Disconnecting from digital news

News avoidance and the ignored role of social class

Bibliographic Data

ID7477256
AuthorsJ Lindell (0000-0001-6689-0710, Informatics & Media, Uppsala University, Sweden, corresponding author), Else Mikkelsen Båge (0009-0002-1012-5053, Informatics & Media, Uppsala University, Sweden)
Year2022
Volume24
Issue9
Pages1980-1997
Publication date2022-04-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-8849 • E-ISSN: 1741-3001
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14648849221085389
OpenAlexW4224002681
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited45

While research on news avoidance has surged in the last couple of decades, we are still at a scholarly shortage in terms of understanding and theorizing the relationship between social class and the inclination to tune out on the news. In addressing this gap, we rely on a mail-back survey with ten thousand Swedes to study how social class predicts the likelihood of avoiding news from different digital outlets. Results show that people at lower social positions, measured as their relative lack of cultural and economic capital, are significantly more likely to avoid online news. A lack of cultural capital predicts total news avoidance online, avoiding online public service news and the “quality news,” while it lessens the likelihood of avoiding “popular news” online. Lacking economic capital predicts total news avoidance online and avoiding the “popular news.” We conclude the article with three cultural sociological lessons for the study of news avoidance. We call for sensitivity in regard to (1) the multi-dimensional character of social inequality, (2) the symbolic value of different types of news genres and outlets, and (3) social inequality in the normative problematizations of news avoidance

Advertising · Business · Cultural capital · Media studies · News media · Normative · Online participation · Political science · Social capital · Social class · Social media · Social science · Sociology · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Media and Politics · Law · Social Psychology

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Open DOIOpen Access