The Values of Print: Affordances and Sensemaking for Newspaper Consumers

ABSTRACT

This paper examines print affordances based on Gibson’s conceptualization. We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with long-time newspaper subscribers to understand three kinds of affordances: physical affordances germane to the print medium, perceived affordances utilized by experienced readers, and relational affordances generated in the transactional process of news consumption. We argued that affordances offer a theoretical lens to understand print, or any other media, and in how they facilitate information acquisition in news consumption and sensemaking of the consumption process. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecological affordance
• media affordance
• print media
• perceived affordances
• physical affordances
• relational affordances
• news sensemaking

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Randy Picht and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute for its grant on this project. We also thank Dr. Isa Jahnke and her Information Experience Lab for helping with data collection.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.