Data were collected from 93 journalism students before and after the 1978 Ohio gubernatorial election to determine how selectivity in exposure to information was influenced by information utility, fatalism (locus of control), past history of reinforcement, and political party identification. Results showed that past history of reinforcement and perceived utility of information, particularly the latter, were the dominant predictors of respondents' selective exposure to political information. On the other hand, respondents' levels of fatalism and political party identification played little discernible role in predicting information selectivity. The newspaper was the medium consistently chosen as the most important information source, followed by television, magazines, radio, and interpersonal discussions. Campaign literature printed and distributed by political candidates was rated far lower as an information source than might be expected during an election campaign. The observed relationship between information utility and selectivity, and the accompanying interactions between personality and situational variables, supported a conceptualization of selective exposure as a motivational procedure by which individuals asserted control over informational environments to meet informational needs. (RL)