Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This study extends past research on the relationship between news use and participation by examining how youth combine news exposure across an array of media devices, sources, and services. Results from a national survey of U.S. youth ages 12 to 17 reveal four distinct news repertoires. We find that half of youth respondents are news avoiders who exhibit the lowest levels of participation. The other half of youth respondents are characterized by one of three patterns of news use, each distinct in how they seek out (or avoid) using new media platforms and sources for news, and in their levels of participation.

Keywords

news use mobile audience news repertoires participation youth social media

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arceneaux

Johnson

(2013). Changing minds or changing channels? Partisan news in an age of choice. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Baumgartner

J. C.

Morris

J. S.

(2010). MyFaceTube politics: Social networking web sites and political engagement of young adults. Social Science Computer Review, 28, 24-44. doi:10.1177/0894439309334325

Bennett

W. L.

(2012). The personalization of politics: Political identity, social media, and changing patterns of participation. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 644(1), 20-39. doi:10.1177/0002716212451428

Bode

(2016). Political news in the news feed: Learning politics from social media. Mass Communication & Society, 19, 24-28. doi:10.1080/15205436.2015.1045149

Bode

Vraga

E. K.

Borah

Shah

D. V.

(2014). A new space for political behavior: Political social networking and its democratic consequences. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19, 414-429. doi:10.1111/jcc4.12048

Common Sense Media. (2015). Landmark report: U.S. teens use an average of nine hours of media per day, tweens use six hours. Author. Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/news/press-releases/landmark-report-us-teens-use-an-average-of-nine-hours-of-media-per-day

Dalton

R. J.

(2009). The good citizen: How a younger generation is reshaping American politics. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Edgerly

(2015). Red media, blue media, and purple media: News repertoires in the colorful media landscape. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 59, 1-21. doi:10.1080/08838151.2014.998220

Edgerly

Thorson

(2016). Developing media preferences in a post-broadcast democracy. In Thorson

McKinney

M. S.

Shah

D. V.

(Eds.), Political socialization in a media saturated world (pp. 375-391). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

10.

Eveland

W. P.

Jr. Scheufele

D. A.

(2000). Connecting news media use with gaps in knowledge and participation. Political Communication, 17, 215-237. doi:10.1080/105846000414250

11.

Ferguson

D. A.

Perse

E. M.

(1993). Media and audience influences on channel repertoire. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 37, 31-47. doi:10.1080/08838159309364202

12.

Flanagan

C. A.

Syvertsen

A. K.

Stout

M. D.

(2007). Civic measurement models: Tapping adolescents’ civic engagement (CIRCLE Working Paper No. 55). Retrieved from http://civicyouth.org/PopUps/WorkingPapers/WP55Flannagan.pdf

13.

Hargittai

Shaw

(2013). Digitally savvy citizenship: The role of Internet skills and engagement in young adults’ political participation around the 2008 Presidential election. Journal of Broadcast & Electronic Media, 57, 115-134. doi:10.1080/08838151.2013.787079

14.

Hasebrink

Domeyer

(2012). Media repertoires as patterns of behavior and meaningful practices: A multimethod approach to media use in conversing media environments. Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, 9, 757-779.

15.

Hasebrink

Popp

(2006). Media repertoires as a result of selective media use. A conceptual approach to the analysis of patterns of exposure. Communications, 31. 369-387. doi:10.1515/COMMUN.2006.023

16.

Heeter

(1985). Program selection with abundance of choice: A process model. Human Communication Research, 12, 126-152. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.1985.tb00070.x

17.

Hooghe

Stolle

(2004). Good girls go to the polling booth, bad boys go everywhere: Gender differences in anticipated political participation. Women & Politics, 26(3/4), 1-23.

18.

Kim

Chen

H.-T.

Gil de Zúñiga

(2013). Stumbling upon news on the internet: Effects of incidental news exposure and relative entertainment use on political engagement. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 2607-2614. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.06.005

19.

Ksiazek

T. B.

Malthouse

E. C.

Webster

J. G.

(2010). News-seekers and avoiders: Exploring patterns of total news consumption across media and the relationship to civic participation. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 54, 551-568. doi:10.1080/08838151.2010.519808

20.

LaFrance

(2012, March 19). News-to-go is here to stay. NiemanLab. Retrieved from http://www.niemanlab.org///news-to-go-is-here-to-stay/

21.

Lee

Yang

(2014). Political knowledge gaps among news consumers with different news media repertoires across multiple platforms. International Journal of Communication, 8, 597-617.

22.

Lenhart

(2015). A majority of American teens report access to a computer, game console, smartphone and a tablet. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/a-majority-of-american-teens-report-access-to-a-computer-game-console-smartphone-and-a-tablet/

23.

Livingston

Parker

(2011, June 15). A tale of two fathers. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/06/15/chapter-1-living-arrangements-and-father-involvement/

24.

Lochte

R. H.

Warren

(1989). A channel repertoire for TVRO satellite viewers. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 33, 91-95. doi:10.1080/08838158909364064

25.

McLeod

J. M.

Scheufele

D. A.

Moy

(1999). Community, communication, and participation: The role of mass media and interpersonal discussion in local political participation. Political Communication, 16, 315-336. doi:10.1080/105846099198659

26.

Micheletti

Stolle

(2007). Mobilizing consumers to take responsibility for global social justice. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 611, 157-175. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25097915

27.

Mitchell

Gottfried

Matsa

K. E.

(2015a). Political interest and awareness lower among Millennials. Pew Research Center Journalism & Media. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org////political-interest-and-awareness-lower-among-millennials/

28.

Mitchell

Gottfried

Matsa

K. E.

(2015b). Millennials and political news: Social media—The local TV for the next generation? Pew Research Center Journalism & Media. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org////millennials-political-news/

29.

Oser

(2016). Assessing how participators combine acts in their “political tool kits”: A person-centered measurement approach for analyzing citizen participation. Social Indicators Research. Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s11205-016-1364-8

30.

Ostman

(2012). Information, expression, participation: How involvement in user-generated content relates to democratic engagement among young people. New Media & Society, 14, 1004-1021. doi:10.1177/1461444812438212

31.

Park

Y. J.

(2015). My whole world’s in my palm! The second-level divide of teenagers’ mobile use and skill. New Media & Society, 17, 977-995. doi:10.1177/1461444813520302

32.

Patterson

T. E.

(2008). Young people flee from the news, whatever the source. Television Quarterly, 38, 32-35.

33.

Poindexter

P. M.

(2012). Millennials, news, and social media. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

34.

Prior

(2007). Post-broadcast democracy: How media choice increases inequality in political involvement and polarizes elections. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

35.

Putnam

R. D.

(2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

36.

Reagan

(1996). The “repertoire”; of information sources. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 40, 112-121. doi:10.1080/08838159609364336

37.

Shah

D. V.

McLeod

J. M.

Lee

(2009). Communication competence as a foundation for civic competence: Processes for socialization into citizenship. Political Communication, 26, 102-117. doi:10.1080/10584600802710384

38.

Smith

(2015, April 1). U.S. smartphone use in 2015. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org////us-smartphone-use-in-/

39.

Theocharis

Quintelier

(2016). Stimulating citizenship or expanding entertainment? The effect of Facebook on adolescent participation. New Media & Society, 18, 817-836. doi:10.1177/1461444814549006

40.

Thorson

Wells

(2015). Curated flows: A framework for mapping media exposure in the digital age. Communication Theory, 26, 309-328. doi:10.1111/comt.12087

41.

Torney-Purta

Amadeo

J. A.

(2011). Participatory niches for emergent citizenship in early adolescence: An international perspective. The annals of the American academy of political and social science, 633(1), 180-200.

42.

Vaala

S. E.

Bleakley

(2015). Monitoring, mediating, and modeling: Parental influence on adolescent computer and Internet use on the United States. Journal of Children and Media, 9, 40-57. doi:10.1080/17482798.2015.997103

43.

Webster

J. G.

(2014). The marketplace of attention: How audiences take shape in a digital age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

44.

Xenos

Vromen

Loader

B. D.

(2014). The great equalizer? Patterns of social media use and youth political engagement in three advanced democracies. Information, Communication & Society, 17, 151-167. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2013.871318

45.

York

Scholl

R. M.

(2015). Youth antecedents to news media consumption: Parent and youth newspaper use, news discussion, and long-term news behavior. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 92, 681-699. doi:10.1177/1077699015588191

46.

Yuan

(2011). News consumption across multiple media platforms. Information, Communication & Society, 14, 998-1016. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2010.549235

47.

Zukin

Keeter

Andolina

Jenkins

Delli Carpini

M. X.

(2006). A new engagement? Political participation, civic life, and the changing American citizen. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

New Media,New Relationship to Participation? A Closer Look at Youth News Repertoires and Political Participation

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References