Natalie Jomini Stroud's Niche News offers an excellent discussion of the nature and consequences of selective exposure to partisan news. The relevance and impact of partisan media in contemporary American politics is an open but critical question. Do, for example, Fox News, MSNBC, and the spate of liberal and conservative online media contribute or detract to the political process? Do they invigorate part of the electorate, disseminating relevant political information and inspiring voter turnout? Or do they drive voters farther apart ideologically? Stroud investigates all of these questions and provides some compelling answers.

Stroud spends about half of the book looking at the prevalence of selective exposure to partisan media. To those new to the issue, it may come as a surprise that the frequency of self-selection into partisan media is a matter of some empirical debate. (Indeed, Chapter 2 offers a wonderful review of the extant literature. See pages 30–31 for an explanation of her principal contribution to this literature.) She investigates the frequency of selective exposure in Chapters 3 and 4. All told, Stroud finds that selective exposure is frequent. Indeed, there is convincing evidence that selective exposure occurs across a wide range of media, and that rates of selective exposure are likely on the rise (p. 57). She also finds in Chapter 4 that selective exposure is more prevalent among those more interested in and more knowledgeable about politics.

She spends the second half of the book, contained mostly in Chapters 5 and 6, looking at the consequences of such exposure on candidate choice, turnout, and agenda-setting. For example, in Chapter 6 she demonstrates not only that partisan media convey different issue priorities, but also that patterns of partisan media use are tied to perceptions of issue importance.

Stroud's attempt to link selective exposure to polarization is one of the most interesting discussions in the book (pp. 130–136). The level and nature of partisan divisions in the public are contested in the scholarship, but we know even less about how partisan media might contribute to any divides in the electorate. Stroud finds, to that effect, that consuming like-minded media during the 2004 election increased the gap in respondents' approval of Bush and Kerry; she leverages a number of panels in the National Annenberg Election Study to control for candidate approval both pre and post various events in the campaign. As with a lot of the analysis, however, she finds also that polarized citizens select into like-minded media. As such, selective exposure is both a cause and consequence of polarization in citizen attitudes. More work is needed in this area, but Stroud helps move that discussion forward.

Stroud's analysis is highly recommendable for several reasons. For one, she is a clear and concise writer, and she is very honest about the limitations in any particular empirical analysis. She presents her results in a way that is very comprehensible, putting most of the heavy-duty multivariate results in chapter-specific appendices. Because of that, Stroud's analysis is a great example of how to use and discuss a complex set of results. The book is a serious academic work, but it is also accessible to a wide audience.

Stroud's chief contribution comes from an honest discussion of the causal direction of her analyses. As noted, in what way are partisan media and polarization in the electorate linked? Moreover, does exposure to partisan media drive turnout and attention to issues? Or does propensity to vote and concern for certain issues drive citizens to particular media? Or, more likely, is it both—a “spiral effect,” as she calls it? Stroud pays careful attention to such causality concerns, using panel data whenever possible. The existence of such a complex relationship between partisan selective exposure and political behavior is tough to study, and her results often show both causal pathways at work.

To compensate, Stroud also leverages a number of original experiments that are quite interesting. For example, her coding of agenda-setting revealed a number of instances where partisan outlets highlighted polling data on candidates' perceived ability to handle certain problems (pp. 159–164). She speculated that such coverage might cue partisans to the issues they should list as important. Her study exposed respondents to a news article about McCain and Obama during the 2008 election. For half of the respondents, a statement was added that outlined how Obama polled as more skilled on economic issues while McCain polled higher on foreign policy. Did the inclusion of such statements impact how Republicans and Democrats evaluated both issues? She found that the foreign policy cue helped divide perceptions: Democrats exposed to the treatment were less likely to name foreign policy as the most important problem; Republicans receiving the cue were more likely to mention foreign policy. She concludes, to the extent that partisan media highlight different issue agendas it can have a direct effect on voters' identification of key issues.

Stroud finishes with a discussion of the implications of her analyses. She spends the final few pages giving the reader some recommendations on how to use the news (and how media outlets might consider changes in the way they present the news). Studies of multifaceted issues such as partisan gridlock or selective exposure of news are difficult. One struggles with what to recommend in part because there is no outcome that we can all accept as ideal. At the same time, Stroud's balanced conclusion reads as a bit unsatisfying. She says, for example, “a desirable media system would maximize the benefits of partisan media exposure while minimizing the consequences” (p. 178). And also, “the news media could be more reflective about how they present the news” (p. 181). These are true, but uninspiring.

All told, whether selective exposure is good or bad for the political system does indeed depend. Stroud is probably correct that the best we can all do is be more aware of the biases we have about the news we consume. In Stroud's telling, the negatives of selective exposure outweigh the positives, but she hedges a bit on this final point. There are no easy answers, no capstone set of recommendations.

These minor quibbles aside, this is a book that all scholars of political communication should read and own. Stroud critically addresses a serious question in our contemporary political environment, she draws very reasonable inferences from her data, and she is careful to pay heed to the complexities of the topic. This book is incredibly thought provoking, and it was a delight to read.