How Cross-Cutting News Exposure Relates to Candidate Issue Stance Knowledge, Political Polarization, and Participation: The Moderating Role of Political Sophistication

Abstract

This article seeks to improve our understanding of the role of cross-cutting news exposure in a democratic process-that is, whether and how exposure to counter-attitudinal news information is associated with citizens' political issue knowledge, attitudinal polarization, and engagement in political activities. The results provide 2 contrasting roles of exposure to dissonant media outlets. On the one hand, results offer some evidence that dissonant media use contributes to gaining issue knowledge and inspiring citizen participation. On the other hand, some findings suggest that it reinforces, rather than attenuates, citizens' attitudinal polarization. Thus, the findings from this study indicate mixed effects of exposure to counter-attitudinal news information.