Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/June 2009 Effects of Priming Social Goals on Personal Interest in Television News Francesca R. Dillman Carpentier Research indicates that personal interests drive news consumption, such that individuals neglect news items that are not of obvious personal relevance. This study tested whether an extrinsic social goal might increase personal interest in news through increased acquisition of, and perceived attention to news information, irrespective of pre-existing interest in the given topic. Results showed the prime increased information acquisition, as well as perceived attention to news. The prime also worked directly and indirectly through perceived attention to influence news interest in the predicted direction. Applications of findings for news teases and other promotional messages are considered. Because the number of media choices has markedly increased since the days of the big three television networks, consumers are less restricted by news source availability in choosing news that most interests them. Perhaps because of the increase in choices, consumers are now more likely to select news that is of personal interest rather than stories in the news agenda that traditional gatekeepers determine to be important (Althaus & Tewksbury, 2002; Tewksbury, 2003, see McCombs & Shaw, 1972 for agenda setting). This trend implies that consumers might avoid news that is not of obvious personal relevance. As Tewksbury (2003) suggests, selection of news based primarily on personal significance might impact the nation’s democratic health, in that individuals might become ill-informed about issues of public importance. Therefore, media selectivity research is paramount to understanding how an individual’s motivations to attend to certain news stories are shaped by internal, as well as external forces. This investigation tests how well an outside force—an extrinsic epistemic motivation— can influence interest in a news story and trigger information-gathering behavior in an otherwise personally irrelevant topic. Francesca R. Dillman Carpentier (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests include psychological processing of media, media effects and media selection motivations. © 2009 Broadcast Education Association Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 53(2), 2009, pp. 300–316 DOI: 10.1080/08838150902908114 ISSN: 0883-8151 print/1550-6878 online 300