The DOI matches its Crossref record; 35 of the 35 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Immensely Inflated News Audience: Assessing Bias in Self-Reported News Exposure
Abstract
Many studies of media effects use self-reported news expo- sure as their key independent variable without establishing its validity. Motivated by anecdotal evidence that people's reports of their own me- dia use can differ considerably from independent assessments, this study examines systematically the accuracy of survey-based self-reports of news exposure. I compare survey estimates to Nielsen estimates, which do not rely on self-reports. Results show severe overreporting of news exposure. Survey estimates of network news exposure follow trends in Nielsen ratings relatively well, but exaggerate exposure by a factor of 3 on average and as much as eightfold for some demographics. It follows that apparent media effects may arise not because of differences in ex- posure, but because of unknown differences in the accuracy of reporting exposure.
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“Without access to behavioural measures of exposure, studies must instead rely on survey self-reports that are prone to measurement error24,25.”
From Like-minded sources on Facebook are prevalent but not polarizing (2023) · cites this paper as [24]
Citations
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election
Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017) · Journal of Economic Perspectives · doi:10.1257/jep.31.2.211 · Cited by 6,767
The echo chamber is overstated: the moderating effect of political interest and diverse media
Dubois, E., & Blank, G. (2018) · Information, Communication & Society · doi:10.1080/1369118x.2018.1428656 · Cited by 1,055
Media and Political Polarization
Prior, M. (2013) · Annual Review of Political Science · doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-100711-135242 · Cited by 1,125
Self-citationAre people incidentally exposed to news on social media? A comparative analysis
Fletcher, R., & Nielsen, R. K. (2018) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/1461444817724170 · Cited by 738
Media and Political Persuasion: Evidence from Russia
Enikolopov, R., Petrova, M., & Zhuravskaya, E. (2011) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.101.7.3253 · Cited by 568
Metadata
- Authors
- Prior, M.
- Affiliations
- Princeton University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Prior, Markus
- ORCID
- Prior, Markus
- Venue
- Public Opinion Quarterly
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2009
- Volume
- 73
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 130-143
- ISSN
- 0033-362X (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5331
- OpenAlex
- W2109790075
- Cited by
- 561
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 62 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 37 · 2018: 51 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 35 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 34 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 48.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Public Opinion Quarterly (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › News Media Framing and Political Communication
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
- Keywords
- measurement validity, overreporting, Nielsen ratings, network news, media influence, survey accuracy, self-assessment bias, television audience measurement
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