Abstract
Incidental consumption of news on social media has risen in recent years, particularly among young people. Previous studies have characterized what the main dimensions and effects of this phenomenon are. In this article, we complement that literature by looking at how this phenomenon unfolds. Inspired by practice theory, we aim to answer two questions: (1) what are the practices that subtend incidental news consumption on social media among young people? and (2) What are the social consequences of these practices? We draw upon 50 in-depth interviews with respondents aged 18–29 years from Argentina. Our findings show the existence of (1) strong connections between technology and content, “anywhere and anytime” coordinates, derivative information routines, and increasingly mediated sociability and (2) fragmentary reading patterns, loss of hierarchy of the news, and coexistence of editorial, algorithmic, and social filtering. We conclude by elaborating on the empirical and theoretical implications of these findings.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3523-3539 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | New Media and Society |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 1 2018 |
Funding
Earlier versions of this manuscript greatly benefited from the suggestions made by the editors and reviewers, and also from the feedback received from audiences at Academia Nacional de Periodismo in Argentina, Boston University, Diario Clarín, Festival Basado en Hechos Reales, Florida International University, Foro Internacional de Periodismo Digital, Foro de Periodismo Argentino, Harvard Business School, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Metaksherim graduate student conference of Israel, Northwestern University, Oxford Internet Institute, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Tel Aviv University, Universidad de San Andrés, Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero, University of Edinburgh, University of Haifa, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. Last but not least, we want to acknowledge the outstanding research assistance of Victoria Andelsman, Sofía Carcavallo, Rodrigo Gil Buetto, Camila Giuliano, Belén Guigue, Mattia Panza and Silvana Leiva.
Keywords
- Digital news
- Latin America
- incidental news
- journalism
- news consumption
- practice theory
- qualitative research
- social media
- youth
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- Sociology and Political Science