of cellular nanostructures.

Eye tracking data (Frequently Applied Designs)

Eye tracking data (Frequently Applied Designs)

Generic frames (Climate and Environment Coverage)

Generic frames represent typical layers of contextualization in stories and are broadly applicable to a range of different news topics (i.e., across topics). Examples of generic frames are the human interest or responsibility frames (e.g., Dirikx &amp; Gelders, 2010; Semetko &amp; Valkenburg, 2000). Field of application/theoretical foundation: Generic frames are used in different traditions of framing: (a) sociological tradition, such as frames in external news or images (e.g., Entman, 1993; Gamson &amp; Modigliani, 1989), (b) psychological tradition, such as frames in people's minds (e.g., Tversky &amp; Kahneman, 1981), and (3) communication science tradition, such as frame production (communicators or journalists develop frames), frame setting or frame building (journalists adopt frames from communicators) (e.g., Matthes, 2014; see Borah, 2011 for a systematic examination of framing research). References/combination with other methods of data collection: Research has conducted experimental studies to investigate how generic frames (e.g., conflict, morality or economics) affect selective exposure to climate change news (e.g., Feldman &amp; Hart, 2018) or what impact gain and loss frames have on the perception of the threat posed by the consequences of climate change (Bilandzic et al., 2017). Example studies: Bilandzic et al. (2017); Dirikx &amp; Gelders (2010); Feldman &amp; Hart (2018) Information on Dirikx &amp; Gelders (2010) Authors: Astrid Dirikx &amp; Dave Gelders Research question: This study examines the way Dutch and French newspapers frame climate change during the annual United Nations Conferences of the Parties (COPs) Object of analysis: The study analyzed a total of 257 news articles in Dutch and French quality newspapers: De Volkskrant (N = 52) and NRC Handelsblad (N = 61) for the Netherlands and Le Monde (N = 77) and Le Figaro (N = 67) for France. Time frame of analysis: The analysis covers the annual meetings of the United Nations Conferences of the Parties (COPs) from 2001 until 2007 Info about variable Variables: Frames Attribution of responsibility: This frame presents an issue or problem in such a way that the responsibility or blame for the cause or the solution is placed on political authorities, individuals or groups Conflict frame: This frame emphasizes conflicts between parties/individuals and stresses the points of divergence between the opponents (Economic) consequences frame: This frame emphasizes the manner in which an issue will (economically) affect people Human interest frame: This frame presents an issue from a more emotional point of view; it personalizes a problem Morality frame: This frame presents situations from a religious/moral angle Level of analysis: Each of the four newspapers was first screened entirely for articles mentioning “climate change,” “global warming” or “greenhouse effect” in their title or lead. In an additional screening articles not matching these criteria but whose core content was related to climate change were selected. Different article types were taken into account: columns, interviews, commentaries and “classic” news articles. The unit of analysis was the whole article. Variables and values: The authors used a standard set of content analytic indicators to measure the prevalence of the five generic frames developed by Semetko and Valkenburg (2000). They developed a series of 20 questions that can be answered with “don’t agree”, “largely agree” and “completely agree”. Each question was meant to measure one of five news media frames. Attribution of responsibility Does the story suggest that some level of government has the ability to alleviate the problem? Does the story suggest that some level of the government is responsible for the issue/problem? Does the story suggest solution(s) to the problem/issue? Does the story suggest that an individual (or group of people in society) is responsible for the issue-problem? Does the story suggest the problem requires urgent action? Human interest frame Does the story provide a human example or “human face” on the issue? Does the story employ adjectives or personal vignettes that generate feelings of outrage, empathy-caring, sympathy, or compassion? Does the story emphasize how individuals and groups are affected by the issue/problem? Does the story go into the private or personal lives of the actors? Does the story contain visual information that might generate feelings of outrage, empathy-caring, sympathy, or compassion? Conflict frame Does the story reflect disagreement between parties/individuals/groups/countries? Does one party/individual/group/country reproach another? Does the story refer to two sides or to more than two sides of the problem or issue? Does the story refer to winners and losers? Morality frame Does the story contain any moral message? Does the story make reference to morality, God, and other religious tenets? Does the story offer specific social prescriptions about how to behave? (Economic) consequences frame Is there a mention of financial losses or gains now or in the future? Is there a mention of the costs/degree of expense involved? Is there a reference to economic consequences of pursuing or not pursuing a course of action? Reliability: - Codebook: Table 1 in Dirikx &amp; Gelders (2010)

Temporal Selective Exposure: How Partisans Choose When to Follow Politics

It is widely theorized that echo chambers contribute to polarization, yet behavioral evidence of partisan selective exposure in the real world is surprisingly tenuous. Why do partisans have polarized perceptions even though they have relatively balanced media diets? We argue that partisans vary in terms of when they pay attention to the news, not just in terms of the ideological media sources they follow. By leveraging national election surveys across seven decades, as well as the sudden change in the economic news environment that was induced by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, we show that partisans vary their political attentiveness and media consumption in response to whether news events are congenial to their party. These findings suggest that partisans can subject themselves to biased information flows even if their media diets are balanced. The temporal dynamics of selective exposure carry important implications for mass polarization.

Knowing your sources: Partisan media and voters’ perceptions of the economy

This paper explains how media systems influence the extent to which partisanship colors voters’ perceptions of the economy (i.e., the strength of the partisan screen). It builds upon research on individual-level biases in economic perceptions, seeking to extend existing work by considering how the availability of partisan media for a given party affect such biases. The implication of this is that the greater the availability of media sources favorable to a party, the stronger the partisan screen for its partisans. This follows from several mechanisms including selective acceptance of messages, selective exposure to partisan sources, and incidental exposure to partisan sources. Each of these suggests that differences in the availability of partisan media across parties leads to corresponding differences in the extent of partisan bias for partisans of these parties. I test this Hypothesis in 14 European countries over four time-periods using data built from expert surveys on media characteristics.

How terrorism cues affect attitude polarization over undocumented immigrants via negative emotions and information avoidance: A terror management theory perspective

ABSTRACT Using an online experiment design on Americans, this study investigates how terrorist attack death cues affect individual-level attitude polarization regarding undocumented immigrants via distinct negative emotions (i.e., anxiety, anger, and sadness) and information avoidance. First, we find that exposure to terrorist attack death cues increases anxiety, anger, and sadness. Of these negative emotions, anxiety increases information avoidance, and such information avoidance reduces attitude polarization. We revisit the traditional affect-free claim of terror management theory (TMT) and connect the theory with discrete negative emotions and information avoidance to better understand the underlying mechanisms of attitude polarization in threatening situations. Our findings suggest that the role information avoidance plays in managing death anxiety in response to threats will require more systematic examination, as information avoidance can counterbalance tendencies toward selective exposure when experiencing threats that evoke death anxiety.

The String Puppet Technique to Improve Exposure in Totally Endoscopic Mitral Valve Surgery

To determine the feasibility of the string puppet technique as a flexible, dynamic alternative to atrial retractors in totally endoscopic non-robotic mitral and tricuspid valve surgeries. Fifty-one (51) consecutive patients were operated on for totally endoscopic mitral valve repair from July 2017 to February 2018. A 3 cm peri-areolar (males) or submammary (females) incision was placed on the right chest. The thoracic cavity was accessed via the fourth intercostal space. A temporary pacing wire was placed transcutaneously as a puppeteering sling in the thoracic cavity under endoscopic vision. Multicoloured sutures were used to expose the right atrium and interatrial septum by weaving and suspending the sutures on the sling. The sling was tightened to pull up the walls of the cardia and manipulate them externally, like a puppet on a string, to improve selective exposure. We were able to obtain adequate exposure of the mitral and tricuspid valves in all patients without the use of atrial retractors. No patient required conversion to sternotomy due to lack of exposure. None of our patients had postoperative mitral regurgitation of more than 1+ over a mean follow-up of 2 years. The string puppet technique improves exposure of mitral and tricuspid valves in totally endoscopic cardiac surgery. It is safe, effective, easy to perform, and inexpensive.

(Almost) Everything in Moderation: New Evidence on Americans' Online Media Diets

AbstractDoes the internet facilitate selective exposure to politically congenial content? To answer this question, I introduce and validate large‐N behavioral data on Americans' online media consumption in both 2015 and 2016. I then construct a simple measure of media diet slant and use machine classification to identify individual articles related to news about politics. I find that most people across the political spectrum have relatively moderate media diets, about a quarter of which consist of mainstream news websites and portals. Quantifying the similarity of Democrats' and Republicans' media diets, I find nearly 65% overlap in the two groups' distributions in 2015 and roughly 50% in 2016. An exception to this picture is a small group of partisans who drive a disproportionate amount of traffic to ideologically slanted websites. If online “echo chambers” exist, they are a reality for relatively few people who may nonetheless exert disproportionate influence and visibility.