“Yes, I Saw It – But Didn’t Read It…” A Cross-Country Study, Exploring Relationships between Incidental News Exposure and News Use across Platforms

Bibliographic Data

ID22010771
AuthorsNadine Strauß (0000-0002-5050-7067, University of Oxford, corresponding author), B Huber (0000-0002-9070-4962, University of Vienna), Homero Gil De Zúñiga (0000-0002-4187-3604, Pennsylvania State University)
Year2020
Volume8
Issue9
Pages1181-1205
Publication date2020-10-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDigital Journalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2167-0811 • E-ISSN: 2167-082X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21670811.2020.1832130
OpenAlexW3103475591
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited56

Today, people are increasingly exposed to news on various channels without actively seeking it. However, less is known about the link between the so-called incidental news exposure (INE) and actual news consumption. Using a two-wave panel data set from 18 countries around the world, we study the so-far under researched relation between INE and news consumption across various platforms over time. In doing so, we control for key micro-level variables such as news use, political interest and trust in media as well as macro-level variables, including internet connectivity, GDP, press freedom and literacy rate. The analyses yield an optimistic picture, showing that INE plays a bridging function across countries, leading to actual news consumption on traditional, online and social media platforms. However, trust in news and political interest do not seem to play key moderating roles. Instead, individual analyses per country imply that the link between INE and actual news use is more apparent for online and social media news platforms, and particularly in countries where general social media usage has been reported to be considerably high (e.g. Brazil, Philippines, Taiwan, UK and USA)

Advertising · Business · Media consumption · News media · Political science · Politics · Social media · Social science · Sociology · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Social Media and Politics

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