The Selective Exposure Self- and Affect-Management (SESAM) Model

2014/06/18 by Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, Silvia Knobloch‐Westerwick · 199 citations
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Advertising #Affect (linguistics) #Business #Cognitive psychology #Communication #Field (mathematics) #Gender studies #Gender, Feminism, and Media #Impact of Technology on Adolescents #Media Influence and Health #Psychology #Race (biology) #Section (typography) #Social psychology #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1177/0093650214539173

published in Communication Research 42(7), 959-985 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2014/06/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The present contribution aims to advance discussion toward theoretical and methodological shifts in the field by tailoring a media-effects model to selective exposure research. The first section reviews earlier theorizing and highlights media exposure motivations, conceptualizations of media user characteristics, and methodology with an emphasis on exposure measures. The second section develops the Selective Exposure Self- and Affect-Management (SESAM) model, which is based on the selective exposure paradigm and addresses the roles of the self, affect, motivations, and time. The third section illustrates applications of the model with analyses involving messages about race, politics, and health.

Citations

• Reinforcement of the Political Self Through Selective Exposure to Political Messages
• The “Myth” of Media Multitasking: Reciprocal Dynamics of Media Multitasking, Personal Needs, and Gratifications
• Relations among emotion, appraisal, and emotional action readiness.
• A Theory of Social Comparison Processes
• Uses and Gratifications Research
• Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect.
• The Limited Capacity Model of Mediated Message Processing
• Human Aggression
• Beyond pleasure and pain.

Cited by

• Distinguishing Person-Specific from Situation-Specific Variation in Media Use: A Meta-Analysis
• Confirmation Bias, Ingroup Bias, and Negativity Bias in Selective Exposure to Political Information
• When Adolescents’ Self-Worth Depends on Their Social Media Feedback: A Longitudinal Investigation With Depressive Symptoms
• Can fictional stories beat the congeniality bias? Selective exposure to fiction and non-fiction
• Temporal dynamics of media and communication processes: a review of theories and meta-analysis of empirical studies
• How cognitive elaboration fosters knowledge acquisition on social media—a field experiment
• The cognitive benefits of online microtargeted political ads: explaining attitudes, political interest, and campaign knowledge
• The Internalization of a Performance-Oriented Self-Concept Among Adolescents Through Their Favorite Music Artists
• Anti, hostile, and alternative: an exploration of anti-elite attitudes, hostile-media perceptions, and alternative media use in the context of opposition to Covid-19 measures
• Echo Chambers Exist! (But They're Full of Opposing Views)

Related

• Audience Need for Orientation and Media Effects
• Self-reported media exposure
• The Affective Underpinnings of Hostile Media Perceptions
• A social constructivist viewpoint of media effects: extending the social influence model of technology use to media effects
• A Dependency Model of Mass-Media Effects