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Abstract
Despite the technological possibilities for portable, personalized, and participatory news use, the public has not turned en masse from passive receivers who consume news on the producers' terms, into active users who tailor news to fit their personal preferences and practices. Unmistakably, some power has shifted from producers to users, but it is unclear to what extent users actually wish to exert their newfound control. Triangulating the results of in-depth user interviews (24), a user survey (N = 270), production interviews with (chief) editors and policy makers (5), and an inventory of new “news products” on mobile and social media, we explore under which circumstances users want to tailor-make news, and under which circumstances they do not. Our results suggest that users have limited interest in personalizing or participating in news. What they desire in particular is control: to be able to consult all content (including politics, economics, and other important news) whenever and wherever they want it. This does not mean that they will read or click on all or even most of the news, but they want the option to choose without having to choose.
FUNDING
The research was sponsored by the Dutch public news organization NOS News.
Notes
1. Compared to Bakker (Citation2013), these numbers may seem high. However, as we only asked our respondents to rate such statements as “I come on Facebook to [communicate with friends, check/share/discuss the news etc.]”, the frequencies of these user practices are not known.