Procrastination and the Shifting Political Media Environment: An Experimental Study of Media Choice Affecting a Democratic Outcome.

An four-wave experimental study (N = 116) was conducted to assess the influence of a shifting media environment (i.e., varied news:entertainment ratio) on news consumption, perceptions of a quality media experience, and the ability to articulate a political stance. In addition, the concept of procrastination is introduced as a potentially important individual-difference variable, with assessments being offered for both its main effects and its ability to moderate the influence of media environment. The media environment manipulation produced strong, but opposing main effects on news consumption and our criterion democratic outcome. Procrastination's main effect was on media experience perceptions (i.e., did your media consumption aid you in completing the assigned task?), and there was also a media environment-by-procrastination interaction on this portion of the hypothesized model. Discussion is offered for taking a more nuanced approach to assessments of the changing media environment and its impact on political media effects research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]