Young citizens and the Quality of news: Attention, emotional reactions and quality assessments

• In Event: Research Division - Top Paper Presentations

Abstract

In recent years, concerns about disinformation in a polarized media environment have been especially highlighted and inspired research and fact-checking initiatives in response to this challenge to open democratic society (Bakir & McStay, 2017; Holt, 2019; Waisbord, 2018). Meanwhile, young adult citizens (18-30 years) tend to turn away from traditional news media and migrate to media where emotions occupy a more central place and where journalistic standards are not self-evident, thus challenging public discourse and the notion of quality associated with established news media (Backholm et al., 2021; Baek et al., 2019; Berthelsen & Hameleers, 2021). In this paper, we test possibilities of investigating how young adult citizens construe (perceive, comprehend and interpret) and experience quality of news content in a high choice, hybrid media landscape (Chadwick et al., 2015). Especially, the emotional dimension in relation to the notion of quality in news is at the centre. In media and journalism research, the importance of emotions evoked by news-content has been pointed out in recent years (Wahl-Jørgensen, 2020). Researchers have studied emotional aspects of different types of content (e. g. Uribe & Gunter, 2007), polarization (e. g. Marozzo & Bessi, 2017), and affective responses to political messages (Bakker et al., 2021). Lacking is, however, in depth analysis of how emotional reactions to news might interact with quality assessments. Since young citizens differ from older generations in media use (Boczkowski et al., 2018), it is especially important to understand the notion of quality from the perspective of this age group. Here, biometric data offer promising possibilities, while at the same time, methodology for journalism scholars is still at a developmental stage. Therefore, in this paper we present the results from a small-sample pilot study, using GSR and eye-tracking in combination with semi-structured interviews with young citizens about quality in news. Our findings are discussed in relation to the usability of this methodological approach and suggestions for further research are presented.

Authors

• Kristoffer Holt, Linnaeus university

• Mahitab Ezz El Din, Linnaeus University

• Mats Wahlberg, Linnaeus University

• Ari Nykvist, Linnaeus University

• Renaud de la Brosse, LNU