Selective exposure means that you expose yourself to those events or developments you're already familiar with. If you're PML-N fan you don't usually expose yourself to PPP meetings or events. That is you strengthen your already antecedent perception all the more to the exclusion to other perceptions.
Selective perception means that even when you expose yourself to selective exposure you try to pursue only those developments or events that you're at home with. Since you don't expose yourself to other perceptions you get yourself confirmed or strengthened in your own persistent views.
Finally, selective retention means that you retain only such perceptions which again are antecedent to your previous perceptions.
In any case, the differences wrought by exposing yourself to different views are great, even monumental. This is seen in the respective stance of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi on the federal part of the Government of India Act, 1935-1940.
Jinnah uses to expose himself to all sorts of document, word by word and formulated his stance in the light of his readings. Hence during 1935-1937 he lambasted the federal part of the 1935 Act for conceding only 2 Percent responsibilities to Indians at the centre and got the All India Muslim League Bombay session in April 1936. To pass an anti federal part of the 1935 constitution. This session was presided over by Jinnah's pro congress nominee, Sir Wazeer Hasan of Lucknow, till then the longest surviving Muslim League general secretary since the 1920s.
After the enforcement of the 1935 Act Jinnah found that the implementation of the federal part and its silence has resulted in "culturicide" of Muslims all the way and he made this an issue against the setting up of a federal part. Jinnah howled against the federal part of 1935 Act on this basis from Lucknow Oct 1937 via Karachi (Oct 1938) and Patna (Dec 1938) to Lahore (March 1940) finally resulted in the HMG's August 8th 1940 statement suspending the federal part and pledging to consult all political parties before setting up a constitutional assembly.
Thus, we may see Jinnah's success in getting his demand accepted was only because he was used to exposing himself to all sorts of communication and to constitutional documents in particular.
As against Jinnah Gandhi confessed not to have read the 1935 constitution and that had it done so he would've joyously accepted the 1935 Act thus he lost an opportunity to take a more rational stance on the 1935 Act. That cost him a good deal of political loss.
In Jinnah's case he even read reviews in the Hindu of distant Madras wherein he corrected its story about Rutten Bai's marriage and dowry based on a Muslim journalist's biography of Jinnah and titled "Meet Mr. Jinnah" (1943). He told the editor and reviewer that Rutten Bai has walked out of her parents house in the sari she wore and an umbrella to shade her from the scorching sun in April 1918 Bombay.
The difference wrought by exposing yourself to various exposures may also be seen in the case of Marxist exponent Prof Hamza Alvi. When he came across by Misaq-e-Madina by chance in his readings, he exploded with undue praise in his columns, and later devoted one whole piece to designating the implications of Misaq-e-Madina and its implications for non-Muslims within the grand concept of a Muslim Ummah in the republican Madina and said that it could be a base and bases for a Muslim Ummah in Pakistan today and years to come.
Researchers at Harvard in the early 1960s have, with a theoretical approach to presentation of a mixed discourse to a non-selective audience. The order of presentation shows that any sort of discourse holds the audience spell bound for the first seven minutes. After that the audience spell wanes and the last seven minutes bring back the spell once again. Hence if you have to make a point in your discourse you should try to spell it out in the first seven minutes with the body of your discourse confined to the next seven minutes. Then you should try to conclude your argument with a flush and finish in the last few minutes. This is the theoretically model that speakers should follow in presenting their discourses.
Noise is another basic concept that hampers effective communication between its origin and effective delivery. Noise means that you're formulating your communication in a language that is not in mundane terms and the communicant is able to understand. For instance Jinnah spelled out his concept of Muslim nationhood to the masses or communicates language when he called it a nation with his own culture and civilization, language and literature, sense of values etc he was speaking the language of the masses who could test him in their hearts and homes and therefore understand him and hence he got an astonishing positive response. As against him Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, in his tour of the frontier after he had setup the Interim Government at New Delhi in October 1946 was unable to communicate with the tribal leaders and masses when he was speaking of Indian nationalism and united India because those concepts were far, far away from the tribal leaders and masses mind. Hence he failed to get a positive response and had to return highly frustrated and discomforted and was forced by Lord Wavell, the Viceroy, to include the Muslim League nominees in the Interim Government. This shows how important a part Noise plays in changing unintended developments of course, from the communicators view point.
Likewise, Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi's adverse reference to Muslims as "a body of converts" during the marathon Jinnah-Gandhi talks in Bombay in October 1946 was hugely resisted by Muslims in favor of Jinnah's Muslim Ummah concept. The Muslims now understood the ploys utilized by non league Muslims and by non-Muslims to undercut their quest for Pakistan. Thus VC G.M Sayed ploy to double against the official Muslims league candidates in the name of Muslims rights in Sindh in December 1946 got nowhere and remained frustrated and failed.
As we have seen about, Communication Research works both ways for or against communication understanding, and it depends how you use it and in what ways. These are the first steps we ought to know.
(P.S Danial Lerner's Give Steps "modernization model" eventuating in the all too important empathetic approach has been precluded here for reason of space constraints. It would however be included in future peace - Author.)
(The writer is HEC's Distinguished National Professor and has authored several works on the founding father.)