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?:abstract
  • The contemporary digital high-choice news environment has invigorated scholarly interest in how people navigate an increasingly complex information landscape (see Stroud, 2011). This body of research has shown the prevalence of selective-exposure and selective-avoidance processes as individuals decide what information to consume. Individuals' patterns of media use can be explained in part by their need for cognitive closure (NFC), the tendency to seize on information that provides closure and to freeze on closure once it has been attained (e.g., Van Hiel and Mervielde, 2002; Webster and Kruglanski, 1997). Despite the growing body of research on this concept, the process by which NFC affects patterns of political-information sourcing is not yet fully clear. Drawing on general-population survey data from the 2012 Long-Term Online Tracking Component of the German Longitudinal Election Studies (N = 1,041), this study explores the effects of NFC on the general appeal of politics and individuals’ use of different types of media for their political information. Our hypotheses are grounded in recent research suggesting that NFC: increases selective avoidance of information more than it promotes selective exposure (Hart et al., 2012); impedes curious information seeking (Litman, 2010); and leads to a preference for structured, cognitively effortless activities (Vermeir and Geuens, 2006). Specifically, we hypothesized that high NFC reduces general political interest and reliance on cognitively demanding types of media for political information (internet, magazines, and newspapers) while it has less bearing on the use of cognitively undemanding media types (television). Structural equation modeling shows that individuals high in NFC avoid using high-effort media channels for political information acquisition while they are not any less like to turn to television as a low-effort medium. We further find that NFC depresses people’s general interest in politics and this effect on political interest partly mediates the effects of NFC on media use. The results show that NFC has a substantial effect on citizens’ consumption of political information, adding to previous findings on the role of basic (“Big Five”) personality traits and the need for cognition in the individual political cognition and preference formation process. (xsd:string)
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  • (GLES) (xsd:string)
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  • GLES-Bibliography (xsd:string)
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  • 4. Fassung, Februar 2015 (xsd:gyear)
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  • 2014 (xsd:gyear)
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  • 2014 (xsd:gyear)
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  • Need for closure, political interest, and the consumption of political information (xsd:string)
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  • inproceedings (xsd:string)
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  • 5. European Communication Conference of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) (xsd:string)
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  • Bibsonomy (xsd:string)
  • In 5. European Communication Conference of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), 2014 (xsd:string)
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  • 12.11.-15.11.2014 (xsd:gyear)
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  • German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) (xsd:string)
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  • 2014 (xsd:string)
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