Incidental exposure to political content in sports media: antecedents and effects on political discussion and participation

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.