TY - JOUR
T1 - Knowledge and the News
T2 - An Investigation of the Relation Between News Use, News Avoidance, and the Presence of (Mis)beliefs
AU - Damstra, Alyt
AU - Vliegenthart, Rens
AU - Boomgaarden, Hajo
AU - Glüer, Kathrin
AU - Lindgren, Elina
AU - Strömbäck, Jesper
AU - Tsfati, Yariv
PY - 2023/1
Y1 - 2023/1
N2 - While increasing scholarly attention has been devoted to news avoidance, there are only few studies taking the distinction between intentional and unintentional news avoidance into consideration, and none that has investigated the linkage between the two types of news avoidance and knowledge about politics and society. To fill this void, this study explores this relationship while distinguishing between knowledge related to uncontested issues and knowledge related to issues that have been subject to public controversies (climate change, vaccination, genetically modified organisms, crime, and immigration). Relying on a large-scale survey among Swedish citizens conducted in 2020 (N = 2,160), we find that the relationship with patterns of news use is substantially different across these types of beliefs. Among other things, the results suggest that knowledge of uncontested issue domains is positively related to news use, but knowledge of contested issue domains is not. The intentional avoidance of news is only negatively related to knowledge of contested issues. Taken together, the results suggest that the mechanisms driving beliefs related to uncontested versus contested issues are substantially different.
AB - While increasing scholarly attention has been devoted to news avoidance, there are only few studies taking the distinction between intentional and unintentional news avoidance into consideration, and none that has investigated the linkage between the two types of news avoidance and knowledge about politics and society. To fill this void, this study explores this relationship while distinguishing between knowledge related to uncontested issues and knowledge related to issues that have been subject to public controversies (climate change, vaccination, genetically modified organisms, crime, and immigration). Relying on a large-scale survey among Swedish citizens conducted in 2020 (N = 2,160), we find that the relationship with patterns of news use is substantially different across these types of beliefs. Among other things, the results suggest that knowledge of uncontested issue domains is positively related to news use, but knowledge of contested issue domains is not. The intentional avoidance of news is only negatively related to knowledge of contested issues. Taken together, the results suggest that the mechanisms driving beliefs related to uncontested versus contested issues are substantially different.
KW - knowledge
KW - media effects
KW - misinformation
KW - news avoidance
U2 - 10.1177/19401612211031457
DO - 10.1177/19401612211031457
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85110010529
SN - 1940-1612
VL - 28
SP - 29
EP - 48
JO - International Journal of Press/Politics
JF - International Journal of Press/Politics
IS - 1
ER -
