Navigating cross-media news use

Abstract

The current news media landscape is characterized by an abundance of digital outlets and increased opportunities for users to navigate news themselves. Yet, it is still unclear how people negotiate this fluctuating environment to decide which news media to select or ignore, how they assemble distinctive cross-media repertoires, and what makes these compositions meaningful. This article analyzes the value of different platforms, genres, and practices in everyday life by mapping patterns of cross-media news use. Combining Q methodology with think-aloud protocols and day-in-the-life-interviews, five distinct news media repertoires are identified: (1) regionally oriented, (2) background oriented, (3) digital, (4) laid-back, and (5) nationally oriented news use. Our findings indicate that users do not always use what they prefer, nor do they prefer what they use. Moreover, the boundaries they draw between news and other information are clearly shifting. Finally, our results show that in a world with a wide range of possibilities to consume news for free, paying for news can be considered an act of civic engagement. We argue that perceived news use and users' appreciation of news should be studied in relation to each other to gain a fuller understanding of what news consumption entails in this rapidly changing media landscape.KEYWORDS audience studies; cross-media; digitalization; everyday life; media repertoires; news use; Q methodology; value IntroductionThe current news media landscape is characterized by an abundance of information. Not only has digitalization resulted in a proliferation of available news sources, people now have more power to navigate the news content they want to use, when, where, and how. Therefore, news users increasingly choose their own trajectories across the media landscape and follow the news on multiple media platforms (Picone, Courtois, and Paulussen 2014). Previous studies have tried to map these changes in several ways. One possible avenue measures actual news use, employing quantitative measures such as Web metrics analyses to track news users' clicking behavior (e.g. Boczkowski and Mitchelstein 2013) and surveys to map self-declared usage rates (e.g. Mitchell, Holcomb, and Page 2013;Newman, Levy, and Nielsen 2015;Yuan 2011). Such studies address questions about which news outlets are most frequently used or on what stories users spend the most time. A second strand of research considers shifting user preferences, typically employing qualitative methods including interviews and focus groups to uncover the importance of news in users' everyday lives (e.g. Van Cauwenberge, d'Haenens, and Beentjes 2013;Zerba 2011 Both lines of research then try to establish claims about what current news consumption looks like. However, by focusing on either patterns of perceived news media use or the perceived importance of platforms and outlets, one might not be able to grasp the complexity of news use. For instance, Chyi and Lee (2013) found that online newspaper users might actually prefer the print...

News in Social Media

“…In this regard the interviewees report similar behaviour as has been seen in previous research (Swart, Peters, and Broersma 2016;Yadamsuren and Erdelez 2010). The question arises whether this can really be conceptualised as incidental consumption.…”

“…Online news users also state that incidental news consumption provides information they otherwise would not have received. Some even state that incidental consumption has become a major way of obtaining news (Swart, Peters, and Broersma 2016;Yadamsuren and Erdelez 2010). Young people also claim to get more news using social media than was their primary intent (Hermida et al 2012).…”

What’s New about Whatsapp for News? A Mixed-Method Study on News Outlets’ Strategies for Using WhatsApp

“…Previous studies on WhatsApp and journalism mostly focus on WhatsApp as a tool to communicate. Several studies discuss WhatsApp from an audience perspective, analyzing how users use smartphone messenger applications for news (Newman et al 2018;Swart, Peters, and Broersma 2017) and share and discuss news within a group of friends or colleagues Broersma 2018a, 2018b;Villi and Noguera-Vivo 2017;Goh et al 2017). The Reuters Digital News Report describes how the dynamic that users rely less on Facebook and more on WhatsApp for news is driven by brand images: WhatsApp is associated with "best friend, fun, brings people together" (Newman et al 2018, 13).…”

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“…(Lee & Yang, 2014). De facto, cada vez mais, os utilizadores de media escolhem os seus próprios caminhos na paisagem mediática e seguem as notícias em diferentes plataformas (Swart et al, 2016).…”