Exploring digital divides in older adults’ news consumption

Abstract

Media structure is rapidly steering towards digital formats and distribution. Meanwhile, many Western societies have ageing populations, where older adults are less digitally active than the population at large. This, combined with the fact that the news media are crucial in providing information and fostering engagement and cohesion, means that the news consumption of older adults deserves scholarly attention. Based on national representative surveys, this article analyses the use of traditional and digital news among people aged 66 to 85 between 2014 and 2018. The findings show that the overall reading of newspapers is decreasing among pensioners of all ages, whereas radio and television news both have rather stable audience shares. Despite the overall decline of newspaper reading, the reading of digital newspapers is becoming more common, and digital newspapers seem, to some extent, to have replaced printed newspapers. Concerning factors explaining digital news consumption among the 65+ group, general Internet habits, sex, and political interest are shown to be the most important.

Tuning Out the News. A Cross-Media Perspective on News Avoidance Practices of Young News Users in Flanders During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Coronavirus in News Text: Critical Discourse Analysis Detik.Com News Portal

“…One of the main functions of the news media is to provide the information necessary to be free and self-regulating, and the consumption of news media is therefore considered essential for the practice of citizen democracy. News media, particularly local news, is also associated with a feeling of connectedness with one's community, and consumption of news creates a sense of identification with society (Bergström, 2020). The influence of the media on public perceptions is more often assumed, although some evidence has been reported Media coverage can greatly shape public attitudes.…”

Gamifying Online News in a Senior Online Community: Insights from Designing and Assessing the Readers’ Experience

“…Moreover, the increasing aging population and the importance of reading news in the daily life of older adults to keep them informed and relate with society (Lin et al 2014) amplify the need to find digitally-mediated strategies to enhance the reader's experience. While the reading activity has been the focus when assessing news consumption (Bergström 2020), other equally important social dimensions inherent to news consumption (i.e., reacting, discussing and relating) have been quite neglected, which are likely to affect the news reading experience.…”

“…There are a number of publications (Barnes 2015;Bergström 2020;Conill and Karlsson 2015) that highlight that an aging audience of online news is growing, especially in terms of the consumption of digital morning and local news, but social anchoring and relatedness to news content is still challenging. Thus, gamification is presented as a way to regularly engage audiences with news content (Conill 2016).…”

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