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Does Platform Matter? Political Learning Effects of Using the Same News Media on Different Platforms

Mon, May 28, 15:30 to 16:45, Hilton Prague, Floor: L, Berlin

Abstract

People are increasingly accessing news through digital (i.e., computers) and portable (i.e., smartphones or tablets) media formats, while news consumption via more traditional, offline formats is decreasing. Due to critical differences in the presentation and consumption of news across these platforms, this shift might have important consequences for people’s political learning. Using a three-wave, three-year national panel survey from Sweden (N = 2,250), this study examines how the shift in media platform affects how people seek-out and learn about politics and current affairs. Among other things, the results show that although political interest influences news consumption positively across all platforms, people mainly learn about politics and current affairs from offline news, while there are hardly any learning effects from using news media on computers and mobile devices.

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