The Mix of Media Use Matters: Investigating the Effects of Individual News Repertoires on Offline and Online Political Participation

Abstract

In contemporary high-choice media environments, people increasingly mix and combine their use of various news media into personal news repertoires. Despite this, there is still limited research on how people compose their individual news repertoires and the effects of these news repertoires. To address this and further our understanding of how media use influences political participation, this study investigates (a) how people combine the use of offline and online media into personal news repertoires and (b) the effects of different news repertoires on both offline and online political participation. Based on a two-wave panel study covering the 2014 Swedish national election, this study identifies five news repertoires, labeled minimalists, public news consumers, local news consumers, social media news consumers, and popular online news consumers. Among other things, the results show that social media news consumers are more likely to participate in politics both offline and online.

Keywords:

• media effects
• news consumption
• political participation

Notes

^1. While it could be considered problematic using a Web panel when investigating—among other things—Internet use, in Sweden 93% of the population has access to Internet in their homes, and it is primarily among those older than 76 years that Internet penetration is lower (Internetstiftelsen i Sverige, 2016). As our sample does not include those older than 75 years old, this is less of a problem.

^2. The waves were part of a larger study with multiple waves. For this study, we used the third and fourth waves, because the data for these waves were collected around the Swedish national election. However, in this article, for interpretation purposes, we refer to them as Wave 1 and Wave 2.

^3. In 2014, the mean age in the population was 41.2 years, the gender distribution 50% male and 50% female, while 12% had low education, 46% medium education, and 39% higher education.

^4. We also performed all the analyses using the six-class solution to examine similarities and differences (see Robustness Checks section for detailed information and results).

^5. The groups that were identified are the minimalists (34.55%), local news consumers (24.28%), social media news consumer (16.60%), public news consumer – reading quality newspapers in print (4.51%), the public news consumer – reading an online tabloid news website (14.89%), and popular online news consumer (5.17%).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jesper Strömbäck

Jesper Strömbäck Professor in Journalism and Political Communication, University of Gothenburg.

Kajsa Falasca

Kajsa Falasca Assistant Professor in Media and Communication Science, Mid Sweden University.

Sanne Kruikemeier

Sanne Kruikemeier Assistant Professor Political Communication, University of Amsterdam.