Correctives of the Mainstream Media? A Panel Study on Mainstream Media Use, Alternative Digital Media Use, and the Erosion of Political Interest as Well as Political Knowledge

Figures & data

Table 1 Results of the hypothesized model.

	Political interest (T2)	Political knowledge (T2)
Mainstream media use (T1)	0.05	0.03
	(0.03)	(0.04)
Alternative digital media use (T1)	0.14**	−0.09
	(0.05)	(0.06)
Mainstream media use X Alternative digital media use (T1)	−0.06^*(0.02)	0.02 (0.03)
Political interest (T1)	0.80***	0.13***
	(0.03)	(0.03)
Political knowledge (T1)	0.04	0.72***
	(0.03)	(0.03)
Media trust (T1)	−0.01	0.05
	(0.04)	(0.04)
Trust in democracy (T1)	0.06	0.00
	(0.03)	(0.04)
Ideology (T1)	−0.05*	0.04
	(0.02)	(0.03)
Age (T1)	0.00	0.00
	(0.00)	(0.00)
Female (T1)	−0.13	−0.04
	(0.10)	(0.11)
High education (T1)	−0.04	0.20
	(0.10)	(0.11)
Constant	1.09**	−0.20
	(0.39)	(0.43)
Adjusted R^2	0.73	0.63
F	121.90	78.86

Note. Standard errors in parentheses. N = 524. T1 = Time 1. T2= Time 2. Variables that define products are mean centered. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001.

Figure 1. Johnson–Neyman plot for the interaction of mainstream media use and alternative digital media use on political interest.

Note. T1 = Time 1. T2= Time 2.

Table A1 Proofs of measurements for political knowledge.

Variable	(Sub-)Items	Scale	T1	T2	Derived from
Political knowledge		Additive index (0 = low political knowledge to 6 = high political knowledge)	α = .77, M = 3.73, SD = 1.88	α = .78, M = 3.90, SD = 1.90	Carpini and Keeter (1992)
	At which age are you allowed to vote in the Austrian parliamentary elections?	Dichotomous scale (recoded: 0 = any other answer than 16 years, 1 = 16 years
	How many percent of the votes does a party require for entry into the national chamber of the Austrian parliament?	Dichotomous scale (recoded: 0 = any other answer than 4%, 1 = 4%)
	To which party does the following person belong? Hans Peter Doskozil	[recoded: 0 = any other answer than SPÖ, 1 = SPÖ]
	To which party does the following person belong? Gernot Blümel	[recoded: 0 = any other answer than ÖVP, 1 = ÖVP]
	To which party does the following person belong? Ingrid Felipe	[recoded: 0 = any other answer than GREENS, 1 = GREENS]
	To which party does the following person belong? Harald Vilimsky	[recoded: 0 = any other answer than FPÖ, 1 = FPÖ]

Data Availability Statement

Data are available at https://osf.io/n7qpc/?view_only=16c164e221c1462180c0e5347cb6469d.