A couple of objections–correct me if I’m wrong but Cass Sunstein had no “findings” per se. “The Daily Me” was conjecture, but I failed to see audience studies. I could be wrong (book not in front of me), but I seem to remember “catchy idea and clever phrase” but as with Putnam, now prove it with REAL audience analysis.

And to Jonathan’s point–I really am ready to let’s move off this meme/binary of new information versus confirmation/affirmation of what one already feels. This baby has taken hold across the disciplines (esp. political science), but I say “poppycock.” If this is the best we can do with our understandings of cognitive processes, then we should hang it up. People are simply much more complex thinkers than this. Or I should say, what I think Robert is pointing to here suggests that the process of pursuance, interpretation, rethinking, evaluation, affirmation, contestation is much more of a mental clusterfuck than we give people credit for. And it probably differs by issue. The people Robert is studying–less contestation. But the SAME people over, say, the issue of health care or taxation, perhaps quite a bit more. Again, audience studies, audience studies, audiences studies (said by the guy who largely does textual and production analyses!

Again, nice thoughtful post.