Complementing or Substituting? News in an Era of Multiple Platforms and Second Screens

ABSTRACT

The article analyzes contemporary patterns of news watching, concentrating on the experience of watching news through multiple platforms and second screens (i.e., not only via TV sets but across additional new media channels), and while performing additional communication activities simultaneously (i.e., media multitasking). The data is based on the documentation of viewings through a dedicated smartphone application by 110 subjects for 4 days. Only 10 of them can be labeled “traditional” viewers who did not report even once on viewing news video content not on television or performing other media activities parallel to viewing. The findings demonstrate that contemporary news consumers are not loyal to television as a medium of exposure to news video content, and have diverse repertoires of news viewing, where new media platforms play a significant role.

Notes

¹ The remaining 6.1% were reports that the viewers did not watch news content at any time that day.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hila Lowenstein-Barkai

Hila Lowenstein is a faculty member in the School of Communication in Ariel University. Her research focuses on television audiences in an age of new media, audience measurement and online political behavior.

Azi Lev-On

Azi Lev-On is a faculty member in the School of Communication in Ariel University. His research focuses on the uses and perceived effects of social media, public participation and deliberation online, online communities, collective action and campaigns, and behaviors in computer-mediated environments.