Scanning vs. thorough processing the news: Antecedents of first- and second-level incidental exposure and the role of the relevance appraisal

The Internet and particularly social media offer opportunities for exposure to political information even when individuals were not looking for such information. This phenomenon is called incidental exposure to news (IE). However, whether individuals thoroughly process such incidentally encountered information (second-level IE) or whether they just skim and skip such information online (first-level IE) is theorized to affect political outcomes differently. In this study, we investigate how crucial political predispositions (i.e., political interest and intentional news avoidance) as well as how perceptions of content characteristics predict the two levels of IE. We conducted two two-wave panel surveys (N ₁ = 524, N ₂ = 897). Across both studies, we found that political interest increases second-level IE over time while intentional news avoidance did not affect the two levels. In Study 2, we found that personal relevance of IE content boosts second-level IE while perceiving content as cross-cutting fosters first-level IE. Implications are discussed.