How polarized are online and offline news audiences? A comparative analysis of twelve countries

Polarization is a key area of interest for media and communication scholars. We develop a way of measuring how polarized news audience behaviour is at the national level. Then, we analyze survey data from twelve countries and find (1) that cross-platform (online and offline) news audience polarizati...

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Main Authors: Fletcher, R, Cornia, A, Nielsen, RK
Formato: Journal article
Idioma:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2020
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author Fletcher, R
Cornia, A
Nielsen, RK
author_facet Fletcher, R
Cornia, A
Nielsen, RK
author_sort Fletcher, R
collection OXFORD
description Polarization is a key area of interest for media and communication scholars. We develop a way of measuring how polarized news audience behaviour is at the national level. Then, we analyze survey data from twelve countries and find (1) that cross-platform (online and offline) news audience polarization is highest in the United States, and within Europe, higher in polarized pluralist/southern countries than in democratic corporatist countries. Furthermore, (2) in most countries, online news audience polarization is higher than offline, but in a small number it’s lower. Taken together, our findings highlight that, despite the well-documented fears associated with algorithmic selection, news audience polarization is not inevitable in environments that are increasingly characterized by digital news consumption, and that the historical, economic, and political factors emphasized by the comparative tradition remain critically important for our understanding of global trends.
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spelling oxford-uuid:d6b9a202-9a1c-41f7-881e-08256178aeb72022-03-27T08:35:44ZHow polarized are online and offline news audiences? A comparative analysis of twelve countriesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:d6b9a202-9a1c-41f7-881e-08256178aeb7EnglishSymplectic ElementsSAGE Publications2020Fletcher, RCornia, ANielsen, RKPolarization is a key area of interest for media and communication scholars. We develop a way of measuring how polarized news audience behaviour is at the national level. Then, we analyze survey data from twelve countries and find (1) that cross-platform (online and offline) news audience polarization is highest in the United States, and within Europe, higher in polarized pluralist/southern countries than in democratic corporatist countries. Furthermore, (2) in most countries, online news audience polarization is higher than offline, but in a small number it’s lower. Taken together, our findings highlight that, despite the well-documented fears associated with algorithmic selection, news audience polarization is not inevitable in environments that are increasingly characterized by digital news consumption, and that the historical, economic, and political factors emphasized by the comparative tradition remain critically important for our understanding of global trends.
spellingShingle Fletcher, R
Cornia, A
Nielsen, RK
How polarized are online and offline news audiences? A comparative analysis of twelve countries
title How polarized are online and offline news audiences? A comparative analysis of twelve countries
title_full How polarized are online and offline news audiences? A comparative analysis of twelve countries
title_fullStr How polarized are online and offline news audiences? A comparative analysis of twelve countries
title_full_unstemmed How polarized are online and offline news audiences? A comparative analysis of twelve countries
title_short How polarized are online and offline news audiences? A comparative analysis of twelve countries
title_sort how polarized are online and offline news audiences a comparative analysis of twelve countries
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