News Consumers (and Non- Consumers): A News Repertoire Approach to Understanding Audiences in a High- Choice Media Environment

Stephanie Edgerly*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

At any given moment there are a multitude of media options competing for the public’s attention. While some of these options include news, many others include entertainment offerings. This chapter discusses the underlying psychology of news consumption, including the obstacles and challenges that prevent news consumption and hinder news engagement, as well as the need to think of audiences in more specific ways. This understanding requires journalists to learn and develop a new skill set that marries news judgment with audience-based research. Today’s journalists need to know who consumes what, how, and why. With this knowledge, journalists have the ability to tell stories from a perspective that audiences care about and to create innovative distribution channels for their work. Such insight is necessary for combating the growing inequalities in how much people intentionally seek out news or incidentally consume it, or what researchers refer to as “news exposure.”.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationJournalism Research that Matters
PublisherOxford University Press
Pages103-114
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9780197538470
ISBN (Print)9780197538487
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2021

Keywords

  • News consumers
  • News consumption
  • News exposure
  • News repertoires
  • Non-consumers
  • Psychology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Social Sciences

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