Drawing on primary empirical research, this book considers the democratic outcomes of political news avoidance, selective news exposure, and misinformation.
Political information environments across democracies are in flux, fundamentally changing the way citizens gain political information and leading to widespread concerns about consequences for democracy. From selective media use leading to increased attitudinal polarisation, to declining trust in legacy media and journalists compounding political disengagement, the need for a detailed, comparative account of what these changes in the supply of, and demand for, political information mean for democracies is evident. This book focuses on three developments that are seen as particularly concerning for democracies: news avoidance, selective news exposure, and misinformation. Using in-depth interviews, webtracking,
panel surveys, and experiments, it investigates the extent of these threats, their causes, consequences, and remedies. Further, it shines a critical empirical light, for the first time, on these developments across four different types of democracies found in countries around Europe as well as Israel and the US. The results of the study are nuanced and context specific, with the authors finding generally that the prevalence of these three developments may be less than previously anticipated.
This is a critical study for researchers and advanced students of journalism and political communication and bears global implications.
Drawing on primary empirical research, this book considers the democratic outcomes of political news avoidance, selective news exposure, and misinformation.
Acknowledgements
List of Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction: Understanding the Transformation of Democratic Political
Information Environments and the Consequences
James Stanyer, David Nicolas Hopmann, and Agnieszka Stpiska
Chapter 1: Political Information Environments in Flux: A Cross-National
Multi-Method Research Approach
David Nicolas Hopmann, Isabella Glogger, James Stanyer, and Agnieszka
Stpiska
Chapter 2: Selective Exposure to Political News: A Threat to Democracy in
Todays Digital World?
Agnieszka Stpiska, Patrick van Erkel, Alberto Martinez-Serra, and Ana S.
Cardenal
Chapter 3: News Avoidance: A Threat to Democracy in Todays Digital World?
Isabella Glogger, Agnieszka Stpiska, Christine Meltzer, and Luisa Gehle
Chapter
4. Dis- and Misinformation: a threat to democracy in todays digital
world?
Luisa Gehle, Patrick van Erkel, Denis Halagiera, Nicoleta Corbu, and Alberto
Martinez-Serra
Chapter
5. The Threats and Realities of a Changing Political Information
Environment: Taking Stock of the Findings and Exploring Potential Remedies
James Stanyer, Christine Meltzer, Isabella Glogger, and David Nicolas
Hopmann
Index
James Stanyer is Professor of Communication and Media Analysis at the Department of Communication and Media, Loughborough University, UK, and Director of Loughboroughs Centre for Research in Communication and Culture.
David Nicolas Hopmann is Professor of Political Communication at the Centre for Journalism and the Digital Democracy, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.
Agnieszka Stpiska is a Professor at the Faculty of Political Science and Journalism at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Pozna, Poland.
