Local news and audiences’ wellbeing: the roles of motivation, satisfaction, and trust

Figures & data

Table 1. Respondents’ Characteristics.

Characteristic		n	%
Gender*	Male	3,104	49
	Female	3,263	51
Age Group	18–24	750	12
	25–34	1,178	19
	35–44	1,101	17
	45–54	1,087	17
	55–64	963	15
	65–74	895	14
	75+	392	6
Location	Major cities	3142	49
	Regional or remote area	3225	51
Total		6,367	100

Gender was measured as a binary variable.

Table 2. Differences in Local News Satisfaction, Trust in Local News and Wellbeing between Users and Non-Users.

		N	M	SD	t
Local news satisfaction	Users	6,052	2.93	0.65	3.52***
	Non-users	120	2.69	0.74
Trust in local news	Users	6,083	3.68	0.94	10.15***
	Non-users	154	2.78	1.09
Personal wellbeing	Users	6,182	7.20	1.62	10.71***
	Non-users	185	5.75	1.82
Community wellbeing	Users	6,173	4.02	0.79	9.76***
	Non-users	174	3.43	0.79

***p < .001.

Table 3. Correlations for Key Study Variables.

		Local news motivation			Local news satisfaction	Trust in local news
		Community	Information	Habitual
Personal wellbeing		.29***	.23***	.11***	.21***	.26***
Community wellbeing		.42***	.35***	.19***	.31***	.32***
Local news motivation	Community		.69***	.48***	.15***	.27***
	Information			.44***	.12***	.27***
	Habitual				.13***	.19***
Local news satisfaction						.46***

***p < .001.

Table 4. OLS regression analysis results.

Dependent variables	Personal wellbeing		Community wellbeing
	β	t	β	t
(Constant)		22.593***		19.460***
Age	0.186	14.603***	0.094	7.739***
Gender (ref. male)	0.035	2.861***	0.013	1.131
Region (ref. major cities)	−0.033	−2.672***	−0.021	−1.737
Satisfaction with local news	0.124	9.023***	0.205	15.734***
Trust in local news	0.137	9.680***	0.116	8.614***
Motivation: Community	0.191	11.015***	0.287	17.480***
Motivation: Information	0.017	1.029	0.082	5.088***
Motivation: Habitual	−0.072	−5.187***	−0.055	−4.201***
Adjusted R^2	.157		.245
F	134.377		233.046

*p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001.

Table A1. Results from a Factor Analysis of the Local News Motivation Measure.

	Community	Information	Habitual	α
To support local businesses and the local community	0.83	0.22	0.06	0.83
I like to talk with others about local news	0.79	0.20	0.22
It helps me feel connected to my community	0.69	0.47	0.13
I feel I have a duty as citizen to stay informed	0.63	0.26	0.36
I want to understand things that might affect me	0.21	0.85	0.11	0.83
I want to know what is going on in my local area	0.32	0.84	0.10
I am interested in stories and information about my local community	0.49	0.60	0.30
It is a good way to pass the time	0.13	−0.001	0.89	0.62
It is a part of my daily habits	0.26	0.39	0.69

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. Rotation converged in 5 iterations. Factor loadings above .60 are in bold.