This dissertation aims to build connections between the previous knowledge about incidental news exposure (INE), media literacy skills, and how people regularly assess news by asking if there is a difference in specific media literacy skills and techniques people report using when encountering news incidentally versus purposefully and their level of trust in the information. Part I is a literature review, covering the small amount of previous research directly answering this topic and making connections between other relevant literature, combining theories and evidence from multiple fields. Part II involves data collection via a survey and analysis of how people experiencing INE and PNC behave and view the news information differently. Results show PNC participants exhibited more engagement and assessment behaviors compared to INE, though there was no substantial difference between heuristic and analytic behaviors. INE participants showed slightly less trust in the news information than PNC participants. Though the lack of participants across information environments limited conclusions, there were some differences between INE and PNC participants in social media. Overall, PNC participants showed more skilled media literacy behaviors and INE participants were more driven by quick and less effortful judgments, which should help inform media literacy research and programs in the future.