Photographic depiction of normative deviance and informational utility as predictors of protest news exposure, related perceptions, and story comprehension

News stories about protests are often accompanied by footage or photos depicting dramatic or violent acts that occur during the protest, even though such acts may be rare or insignificant. Although the assumption is that visual depiction of normative deviance draws the attention of audience members, thus facilitating learning about the social issue, extant research does not suggest this will always be the case. The current study found that greater informational utility, not photographic depiction of deviance, increased selective exposure to a protest story in a Web news environment. However, when the protesters were depicted as more, rather than less, deviant, participants reported less positive perceptions of the protesters. In turn, less positive perceptions of the protesters were associated with less attention to and, ultimately, lower comprehension of the accompanying news story. Implications for learning about political and social issues in the current news environment are discussed.