Departmental Papers (ASC)
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
1-2016
Publication Source
Media Psychology
Volume
19
Issue
4
Start Page
614
Last Page
637
DOI
10.1080/15213269.2015.1090907
Abstract
This study investigated how content and context features of headlines drive selective exposure when choosing between headlines of a monthly e-mail health newsletter in a naturalistic setting over a period of nine months. Study participants received a monthly e-mail newsletter and could freely open it and click any headline to read the accompanying article. In each e-mail newsletter, nine headlines competed with each other for selection. Textual and visual information of the headlines was content-analyzed, and clickstream data on the headlines were collected automatically. The results showed that headlines invited more frequent audience selections when they provided efficacy-signaling information in an imperative voice, when they used a moderate number of negative emotion words, when they presented negative thumbnail images while mentioning cancer or other diseases, and when they were placed higher in position.
Copyright/Permission Statement
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Media Psychology in January 2016, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/15213269.2015.1090907.
Keywords
selective exposure, message effects, health communication, internet, news
Recommended Citation
Ki, H. S., Forquer, H., Rusko, J., Hornik, R., & Cappella, J. N. (2016). Selective Exposure to Health Information: The Role of Headline Features in the Choice of Health Newsletter Articles. Media Psychology, 19 (4), 614-637. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2015.1090907
Date Posted: 19 July 2021
This document has been peer reviewed.