https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5373-234X
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ABSTRACT
News avoidance research has been hampered by confusion about how to define and operationalize the concept. Here we intervene in two ongoing debates: first, what is the relationship between selective news avoidance—that is, when people say they sometimes or often avoid news—and overall rates of news consumption? Second, how well do terms intended to distinguish between types of news avoidance based on underlying motivations, such as “intentional” vs. “unintentional” or “news non-use,” capture the lived experiences of people who consistently consume little news? We examine these questions using the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report survey data from 46 media markets, as well as interviews with 108 people who consume little-to-no news in the UK, US, and Spain. Survey results show that most people who selectively avoid news consume almost as much news as those who do not, while interviews show that distinguishing types of news avoiders based solely on stated motivations poorly captures how media habits develop through a mix of deliberate choices and socially constructed preferences. We conclude that categorizing news avoiders based on motivations risks misunderstanding the kind of news avoidance that matters most from a normative standpoint: that which is linked with low news consumption.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Skovsgaard and Andersen (Citation2022) also propose using the terms “occasional” and “selective” to refer to forms of avoidance that occur from time-to-time or only with respect to certain types of news. The DNR (Newman et al. Citation2022), however, uses “selective” to refer to any self-reported “active” avoidance of news, drawing a contrast with more sustained, or “consistent” behaviors. As we do not engage with the subject of topic-specific avoidance, we use the term “selective” in line with the DNR.
2 This research was approved by the review boards at XXX (reference #R48688), XXX (reference #IERC-01-2017-2018), and XXX (reference #STUDY00006810).
4 The vast majority of participants met the stringent “less-than-once-a-month” requirement for news consumption except for one individual in the UK and 7 in the US who consumed news “less-than-once-a-week.” Eligibility requirements were loosened due to challenges finding enough participants who fit the stricter parameters.
5 In the UK, we focused our recruitment primarily in the areas around Manchester and Leeds and in economically deprived areas on the outer ring of Oxford.
6 In Spain, interviews were conducted in Madrid.
7 US interviews were held in Iowa, mainly in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, to assess the impact of the campaign season on engagement with news.
8 Research firms determined socioeconomic status based on participants’ occupations in the UK, the occupation of the participant’s head of household in Spain, and a combination of household income and education in the US.
9 The correlation between selective news avoidance and overall news consumption in Spain (r = −0.29, p < 0.001), the UK (r = −0.28, p < 0.001), and the US (r = −0.27, p < 0.001) was stronger but only slightly.
10 In Spain, the UK, and the US the percentage who say they “never” or only “occasionally” avoid news yet still only access it less than once a month is 21.6% in Spain, 25.4% in the UK, and 31.4% in the US.