Self-reported media exposure

This entry is about the use of self-reports to measure media exposure in political communication research. Self-reported media exposure means that participants provide information about their own media consumption. Such measures have important limitations, such as their low accuracy, reliability, and validity. These limitations can affect empirical results by blurring and biasing estimates, thereby restricting our ability to learn about political media use and media effects. The entry introduces remedies, such as improved question formats, and alternatives, such as passive measures. It concludes with a defense of using self-reported media expo-sure in political communication research based on pragmatic reasons (i.e., surveys will be conducted anyways, so why not include media exposure measures), limitations of the alternatives (i.e., costs, participant demands, technical issues), and the inherent qualities of self-reports (i.e., ability to report subjectively important media exposure).