问答题

Most Americans spend far more of their leisure time with the mass media than in any other occupation. In addition, most of us hear, see, or read some of the media while engaged in other activities. Thus an extremely large number of our waking hours are spent with the mass media. Of all the media, television is clearly dominant, with newspapers a close second, at least as a source of news and other information. Our exposure to all media is important, however, because all of them contribute materials for the construction of that world in our heads. For most people, increased use of one medium does not decrease use of another. In fact, in certain cases, and especially for certain purposes, the more one uses one medium, the more likely one is to use others. There are various factors that can cause you to expose yourself to the media selectively, avoiding much of the material with which you disagree. Some of that selective exposure is probably due to the psychological pressure you feel to avoid the discomfort caused by confrontation with facts and ideas contrary to your beliefs, attitudes, or behavior. However, some selective exposure is not due to the pressure for consistency but to other factors, such as your age, education, and even the area in which you live and the people with whom you associate. Quite a different sort of factor that affects your media experiences is the social context of exposure: whether you are alone or with others when you are exposed to a medium; whether you are at home, at the office, in a theater, and so on. These contexts are as much as a potential part of the message you will form as film images on the screen or words on the page. In addition, that social context affects—both directly and indirectly—the media and the media content to which you become exposed. New friends or colleagues get you interested in different things. Other members of the family often select media content that you would not have selected, and you become exposed to it. These various factors have so much influence on your media exposure that so little of that exposure is planned. The last sentence of the passage indicates that one’’s exposure to the media is__________________.