The Effects of Mobile Push Notifications on News Consumption and Learning

Abstract

A number of mobile news apps deploy push notifications that appear on users’ locked screens and alert users to breaking news. Push notifications are theoretically important because they transcend the traditional divide between purposeful and incidental news exposure. We analyze whether push notifications affect people’s reported use of a news app and what people learn about the news. In this paper, we report on the results of a 2 (install the CNN or BuzzFeed News app) × 2 (allow notifications, do not allow notifications) experiment. Approximately two weeks after installing the app, study participants were asked to answer questions about their news use and the topics covered by the mobile notifications. Results revealed that notifications increased self-reported use of the app. There also was evidence of learning from the notifications in some instances, but not all. The research provides empirical evidence of the effects of push notifications, adding to a growing literature on mobile news effects.

Keywords:

• Mobile
• alerts
• smartphone
• push notifications
• passive learning
• incidental exposure

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgments

We are incredibly grateful to Alexis Alizor for her help with the open‐ended data and logging the notifications. We also thank Cameron Lang and Ashley Muddiman for their assistance in evaluating the notifications. We thank the entire Center for Media Engagement team for their assistance throughout this project. We also appreciate the feedback we received on the survey instrument from Claire Wardle, Research Director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism. We also appreciate are grateful for the conversations with Luz Gomez at the Knight Foundation, Sarah Schmalbach and Sasha Koren with The Guardian, James Slezak with The New York Times, Jeff Sonderman with the American Press Institute, and Damon Kiesow and Elaine Duignan with McClatchy.

Notes

1 The four phones used to capture notifications were: (1) an Android phone in Austin, Texas with location enabled; (2) an iPhone in Austin where we did not enable the app to access our location; (3) an iPhone in Austin where we enabled the app to access our location; and (4) an Android phone in Lawrence, Kansas with location enabled. There were several differences in the notifications received.

2 The pre-wave had 471 respondents, and of these: 54 did not have a phone with Internet access; 163 were not interested in downloading an app for the study; 33 indicated that they did not successfully download the app and install notifications as requested; 35 left incoherent responses in open-ended fields (e.g., strings of letters); and 26 did not verify that they had correctly installed the app. Those who remained—160 respondents—were invited to participate in the post-wave. A total of 111 completed the post-wave (69%).

3 The pre-wave had 586 respondents, and of these: 57 did not have a phone with Internet access; 229 were not interested in downloading an app for the study; 63 indicated that they did not successfully download the app and install notifications as requested; 34 left incoherent responses in open-ended fields (e.g., strings of letters); and 68 did not verify that they had correctly installed the app. Those who remained—135 respondents—were invited to participate in the post-wave. A total of 110 completed the post-wave (81%).

4 The pre-wave had 283 respondents, and of these: 24 indicated that they did not successfully download the app and install notifications as requested; and 6 did not verify that they had correctly installed the app. Those who remained—253 respondents—were invited to participate in the post-wave. A total of 199 completed the post-wave (79%).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grant funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to the Center for Media Engagement.