The transformation from low- to high-choice media environments has triggered concerns of rising inequalities in news media use. This concern has been buttressed by research showing that motivational factors have become more important predictors of news media use. Less attention has been paid to how changes in media environments have altered the impact of socioeconomic status on news media use. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the changing impact of socioeconomic status on newspaper and television news consumption, empirically focussing on Sweden between 2000 and 2016. Among other things, results suggest that the impact of socioeconomic status on news media use has increased with respect to reading morning newspapers but decreased for reading tabloids and watching television news.
AalbergTCurranJ (2012) How Media Inform Democracy. A Comparative Approach. London: Routledge.
2.
AalbergTBlekesauneAElvestadE (2013) Media choice and informed democracy: Toward increasing news consumption gaps in Europe?International Journal of Press/Politics18(3): 281–303.
3.
AnderssonU (2017) Digitala plattformar allt viktigare för nyhetspubliken – förutom när det gäller tidningsprenumeration’ [Digital platforms are becoming increasingly important for the news audience – except for newspaper subscriptions]. In: AnderssonUOhlssonJOscarssonH.et al (eds) Larmar och gör sig till [In the Presence of a Clown]. Gothenburg: The SOM Institute, pp. 277–300.
4.
BartelsLM (2008) Unequal Democracy. The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
5.
BergströmAWadbringI (2010) The contribution of free dailies and news on the web – Implications of media structural changes on the newspaper readership market. Northern Lights8(1): 139–155.
6.
BlekesauneAElvestadEAalbergT (2012) Tuning out the world of news and current affairs – An empirical study of Europe’s disconnected citizens. European Sociological Review28(1): 110–126.
7.
BoulianneS (2011) Stimulating or reinforcing political interest? Using panel data to examine reciprocal effects between news media and political interest. Political Communication28(2): 147–162.
8.
BovéK (2017) Metodöversikt Den nationella SOM-undersökningen 2016 [Method: The National SOM Survey 2016]. In: AnderssonUOhlssonJOscarssonHet al. (eds) Larmar och gör sig till [In the Presence of a Clown]. Gothenburg: The SOM Institute, pp. 277–300.
9.
BrüggemannMEngesserSBüchelFet al. (2014) Hallin and Mancini revisited: Four empirical types of western media systems. Journal of Communication64(6): 1037–1065.
10.
ChanTWGoldthorpeJH (2007) Social status and newspaper readership. American Journal of Sociology112(4): 1095–1134.
11.
CouldryNLivingstoneSMarkhamT (2007) Media Consumption and Public Engagement. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
12.
CushionS (2012) The Democratic Value of News. Why Public Service Media Matter. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
13.
DahlRA (2006) On Political Equality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
14.
DaltonRJ (2017) The Participation Gap. Social Status and Political Inequality. New York: Oxford University Press.
15.
De VreeseCBoomgaardenH (2006) News, political knowledge and participation: The differential effects of news media exposure on political knowledge and participation. Acta Politica41(4): 317–341.
16.
De VreeseCReinemannCEsserFet al. (2017) Conclusion: Assessing news performance. In: de VreeseCHEsserFHopmannDN (eds) Comparing Political Journalism. New York: Routledge, pp. 168–183.
17.
Delli CarpiniMXKeeterS (1996) What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
18.
DiddiALaRoseR (2006) Getting hooked on news: Uses and gratifications and the formation of news habits among college students in an internet environment. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media50(2): 193–210.
19.
ElvestadEBlekesauneA (2008) Newspaper readers in Europe: A multilevel study of individual and national differences. European Journal of Communication23(4): 425–447.
20.
EvelandWPScheufeleDA (2000) Connecting news media use with gaps in knowledge and participation. Political Communication17(3): 215–237.
21.
FletcherRNielsenRK (2017) Are news audiences increasingly fragmented? A cross-national comparative analysis of cross-platform news audience fragmentation and duplication. Journal of Communication67(4): 476–498.
22.
HagenI (1992) News Viewing Ideals and Everyday Practices: The Ambivalence of Watching Dagsrevyen. Bergen: University of Bergen.
23.
HallinDCManciniP (2004) Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
24.
HargittaiEHinnantA (2008) Digital inequality. Differences in young adults’ use of the Internet. Communication Research35(5): 602–621.
25.
HasebrinkUDomeyerH (2012) Media repertoires as patterns of behaviour and as meaningful practices: A multimethod approach to media use in converging media environments. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies9(2): 757–779.
26.
HovdenJFMoeH (2018) Automatiserte versus selvrapporterte publikumspraksiser? Metodisk utfordringer med tv-metere og spørreundersøkelser [Automated versus self-reporting audience practices? Methodological challenges with TV meters and surveys]. Norsk Medietidskrift1(25). Available at: https://www.idunn.no/nmt/2018/01/automatiserte_versus_selvrapporterte_publikumspraksiser (accessed 24 September 2018).
27.
HuangE (2009) The causes of youth’s low news consumption and strategies for making youths happy news consumers. Convergence15(1): 105–122.
28.
IyengarSHahnKS (2009) Red media, blue media: Evidence of ideological selectivity in media use. Journal of Communication59(1): 19–39.
29.
KayeBKJohnsonTJ (2002) Online and in the know: Uses and gratifications of the web for political information. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media46(1): 54–71.
30.
KobbernagelCSchrøderKC (2016) From everyday communicative figurations to rigorous audience news repertoires. A mixed-method approach to cross-media news consumption. Mediekultur60: 6–31.
31.
KovachBRosenstielT (2014) Elements of Journalism. What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect, 3rd edn.New York: Crown.
32.
KsiazekTBMalthouseECWebsterJG (2010) News-seekers and news-avoiders: Exploring patterns of total news consumption across media and the relationship to civic participation. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media54(4): 551–568.
33.
LiuY-IShenFEvelandWPet al. (2013) The impact of news use and news content characteristics on political knowledge and participation. Mass Communication and Society16(5): 713–737.
34.
LuskinRC (1990) Explaining political sophistication. Political Behavior12(4): 331–361.
35.
McCombsMPoindexterP (1983) The duty to keep informed: News exposure and civic obligation. Journal of Communication33(2): 88–96.
36.
McLeodJMScheufeleDAMoyP (1999) Community, communication, and participation: The role of mass media and interpersonal discussion in local political participation. Political Communication16(3): 4–87.
37.
Min S-J (2010) From the digital divide to the democratic divide: Internet skills, political interest, and the second-level digital divide in political Internet use. Journal of Information Technology & Politics7(1): 22–35.
38.
NewmanNFletcherRKalogeropoulosAet al. (2017) Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2017. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
39.
OhlssonJLindellJArkhedeS (2017) A matter of cultural distinction: News consumption in the online media landscape. European Journal of Communication32(2): 116–130.
40.
OscarssonHBergströmA (2016) Swedish trends 1986–2015. Report No. 2016:28. Gothenburg: The SOM Institute.
41.
PriorM (2007) Post-broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
42.
PriorM (2009) Improving media effects research through better measurement of news exposure. Journal of Politics71(3): 893–908.
43.
PutnamRD (1993) Making Democracy Work. Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
44.
RubinAM (2009) Uses and gratifications. An evolving perspective of media effects. In: NabiRLOliverMB (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Media Processes and Effects. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, pp. 147–159.
45.
SchlozmanKLVerbaSBradyHE (2012) The Unheavenly Chorus. Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
46.
ShakerL (2014) Dead Newspapers and Citizens’ Civic Engagement. Political Communication31(1): 131-148.
47.
ShehataA (2013) Active or passive learning from television? Political information opportunities and knowledge gaps during election campaigns. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties23(2): 200–222.
48.
ShehataA (2016) News habits among adolescents: The influence of family communication on adolescents’ news media use – Evidence from a three-wave panel study. Mass Communication and Society19(6): 758–781.
49.
ShehataAStrömbäckJ (2011) A matter of context. A comparative study of media environments and news consumption gaps in Europe. Political Communication28(1): 110–134.
50.
ShehataAStrömbäckJ (2014) Mediation of political realities: Media as crucial sources of information. In: EsserFStrömbäckJ (eds) Mediatization of Politics. Understanding the Transformation of Western Democracies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 93–113.
51.
ShehataAStrömbäckJ (2018) Learning political news from social media: Network media logic and current affairs learning in a high-choice media environment. Communication Research. Epub ahead of print 17 January. DOI: 10.1177/0093650217749354.
52.
SkogerbøEWinsvoldM (2011) Audience on the move? Use and assessment of local print and online newspapers. European Journal of Communication26(3): 214–229.
53.
StrömbäckJ (2005) In search of a standard: Four models of democracy and their normative implications for journalism. Journalism Studies6(3): 331–345.
54.
StrömbäckJShehataA (2010) Media malaise or a virtuous circle? Exploring the causal relationships between news media exposure, political news attention and political interest. European Journal of Political Research49(5): 575–597.
55.
StrömbäckJShehataA (2018) The reciprocal effects between political interest and TV news revisited: Evidence from four panel surveys. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. Epub ahead of print 23 August. DOI: 10.1177/1077699018793998.
56.
StrömbäckJDjerf-PierreMShehataA (2013) The dynamics of political interest and news media consumption: A longitudinal perspective. International Journal of Public Opinion Research24(4): 414–435.
57.
StrömbäckJFalascaKKruikemeierS (2018) The mix of media use matters: Investigating the effects of individual news repertoires on offline and online political participation. Political Communication35(3): 413–432.
58.
StroudNJ (2011) Niche News: The Politics of News Choice. New York: Oxford University Press.
SyvertsenTEnliGMjøsOJet al. (2014) The Media Welfare State. Nordic Media in the Digital Era. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
61.
TanejaHWebsterJGMalthouseECet al. (2012) Media consumption across platforms: Identifying user-defined repertoires. New Media & Society14(6): 951–968.
62.
ThorsonKXuYEdgerlyS (2018) Political inequalities start at home: Parents, children, and the socialization of civic infrastructure online. Political Communication35: 178–195.
63.
Van AelstPStrömbäckJAalbergTet al. (2017) Political communication in a high-choice media environment: A challenge for democracy?Annals of the International Communication Association41(1): 3–27.
64.
WadbringIBergströmA (2017) A print crisis or a local crisis? Local news use over three decades. Journalism Studies18(2): 175–190.
65.
WeiLHindmanDB (2011) Does the digital divide matter more? Comparing the effects of new media and old media use on the education-based knowledge gap. Mass Communication and Society14(2): 216–235.
66.
WestlundOWeibullL (2013) Generation, life course and news media use in Sweden 1986–2011. Northern Lights11(1): 147–173.
67.
YorkCSchollRM (2015) Young antecedent to news media consumption: Parent and young newspaper use, news discussion, and long-term news behavior. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly92(3): 681–699.
