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Cross-Cutting Effects ofHypertext Navigation on theConvergence of AttitudesYun Jung Choi a & Jong Hyuk Lee ba Division of Media Studies , Ewha WomansUniversityb School of Journalism & Mass Communication ,Kyung Hee UniversityAccepted author version posted online: 25 Mar2013.Published online: 16 May 2013.
To cite this article: Yun Jung Choi & Jong Hyuk Lee (2013) Cross-Cutting Effects ofHypertext Navigation on the Convergence of Attitudes, Mass Communication andSociety, 16:3, 369-390, DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2012.691596
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Cross-Cutting Effects of HypertextNavigation on the Convergence
of Attitudes
Yun Jung ChoiDivision of Media StudiesEwha Womans University
Jong Hyuk LeeSchool of Journalism & Mass Communication
Kyung Hee University
This study explores the navigation patterns of users reading hypertext-linkedonline news articles about a controversial issue. With the theoretical frame-works of selective exposure and cross-cutting exposure, the study examinedthe effects of individuals’ attitudes on their navigation patterns and conse-quent attitude changes after the news exposure. We asked 130 participantsto read positive or negative news articles about the Korea–U.S. free tradeagreement (FTA) by selecting six consecutive webpages. The results indicatethat their attitudes toward the FTA was a significant predictor of their newsselection, providing support for the selective exposure hypothesis. In termsof navigation patterns across the six news selection stages, the participants
Yun Jung Choi (Ph.D., Syracuse University, 2006) is an Assistant Professor in the Division
of Media Studies at Ewha Womans University. Her research interests include television effects,
media psychology, and online communication.
Jong Hyuk Lee (Ph.D., Syracuse University, 2006) is an Associate Professor in the School of
Journalism & Mass Communication at Kyung Hee University. His research interests include
journalism, media sociology, and political communication.
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded
by the Korean Government (NRF-2010-330-B00293).
Correspondence should be addressed to Yun Jung Choi, Division of Media Studies, Ewha
Womans University, 11-1 Daehyun-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 120-570, Republic of Korea.
E-mail: [email protected]
Mass Communication and Society, 16:369–390, 2013Copyright # Mass Communication & Society Division
of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
ISSN: 1520-5436 print=1532-7825 online
DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2012.691596
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tended to select news articles that corresponded to their initial attitudes. Theselection gap between participants with different attitudes increased until thefifth stage and ultimately converged. In terms of attitude change, the gap inthe participants’ attitudes decreased sharply after their navigation.
INTRODUCTION
When reading news on the Internet, people are continuously engaged in theprocess of selecting thousands of articles that are hyperlinked together. Somearticles may contain arguments that can reinforce their beliefs, whereas otherscan challenge their beliefs and attitudes. Theoretically, this navigation ofonline articles is a series of selective exposure guided by the individual’s pre-ferences. According to selective exposure theory (Festinger, 1957), navigationis done in such a way that readers select only those articles that are consistentwith their attitudes, opinions, or preferences. For example, Republican Partysupporters are more likely to read online articles that portray social affairsfrom the conservative perspective, and those who do not support abortionare less likely to click a headline entitled ‘‘Pro-Choice Supporters Hold a Vigilin Honor of a Murdered Doctor.’’ Unlike the traditional media channels,which forcibly expose viewers to diverse perspectives on a given issue, onlineviewers can select those articles that they prefer to read, and thus this can leadto opinion polarization in the long run (Jones, 2002; Sunstein, 2001).
On the other hand, the Internet has been viewed as a newly emerging publicsphere in which diverse views can be exchanged and viewed (Weger & Askhus,2003). Because people tend to form social groups with those sharing similarinterests or backgrounds, few people are exposed to diverse views in face-to-face situations (Huckfeldt, Mendez, & Osborn, 2004; Waldman, 2001).Researchers have pointed out the possibility of cross-cutting exposure, thatis, exposing oneself to opposing views, on the Internet (Weger &Askhus, 2003).
The question of whether the Internet can facilitate selective exposure tosimilar views or cross-cutting exposure has been a topic of special interestin recent research on selective exposure. In this regard, the present studyexamines the navigation patterns for an online news website with respectto the Korea–U.S. free trade agreement (FTA), a highly controversial issuein Korea. Specifically, this study examines whether navigation patterns varyaccording to the individual’s attitudes toward the FTA. The experimentalonline website had links to both pro (positive) and con (negative) articlesregarding the FTA, and the participants had to consecutively select and readeither pro or con articles. Second, the study examines the changes in theparticipants’ postnavigation attitudes toward the FTA to determine theeffects of their navigation patterns on their attitudes.
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This study is meaningful in two ways. First, this study contributes toselective exposure research by analyzing a navigation pattern involving sixstages of navigation choice. The examination of various ways in whichpeople with different opinions make hypertext navigation choices allowsfor a more in-depth analysis of selective exposure on the Internet. Second,this study extends selective exposure and cross-cutting exposure researchby considering people’s news selection on the online website environmentsand the effects of their hypertext navigation patterns on attitude formation.
THEORY
Hypertext
In Greek, the term ‘‘hyper’’ means ‘‘above,’’ ‘‘beyond,’’ or ‘‘outside.’’ There-fore, hypertext can be literally defined as a type of text that is linked to othertext ‘‘outside, above, and beyond’’ itself (Lister, Dovey, Giddings, Grant, &Kelly, 2003). From a technical point of view, the hypertext system is ‘‘anelectronic system of interconnected units of information or text nodes’’(Boechler, 2001, p. 26). When hypertext is viewed as narrative text, a morecomplex definition is needed. Theodor Nelson (1993), who coined the term‘‘hypertext,’’ defined hypertext as ‘‘non-sequential writing-text thatbranches and allows choices to the reader, best read at an interactive screen’’(p. 2). According to Bolter (1991) and Landow (1997), unlike hierarchicaland liner text in printed documents, hypertext is a nonlinear type of textorganized as a network and has no center.
The hypertext system has three features that are distinct from that of tra-ditional media. First, the hypertext system allows for the selectivity of infor-mation. The hypertext system allows users to navigate information on the webfreely, enabling them to choose information and thus increasing the feasibilityof selective exposure. Hypertext allows users to generate stories instead ofreceiving fixed and uniform stories. Individuals who navigate online storiescan select stories based on their own perceptions and interests and thus cancreate a personalized reading environment that differs from those of others.
Second, hypertext differs from traditional text in terms of its nonlinear-ity. There is no fixed order in which hypertext should to be read (Nielson,1995). Unlike traditional text, which has some distinct beginning, middle,and ending, hypertext generates multiple entry points, many Internetthreads, and no clear ending (Murray, 1997). In the hypertext system, anypart of hypertext can be assessed as easily as any other, which makes anytext equidistant from the reader, and any text can be the first encounteredparagraph for the reader (Lister et al., 2003). This nonlinearity of the
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hypertext system can generate various forms of media text for viewersdepending on the order in which they encounter messages.
Third, hypertext reflects contextuality. With links to various relatedwebsites, the hypertext system provides users with more backgroundinformation and with additional visuals and references on issues featured innews articles (Tremayne, 1999). Hypertext can enhance the availability ofinformation and provide users with convenient ways to navigate vast amountsof information on the web. That is, hypertext helps readers to better under-stand social issues (Kovarick, 2002).
Fourth, stories with hypertext tend to provide diverse perspectivesinstead of suggesting one solid conclusion to a news event. Hypertext canbetter accommodate contradicting ideas and the juxtaposition of pluralideas than traditional text, which typically facilitates the pursuit of the‘‘truth,’’ the primary goal of traditional journalism (Bolter, 1991; Murray,1997). The hypertext reporting style elevates the role of the reader to thelevel of the creator, which allows the reader to make his or her own decisionsbased on his or her personal reading experience (Murray, 1997).
In the context of mass communication, hypertext has been understood asonline text containing links to other pages. A typical online news article hashypertext linked to similar articles written earlier or to other websites provid-ing contextual information (Dimitrova, 2003). Dimitrova (2003) conducted asurvey of the top 15 online news papers in the United States and found that, onaverage, there were seven hypertext links per online news story and that 94.8%of such hypertext links were linked to articles within the website, whereas only4.1% were linked to other websites. In the present study, hypertext is definedas nonlinear text with electronic links connecting one webpage to another, andin the experiment, headlines of related articles at the bottom of articles acted ashypertext links connected to the next article. The whole hypertext system withinterconnected articles reflects an Internet news website.
Selective Exposure
The initial research on selective exposure to information was led byFestinger’s (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance. The theory predicts thatindividuals would evade or avoid threatening messages to avert a noxiousarousal state referred to as cognitive dissonance. A number of scholars havesupported the idea that individuals prefer exposure to information that isconsistent with their preexisting opinions (Annenberg Public Policy Center,2004; Berelson & Steiner, 1964; Best, Chmielewski & Krueger, 2005; Chaffee,Saphir, Graf, Sandvig & Hahn, 2001; Lazarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1948;Lipset, Lazarsfeld, Barton, & Linz, 1954). Lazarsfeld and his colleagues(1948) contented that ‘‘exposure is always selective; in other words, a positive
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relationship exists between people’s opinions and what they choose to listento or read’’ (p. 164). Jonas, Schulz-Hardt, and Frey (2005) suggested that‘‘when searching for new information, people are often biased in favor ofpreviously held beliefs, expectations, or desired conclusions’’ (p. 978).
This selective exposure tendency has been verified by a number of empiri-cal studies. Individuals tend to prefer reading advertisements for brands ofcars they bought (Ehrlich, Guttmann, Schonbach, & Mills, 1957), readingpamphlets favoring their candidates over other candidates (Freedman &Sears, 1963), and learning about the candidate they recently selected ratherthan other candidates (Chaffee & Miyo, 1983). Recently, Stroud (2008) sug-gested that media users tend to select political talk radio shows, cable news,and websites that correspond with their political disposition. Individualschose to expose themselves to media outlets that are consistent with theirpolitical beliefs.
However, other research findings contradict selective exposure theory(Donsbach, 1991; Feather, 1962; Mills & Ross, 1964; Redlawsk, 2002).Feather (1962) found that, compared with nonsmokers, smokers showedno significant preference for news articles justifying smoking. Donsbach(1991) examined survey participants’ recall of 350 newspaper articles in Ger-many but found no evidence of the avoidance of counterattitudinal infor-mation. In addition, several studies provided evidence of a preference fornonsupportive information over supportive information (Brodbeck, 1956;Rosen, 1961). In a critical essay about selective exposure, Sears and Freed-mans (1967) concluded that, based on some methodological and other con-ceptualization problems, published reports on selective exposure did notpresent solid evidence that individuals tend to expose themselves to masscommunication messages that agree with their preexisting attitudes.
Research on selective exposure was a widely discussed topic in the early1960, but after Sears and Freedman’s critical essay in 1967, few studies havefocused on selective exposure (Chaffee et al., 2001). This selective exposuretheory started to receive more attention when Internet news reading, whichallows readers to selectively choose articles, became more prevalent in theearly 2000s. In addition, recent research on selective exposure in the Internetenvironment has produced mixed results.
In a survey of individuals’ use of the Internet for political information,Garrett (2009) found that individuals are more likely to expose themselvesto online information that is consistent with their own views while sacrific-ing exposure to counter-attitudinal information. Stroud (2008) found thatindividuals are likely to select news media (e.g., newspapers, radio shows,and cable TV programs) and websites that correspond with their politicalideology. In an experimental study, Knobloch-Westerwick and Meng(2009) provided evidence of selective exposure in Internet news reading.
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They found that the participants spent 36% more time reading articlescorresponding with their preexisting attitudes.
However, other studies have found no selective exposure phenomenon onthe Internet. Iyengar, Hahn, Krosnick, and Walker (2008) examined indivi-duals’ Internet use by analyzing an interactive CD-ROM package and foundonly limited evidence that individuals’ political attitudes influence their useof political information. In addition, the 2000 General Social Survey dataset provides little evidence that individuals use the Internet to avoid politi-cally different opinions (DiMaggio & Sato, 2003). Horrigan, Garrett, andResnick (2004) concluded that, based on a Pew Internet & American LifeProject survey, Internet users do not intentionally avoid counterattitudinalpartisan messages on the Internet.
Due to the contradictory findings regarding the effectiveness of selectiveexposure, many scholars have attempted to indentify the contingent vari-ables that facilitate selective exposure. The most widely discussed andaccepted variable is ‘‘information utility.’’ Many scholars have observedthat the utility of information can readily overpower the dissonance tend-ency to avoid nonsupportive information (Canon, 1964; Chaffee &McLeod,1973; Freedman, 1965). Atkin’s (1973) elaborated model of informationalutility suggests that information selection is purposeful and that the rootof information selection lies in the need for information regardless ofwhether that need is for guidance (how to feel about things), performance(how to do things), reinforcement (reconfirm attitudes), or surveillance.Knobloch, Carpentier, and Zillmann (2003) found that as the perceivedmagnitude, likelihood, and immediacy of negative consequences of eventssuggested by news leads increased, the participants spent more time readingonline news articles. Further, Knobloch-Westerwick, Carpentier, Blumhoff,and Nickel (2005) proposed that high information utility increases selectiveexposure for both positively and negatively valenced news articles.
In addition to information utility, Stroud (2008) suggested personal rel-evancy and the affective response as two additional contingent variablesthat may influence the selective exposure process. Personally relevant beliefsare more likely to influence exposure decisions than cognitive dissonance(Donsbach, 1991). Affective responses may stimulate selectivity patterns.Taber and Lodge (2006) proposed that when stimuli elicit an affectiveresponse, strong partisans on an issue are likely to engage in selectiveexposure in response to the stimuli.
Although selective exposure theory was first introduced more than fivedecades ago, it has continued to provide conflicting results. Thus, this studyfortifies selective exposure theory by identifying the hypertext navigationpatterns of readers as they navigate a series of six articles with conflictingviews and the consequences of their navigation. This study examines
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whether online news readers’ selection of news is determined by theirpreheld attitudes. This study is guided by the following research questions:
RQ1: Do navigators expose themselves selectively to online news articlesthat correspond to their attitudes?
RQ2: How do participants’ navigation patterns across six stages differaccording to their existing attitudes? In short, is there an interactioneffect between the six stages and participant attitudes on the selectionof news articles?
The first research question focuses on the effects of attitudes on theselection of news articles; the second question refers to the interaction effectof time and existing attitudes on the selection of news articles.
Cross-Cutting Behavior
Exposing oneself to opposing views is considered to be an important con-cept, and this concept has been rigorously addressed by political communi-cation scholars. Exposure to opposing views has been conceptualized as‘‘cross-pressure’’ (Larzarsfeld, Berelson, & Gaudet, 1944), ‘‘exposure tocounter-attitudinal messages’’ (Chaffee et al., 2001), and ‘‘cross-cutting’’(Mutz, 2002). The present study uses the term ‘‘cross-cutting.’’
Habermas (1989) assumed that exposure to dissimilar views benefitssociety by encouraging interpersonal deliberation and intrapersonal reflec-tion. Interactions with others who have different views are assumed to be‘‘essential for us to comprehend and to come to appreciate the perspectiveof others’’ (Benhabib, 1992, p. 140). Cross-cutting is a very important andcontingent condition for deliberative democracy. In a deliberative process,the participants should first expose themselves to their opponents’ pointof view and understand their views before expressing their political perspec-tives and attempting to persuade their opponents (Waldman, 2001). Thisexchange of ideas does not have to result in agreement, but the process ofexchanging different perspectives and arguing positions should accompanythis process.
Several researchers have explored the factors influencing exposure toopposing points of view in a political setting. Sears and Freedman (1967)suggested that the factors that can influence exposure to political infor-mation representing both counterattitudinal and consistent messages arethe individual’s level of education, previous knowledge of the subject matter,the utility of the information for the individual, and curiosity. Similarly,Chaffee et al. (2001) found that the individual’s education level, politicalknowledge, political curiosity, and political discussion activity can predict
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his or her attention to both consistent and counterattitudinal political mes-sages during election campaigns.
In addition, media use has been found to influence exposure to diverseviews. Mutz and Martin (2001) asserted that mere exposure to mass mediamessages can increase exposure to diverse views because media reports tendto include diverse opinions to make articles look more balanced. McLeod,Scheufele, Moy, and Horowitz (1999) found a positive relationship betweenmedia use and the heterogeneity of networks, that is, individuals with higherlevels of media consumption are more likely to have diverse and hetero-geneous social networks and discuss politics with those with different pointsof view. Mutz and Martin suggested that this role of the media is rooted inthe relative difficulty of selectivity exposing oneself to various sources ofinformation. In terms of Internet use, Chaffee (Chaffee et al., 2001) pro-posed that the user-controlled nature of the Internet may return campaigncommunication to the pattern of selective exposure that existed in the eraof highly partisan newspapers.
The effects of cross-cutting exposure have been thoroughly explicated byprevious research. Cross-cutting exposure has been found to facilitate indi-viduals’ awareness of opposing views (Manin, 1987). Mutz (2002) foundthat cross-cutting networks can increase one’s awareness of the rationalefor one’s own viewpoints as well as that for opposing viewpoints. Whenexposed interpersonally to political views that are noticeably different fromtheir own, individuals may be induced to think intrapersonally about thereasons that may have led others to hold such views (Mutz, 1998).
In addition, exposure to diverse viewpoints may bring tolerance for thosewho are different (Stouffer, 1995). In addition, cross-contact may improveindividuals’ ability to see issues from the perspective of others even whenthey personally do not agree, which may reduce prejudice and increase tol-erance for others. Mutz (2002) proposed that exposure to individuals withdissimilar political views can lead to cognitive and affective mechanisms.The cognitive mechanism is the individual’s awareness of rationales foropposing views, whereas the affective mechanism is the intimacy formedthrough cross-cutting relationships. These two mechanisms can increasepolitical tolerance for others who have dissimilar points of view.
Some studies have found negative consequences of cross-cutting. Scorza(1998) proposed that cross-cutting can lead to bitter arguments or a hostileand uneasy silence. In addition, cross-cutting has been found to discouragepolitical participation (Mutz, 2002). An individual’s exposure to those withpolitical views that are different from his or her own can increase his or herambivalence about political options, which can make it more difficult for theindividual to take part in political activity. Following the classic two-step flowstudy, Berelson, Larzarsfeld, and McPhee (1954) and Lazarsfeld et al. (1948)
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used the term ‘‘cross-pressure’’ to represent individuals’s exposure to diverseopinions. ‘‘Cross-pressure’’ results from disagreement among participants,and this cross-pressure leads to political withdrawal as a consequence of psycho-logical stress produced by political uncertainty and mixed political messages.
This study extends previous cross-cutting exposure research by examiningthe results of navigation patterns for a website featuring both supportiveand contradictive articles. This study examines whether online readerschange their attitudes after navigating relevant issues and how differentnavigation patterns influence attitude change. In this regard, the followingresearch question is proposed:
RQ3: In what ways can exposure to online news articles change navigators’attitudes?
METHOD
An online experiment was conducted by using the web-tracking method.Website articles about the Korea–U.S. FTA were produced for the experi-ment, and the participants browsed the website at their leisure. TheKorea–U.S. FTA was selected as the stimulus because it was a highly contro-versial and widely discussed topic in Korea at the time of the experiment. TheKorea–U.S. FTA is a trade agreement between the United States and theRepublic of Korea. The treaty was signed on June 30, 2007, and the agree-ment was ratified by both the U.S. Congress and the South Korean NationalAssembly in 2011. The experiment was conducted after the Korea–U.S. FTAagreement but before both nations’ congressional ratification. Under theFTA, most of the tariffs for consumer and industrial products tradedbetween the two countries would be eliminated within 10 years. The opinionof Koreans toward the FTA has been divided. Proponents of the FTA haveargued that the FTA would lead to increased exports to the United States,create more jobs, and strengthen the structure of the Korean economy inthe long run. Opponents have predicted that U.S. agricultural exports toKorea would double after the FTA, causing massive job losses and destroy-ing Korea’s agricultural sector (‘‘South Korea=US,’’ 2007).
Design and the Website
The main page was an introductory page describing the process of the Korea–U.S. FTA. The page had two sets of hypertext links based on positive head-lines and negative headlines. The participants were free to choose an articleprovided that they chose only one (i.e., one positive or negative article). There
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were six sets of positive and negative articles, that is, there were 12 pages(excluding the main page). Thus, each participant selected six news articles.Figure 1 shows the FTA topics and headlines of the articles: the ratificationof the FTA law by the National Assembly, the pharmaceutical industry,the automobile industry, the agricultural sector, the textile industry, andthe copyright law. These were the most widely discussed topics with respect
FIGURE 1 Stimulus website structure. Note. FTA¼ free trade agreement.
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to the Korea–U.S. FTA because many believed that the FTA would impactthese areas the most. The news articles were drawn from several Korean news-papers and were edited to fit the experimental condition. The lengths of all thearticles were similar, and the degree of positive and negative valences of thenews articles was counterbalanced after a pretest with 15 graduate students.1
As shown in Figure 1, the headlines of the articles, which served as the hyper-text in the experiment, were long enough to allow the participants to gauge thevalence of each article. All news articles consisted of five to six paragraphs.The first two to three paragraphs were introductory paragraphs that dis-cussed the impact of FTA on the industries that the article featured, suchas the pharmaceutical and automobile industries. The same introductoryparagraphs were used for both positive and negative articles about the sametopic, and the remaining paragraphs were manipulated as positive or nega-tive. The articles were then uploaded on the experimental website, and theparticipants’ navigation history was recorded by web-tracking software.
Variables
Valence of articles viewed. The valence of articles that the participantschose to read at each navigation stage was determined (1 for positive articlesand 0 for negative ones).
Attitudes toward the FTA. Attitudes toward the FTA were measuredtwo times (before and after browsing the website) with a single questionaddressing the extent to which the participants supported the Korea–U.S.FTA. In both cases, the answer was rated on a 9-point Likert-type scaleranging from 1 (extremely opposed) to 9 (extremely supportive).
Participants and Procedure
The participants included 130 undergraduate students majoring in masscommunication at three universities in Seoul, Korea. The participantsreceived extra credit for their participation in this online study. E-mailinvitations were sent out to the participants, and the experiment began whenthey clicked the link in the e-mail. The participants were first asked abouttheir preformed perception of the FTA. This experiment was jointly conduc-ted with another experiment, and thus the participants were asked to browse
1A posttest with 30 students after the experiment confirmed that the valence manipulation
was adequate. The means for the six positive articles ranged from 3.73 to 4.1, and those for the
six negative articles ranged from 1.63 to 2.46. These articles were rated on a 5-point Likert-type
scale ranging from 1 (very negative) to 5 (very positive).
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a website about a political candidate for approximately 5 minutes beforebrowsing the FTA website. The website about the political candidate, whichwas not relevant to the FTA, served as a filler website. This filler websitewas used as a buffer between the FTA attitude question and the navigationbecause browsing the FTA website immediately after answering the ques-tion addressing FTA perceptions would have influenced the participants’navigation patterns. After their navigation, the participants were againasked to indicate their attitudes toward the FTA. In addition, they wereasked to provide some demographic information.
All the experimental procedures were conducted online, and the answersto the questions were collected through an online survey instrument pro-vided by Surveymonkey.com, a commercial online survey website.
RESULTS
In the experiment, 130 participants selectively read six consecutive news arti-cles (either positive or negative articles) about the Korea–U.S. FTA. Amonga total of 780 selections (130 participants� 6 selections), 400 (51.3%) werepositive, and 380 (48.7%) were negative, indicating little difference in theparticipants’ preferences between positive and negative articles. Figure 2shows the probability of positive articles being selected by stage (a cubiccurve). In terms of the participants’ attitudes, the mean score was 5.10 ona 9-point scale, and the standard deviation was 1.55, indicating that theparticipants represented a balanced group in terms of their attitudes (posi-tive vs. negative) toward the FTA.
To address the first two research questions, we employed the generalizedestimating equation method, which is useful for taking repeated measure-ments with a binary dependent variable. Used for estimating the parametersof a generalized linear model, this method facilitates the prediction of categ-orical variables (Park, 2006). We conducted a logit-transformation on thedependent variable (1¼ positive, 0¼ negative), which considered the naturallogarithm of the probability of selecting a positive article over a negativeone. Another characteristic of the dependent variable was its repeated struc-ture because we obtained data at six different time points (stages). Suchrepeated measures entail some autocorrelation problems because they arenot independent of each other. The generalized estimating equation methodallows for autocorrelation between dependent measures by specifying thefirst-order autoregressive model. Table 1 shows the results of this analysis.The dependent variable was the logit of the probability of selecting apositive article over a negative one. The independent variables were thestage (six time points for the article selection) and attitudes toward the
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FTA. The overall navigation pattern reflected a cubic curve (Figure 2).Therefore, a cubic equation including stage3 (Stage� Stage� Stage), stage2
(stage� stage), and stage variables was created for the analysis.The results of the analysis are presented in Table 1. The stage variable
was not a significant predictor, indicating that the probability of selectinga positive (or negative) article did not vary across the six stages. The firstresearch question referred to the effects of the participants’ attitudes on theirselection of news articles. As shown in Table 1, their attitudes was a signifi-cant predictor of their selection of news articles (b¼ .590, p< .001,
FIGURE 2 The percentage of participants who selected positive news articles at each step
(N¼ 130).
TABLE 1
The Analysis Results Predicting Page Selection
b SE Wald p exp(b)
Stage �.544 .9040 .362 .547 .580
Stage2 �.097 .4425 .048 .827 .908
Stage3 .023 .0512 .209 .647 1.024
Attitude .590 .1525 14.956 .000 1.803
Attitude�Stage �.464 .2277 4.148 .042 .629
Attitude�Stage2 .179 .0939 3.636 .057 1.196
Attitude�Stage3 �.018 .0103 3.175 .075 .982
Note. Positive¼ 1, negative¼ 0.
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exp(b)¼ 1.803), indicating that every 1-unit increase in their attitudestoward the FTA increased the probability of a positive article being selectedrather than a negative article by 1.803 times. The participants with positiveattitudes toward the FTA were more likely to select positive articles, indicat-ing their selective exposure tendencies.
The second research question addressed whether the navigation patternwould vary according to the navigator’s attitudes. The six stages and atti-tudes had significant interaction effects on the participants’ selection ofnews articles, indicating that the participants’ navigation patterns variedaccording to their attitudes. To visually demonstrate the interaction effects,we considered five points representing five levels of attitudes: M (mean),Mþ 1SD (standard deviation), Mþ 2SD, M� 1SD, and M� 2SD. We thenproduced navigation plots for these five levels of attitudes for each stage.Figure 3 shows these plots, which indicate that the participants tended toselect positive news articles at the beginning but that they promptly adjustedtheir selections based on their attitudes. They continued to select those newsarticles that corresponded to their attitudes. The selection gap between theparticipants with different attitudes increased until the fifth stage and ulti-mately converged. More specifically, supporters (Mþ 1SD and Mþ 2SD)tended to select more positive articles at first and then fluctuated betweenstrongly positive and somewhat positive articles. Neutrals (M) chose posi-tive articles at first but shifted toward negative articles over time, ultimatelystriking a balance between positive and negative articles. Opponents(M� 1SD and M� 2SD) started with a balanced selection of positive andnegative articles but increasingly emphasized negative articles over time.Overall, the participants tended to click headlines that corresponded to theirinitial attitudes but showed some cross-cutting tendencies over time.
The third research question addressed changes in attitudes after navigation.We examined whether the participants’ selective or cross-cutting exposurewould influence their attitudes over time. The type of exposure depended onthe participant’s existing attitudes and navigation patterns. We created a tablecategorizing three types of initial attitudes and three types of selections (seeTable 2). The three types of attitudes included supporters, neutrals, and oppo-nents. We classified 41 participants with a score of 5 (which was transformedinto 0) on the 9-point attitude scale as neutrals. In addition, we classified 48participants with a score higher than 5 as supporters and 41 with a score lowerthan 5 as opponents. We classified the types of selections into positive, nega-tive, and balanced selections. In this study, a balanced selection included anequal number of positive and negative articles, a positive selection includedmore positive articles than negative ones, and a negative selection includedmore negative articles. By considering the participants’ existing attitudesand selection types, we divided the participants into five groups: selective
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supporters, cross-cutting supporters, neutrals, cross-cutting opponents, andselective opponents. For example, selective supporters were those participantswho initially supported the FTA and selectively read positive articles.Cross-cutting supporters, although supportive of the FTA, made a balancedselection of articles or read more negative articles than positive ones. We con-ducted a 5 (five groups)� 2 (two types of attitudes toward the FTA before andafter navigation) repeated measures analysis of variance. The third researchquestion focused on the interaction effects of the five groups and attitudesbefore and after navigation. Figure 4 shows the results, which indicatesignificant interaction effects, F(4, 109)¼ 10.75, p< .001. First, the attitudesof the five groups converged to the middle after their navigation.We examined
FIGURE 3 Probability of positive page selection at each stage (positive¼ 1, negative¼ 0).
Note. The five plots represent the navigation patterns for the cases with different attitude levels.
TABLE 2
Five Groups Based on Their Attitudes Toward the FTA and Article Selection
Supporters
(n)
Neutrals
(n)
Opponents
(n) Total
Positive selection Selective supporters (29) Neutrals (13) Cross-cutting
opponents (7)
49
Balanced selection Cross-cutting supporters (11) Neutrals (13) Cross-cutting
opponents (8)
32
Negative selection Cross-cutting supporters (8) Neutrals (15) Selective
opponents (26)
49
Total 48 41 41 130
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the simple effects of initial attitudes and found significant differences betweensupporters, neutrals, and opponents. However, the results for attitudes afternavigation indicate no significant differences between the three groups. Thoseparticipants who initially supported the FTA showed more negative attitudesafter their navigation, whereas those who initially opposed it showed morepositive attitudes. Neutrals were least likely to show some changes in their sup-port level for the FTA after their navigation. The results for the simple effectsindicate significant differences in attitudes toward the FTA between thegroups before their navigation. Selective supporters remainedmore supportiveof the FTA than neutrals, whereas cross-cutting supporters and neutralsshowed similar levels of support. Similarly, cross-cutting=selective opponentsand neutrals showed similar levels of support after their navigation. As shown
FIGURE 4 Attitude change before and after navigation for five groups (repeated analysis of
variance).
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in Figure 4, the attitudes of cross-cutting supporters, neutrals, and selectiveopponents converged after their navigation.
DISCUSSION
This study examined how Internet news readers navigate news articles fromthe perspectives of selective exposure and cross-cutting exposure. This studyanalyzed the effect of individual attitudes on their navigation patterns andthen the navigation effects on attitude changes.
The role of the Internet in political deliberation has been a subject of muchdebate. Some have emphasized that the Internet can weaken the idea of delib-eration by facilitating exposure to similar points of view (Sustein, 2001; VanAlstyne & Brynjolfsson, 1997), whereas others have argued that the Internet-based media environment promises an inviting environment for deliberativedemocracy (McKenna & Bargh, 2000). The Internet provides users withdiverse opportunities to listen to and interact with individuals who possess dif-ferent opinions (Weger & Askhus, 2003) and facilitates the free exchange ofdissenting views (Stromer-Galley, 2003). The results of this study indicate thatindividuals who have already formed an opinion regarding an issue are likelyto read only those news articles that reflect their own beliefs and opinions. AsChaffee and his colleagues (2001) stressed, the user-controlled nature of theInternet has allowed users to selectively expose themselves to news articlesthat provide support for their opinions. In this study, there was selectiveexposure among the participants who had preformed attitudes toward theFTA, and this result provides support for selective exposure on the Internet(Jonas et al., 2005; Knobloch-Westerwick & Meong, 2009; Stroud, 2008).
Neutrals, who had ambivalent opinions on the FTA, navigated bothpositive and negative articles. For them, this cross-cutting navigation mighthave been a process by which they gathered information on and formed opi-nions about the FTA. From the selective exposure perspective, neutralsnavigated more freely, exposing themselves to both positive and negativenews articles, because those articles did not induce cognitive dissonanceamong these participants. Cross-cutting reflects an individual’s exposureto opposite perspective, and thus, true cross-cutting occurs only amongthose with strong opinions. Thus, the nature of neutrals’ cross-cutting wasdifferent from that of opinionated groups. In this regard, future researchshould provide an in-depth analysis of cross-cutting among neutrals.
In terms of navigation patterns, most of the participants preferredpositive articles to negative ones at the beginning, but over time theyadjusted their selections based on their attitudes. This selective exposureto news articles (which corresponded to their attitudes) intensified until
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the fifth stage and then finally showed some convergence. This suggests thatselective exposure is a general phenomenon for online users. However, whenthe participants acquired enough knowledge from articles supporting theirinitial attitudes, they showed some cross-cutting exposure in the final stage.Neutrals (those participants with no clear opinions) navigated both types ofarticles throughout the experiment. This implies that cross-cutting exposureas well as selective exposure occurs on the Internet, which must be anoptimistic sign for our society.
It is difficult to make concrete conclusions about continuous selectiveexposure patterns with the results of this study because this study is oneof the first to show how selective exposure can occur when individuals makea number of choices with respect to a particular news topic. In online newsenvironments in which related news articles are linked through hypertext,individuals make continuous article choices to gather information on vari-ous news topics. In this regard, future research should pay more attentionto selective exposure in multiple stages to provide a better understandingof the nature of selective exposure.
The participants showed substantial differences in their attitudes towardFTA before navigation. However, after their navigation, these differencesnarrowed significantly. Supporters showed lower levels of support, whereasopponents showed higher levels of support. This change in attitudes wasmore prominent among those who engaged in cross-cutting.
Exposure to opposing views can induce two types of effects: cognitive andaffective effects (Manin, 1987; Mutz, 2002). Cross-cutting exposure tends toincrease an individual’s awareness of the rationale for opposing views andincrease his or her intimacy with counterparts, resulting in political toler-ance for the other side. Such a process represents an important componentof deliberative democracy. The results of this study empirically demonstratethat this may also hold for the Internet environment. Supporters and oppo-nents softened their strong positions in favor of the opposing view afterviewing the online articles. Although both groups continuously chose andnavigated news articles that corresponded with their preformed attitudes,cross-cutting in the early stages of navigation exposed these groups toopposing views and helped to adjust their level of support.
The results indicated some differences in attitude change between thosewho engaged in selective exposure and cross-cutting exposure. In this study,supporters and opponents were divided into two groups: Those who engagedin cross-cutting and those who did not. The effect of cross-cutting was notprominent for the opponent groups. The level of support shown by theopponent group (which engaged in both selective exposure and cross-cutting)was similar to that of the neutral group after navigation. However, there wassome cross-cutting effect for supporters. Among supporters, those who
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engaged in cross-cutting showed a level of support similar to that of the neu-tral group after navigation, but those who engaged in selective exposureshowed a higher level of support than the neutral group. This indicates thatsupporters who engaged in cross-cutting showed a higher level of conver-gence toward the middle after their navigation than those who did not.
In sum, this study verifies the existence of selective exposure among thosewith preformed attitudes, providing support for Festinger’s (1957) disson-ance theory in the context of hypertext choice on the Internet. The studyalso provides some evidence of convergence for attitudes on the Internet.In contrast to many scholars’ concerns about the process of group polariza-tion on the Internet (Jones, 2002; Sustein, 2001), the attitude convergenceand the effect of cross-cutting for supporters demonstrate some potentialof the Internet as a true public sphere in which diverse views are exchanged,which can result in the exchange of more reasoned arguments and recip-rocity among diverse groups and thus deliberation.
The study has some limitations. The order in which the six FTA-relatedarticles were presented was not controlled for in the experiment, and becauseof the nature of the online experiment, it was difficult to gauge the level ofattention the participants paid to articles while being exposed to the onlinewebsite. Thus, future research should examine the effects of presentationorder and the level of attention during the online experiment. In addition,the immediate effects of navigation on attitude change were examined, butit remains unclear whether such effects would hold for longer periods. Thus,future research should consider longer news media exposure and examinelong-term effects of navigation. In this study, selective exposure was assumedas a dichotomous phenomenon involving either selective exposure orcross-cutting. In this regard, future research should consider more sophisti-cated research designs and measurement schemes to determine whether selec-tive exposure and cross-cutting can occur simultaneously because there maybe some moderating and mediating variables that can facilitate selectiveexposure or cross-cutting, or both. Recent studies of selective exposure havetypically focused on identifying contingent variables, and thus futureresearch should examine the effects of information utility (Atkin, 1973),information relevancy, and the affective component of information (Stroud,2008) on selective exposure in the context of hypertext navigation.
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