ABSTRACT

Incidental exposure, also called inadvertent exposure, has grown more important in recent years because it has the potential to engage news “dropouts” and expose partisans to the “other side” in political communication. Televised sports media are becoming an important venue for this type of unintentional exposure to political content, with the rise in the last decade of a new age of athlete activism not seen since the ‘60s and ‘70s, and the accompanying perception from some conservatives that sports media be a “politics-free zone.” Relying on a representative, online panel survey of adult internet users in the United States (N = 1,493), this study assesses the extent to which Americans are incidentally exposed to political content in televised sports media. It analyzed demographic, political, and communicative antecedents of such exposure. Results suggest low-but-substantial levels of incidental exposure in sports media, and highlight the demographic, psychographic, and behavioral profiles who report exposure. Results are discussed in light of important public conversations about the role of sports media in the political sphere.

摘要

偶然接触（也称为无意暴露）在近几年变得越来越重要，因为它有可能吸引新闻“辍学”并使党派人士暴露于政治传播的“另一端”。电视体育媒体正成为这种无意间暴露于政治内容的重要场所，因为自从60年代和70年代以来从未出现过运动员激进主义的新时代，在过去的十年中这种现象的兴起，以及一些保守派的随之而来的看法体育媒体应成为“无政治区”。依靠一项针对美国成年人互联网用户的代表性在线面板调查（N = 1,493），该研究评估了美国人偶然接触电视体育媒体中政治内容的程度。它分析了这种暴露的人口，政治和交往的前因。结果表明，体育媒体中的偶然接触水平很低，但水平很高，并突出显示了接触程度的人口统计，心理和行为特征。将根据有关体育媒体在政治领域中作用的重要公众对话来讨论结果。