Effects of Salient News Items on Information Acquisition and Issue Perception

<jats:p>Abstract. A medical news report was manipulated to project either Alabama or Texas as the target region for the outbreak of a new (fictitious) disease. Residents of Alabama and Texas responded to these reports, making the report of the threat to their respective territories relevant to them, while rendering the report of the threat to other regions of the country comparatively irrelevant. Regionally defined issue salience was found to foster superior acquisition of both quantitative and qualitative information of diagnostic value. Issue salience also led to estimates of greater danger to the public and self. It increased the perceived newsworthiness and usefulness of the reports as well. These findings suggest that issue salience motivates attention to, and the acquisition of, diagnostically relevant information that tends to be poorly processed or ignored under conditions of insufficient relevance.</jats:p>