News sites' position in the mediascape: uses, evaluations and media displacement effects over time
Ester De Waal and Klaus Schoenbach
New Media Society 2010 12: 477 originally published online 9 February 2010
DOI: 10.1177/1461444809341859
PDF
Abstract
By means of a two-wave representative panel survey of adults in the Netherlands, this study examines changes in the profile of the online-news audience, how it uses and evaluates online news and how this eventually affects the use of traditional media. The analyses reveal interesting differences in the use of newspaper websites and other, non-paper, news sites. Displacement effects become visible: online newspapers gradually substitute for printed newspapers, other news sites for teletext and non-paper news sites for newspaper sites.
Conclusion and discussion
Our results have shown that, first of all, online news users, compared to other people, were typically younger, more highly educated and mostly male – both in 2002 and 2005.
Second, online news users were most certainly interested in politics; in fact they were interested in a wide variety of news topics. The Dutch respondents found newspaper websites an increasingly better source for soft news, such as crime and accidents and cultural events. Simultaneously, non-newspaper news sites gained value for politics and local news – and these even surpassed web newspapers. This is also true for web newspaper users. They too valued other news sites more as important sources of political information. But not the other way around: significantly fewer users of news sites deemed web newspapers important for getting news on politics.
Third, our findings alert us to a vast decline in the use of printed newspapers among the users of web newspapers. Young people, in particular, used web newspapers increasingly at the expense of printed newspapers. In contrast to the growing popularity of web newspapers among youngsters, these sites simultaneously became of less significance to others – among which highly educated respondents. So apparently web newspapers do not satisfy everyone’s needs better than printed ones.
Like Kaye and Johnson (2003), we may attribute the fading of early displacement effects to the novelty of a medium. Plausibly, highly educated people initially seemed to use web newspapers out of curiosity, but then obviously returned to their previous media use habits (like Perse and Dunn, 1998, have argued), or, to more satisfying new alternatives. In fact, we found evidence for both patterns: highly educated people migrated from web newspapers to other news sites (which apparently do functionally displace web newspapers). But also the readership of printed newspapers was growing among highly educated users of other news websites. We also found differences between the uses of the two types of news sites with regards to teletext: for young people web newspapers do not displace (the functions of) teletext, but other news sites do.
In general this study confirms that web newspapers and other news sites should not simply be lumped together. For example, whereas the readership of printed newspapers decreased dramatically among the audience of web newspapers, it grew spectacularly among the users of other news sites.
There are obviously two trends: one of using non-paper news sites next to paper dailies – true for young, highly educated and male respondents. This complementary use may have developed because traditional printed dailies and non-paper news sites serve different needs (e.g. background stories and editorial interpretation vs breaking news). The other trend is using newspaper sites instead of their paper editions – also particularly likely among young people. For them, apparently, web newspapers serve similar needs to printed papers, but more easily or more attractively (like Himmelweit et al., 1958 have reasoned). So, there is support for both supplementary and complementary uses of online news offers.
Even though web newspapers and other news sites increasingly seem to satisfy different needs, there are quite a few users that spend more and more time on both types of news sites – the middle-aged, the mid- and more highly educated and males. These may be the content-loyal people (Dutta-Bergman, 2004), maximizing the (online) information offer.
What do the developments revealed in this study mean for public discourse in a democratic society? It still seems true that traditional newspapers help citizens integrate into their community and participate in democracy (see also Paek et al., 2005) and that printed dailies make readers aware of a wider variety of what is going on in society than web newspapers do (see earlier). But print newspapers have lost some (young) readers to their online editions. On the other hand, a growing number of people (also including young people) use other news sites – sites that without doubt expand the horizon of their users, as our former research shows (De Waal and Schoenbach, 2008). The Dutch also greatly appreciate non-paper news sites for hard news, which is good news for society. After all, previous research has shown that the consumption of hard news is closely related to civic engagement (e.g. Shah et al., 2001).
History seems to repeat itself. Two decades ago, Becker and Schoenbach (1989) compared users’ experience with the then new media in 11 western countries: cable and satellite TV, VCRs, teletext and videotext. They found that new media did not change the lives of the citizens dramatically, but allowed more specialization of media use according to individual needs. This is still true in the middle of the first decade of the third millennium: Interest in news has not disappeared. But it can now be – and is – satisfied by a wider variety of information channels. They are increasingly used to fulfil different needs of specific groups in society. So far, none of those information outlets really seems to disappear. Riepl’s law of 1913 still seems to hold true.
Ester De Waal and Klaus Schoenbach
New Media Society 2010 12: 477 originally published online 9 February 2010
DOI: 10.1177/1461444809341859
Abstract
By means of a two-wave representative panel survey of adults in the Netherlands, this study examines changes in the profile of the online-news audience, how it uses and evaluates online news and how this eventually affects the use of traditional media. The analyses reveal interesting differences in the use of newspaper websites and other, non-paper, news sites. Displacement effects become visible: online newspapers gradually substitute for printed newspapers, other news sites for teletext and non-paper news sites for newspaper sites.
Conclusion and discussion
Our results have shown that, first of all, online news users, compared to other people, were typically younger, more highly educated and mostly male – both in 2002 and 2005.
Second, online news users were most certainly interested in politics; in fact they were interested in a wide variety of news topics. The Dutch respondents found newspaper websites an increasingly better source for soft news, such as crime and accidents and cultural events. Simultaneously, non-newspaper news sites gained value for politics and local news – and these even surpassed web newspapers. This is also true for web newspaper users. They too valued other news sites more as important sources of political information. But not the other way around: significantly fewer users of news sites deemed web newspapers important for getting news on politics.
Third, our findings alert us to a vast decline in the use of printed newspapers among the users of web newspapers. Young people, in particular, used web newspapers increasingly at the expense of printed newspapers. In contrast to the growing popularity of web newspapers among youngsters, these sites simultaneously became of less significance to others – among which highly educated respondents. So apparently web newspapers do not satisfy everyone’s needs better than printed ones.
Like Kaye and Johnson (2003), we may attribute the fading of early displacement effects to the novelty of a medium. Plausibly, highly educated people initially seemed to use web newspapers out of curiosity, but then obviously returned to their previous media use habits (like Perse and Dunn, 1998, have argued), or, to more satisfying new alternatives. In fact, we found evidence for both patterns: highly educated people migrated from web newspapers to other news sites (which apparently do functionally displace web newspapers). But also the readership of printed newspapers was growing among highly educated users of other news websites. We also found differences between the uses of the two types of news sites with regards to teletext: for young people web newspapers do not displace (the functions of) teletext, but other news sites do.
In general this study confirms that web newspapers and other news sites should not simply be lumped together. For example, whereas the readership of printed newspapers decreased dramatically among the audience of web newspapers, it grew spectacularly among the users of other news sites.
There are obviously two trends: one of using non-paper news sites next to paper dailies – true for young, highly educated and male respondents. This complementary use may have developed because traditional printed dailies and non-paper news sites serve different needs (e.g. background stories and editorial interpretation vs breaking news). The other trend is using newspaper sites instead of their paper editions – also particularly likely among young people. For them, apparently, web newspapers serve similar needs to printed papers, but more easily or more attractively (like Himmelweit et al., 1958 have reasoned). So, there is support for both supplementary and complementary uses of online news offers.
Even though web newspapers and other news sites increasingly seem to satisfy different needs, there are quite a few users that spend more and more time on both types of news sites – the middle-aged, the mid- and more highly educated and males. These may be the content-loyal people (Dutta-Bergman, 2004), maximizing the (online) information offer.
What do the developments revealed in this study mean for public discourse in a democratic society? It still seems true that traditional newspapers help citizens integrate into their community and participate in democracy (see also Paek et al., 2005) and that printed dailies make readers aware of a wider variety of what is going on in society than web newspapers do (see earlier). But print newspapers have lost some (young) readers to their online editions. On the other hand, a growing number of people (also including young people) use other news sites – sites that without doubt expand the horizon of their users, as our former research shows (De Waal and Schoenbach, 2008). The Dutch also greatly appreciate non-paper news sites for hard news, which is good news for society. After all, previous research has shown that the consumption of hard news is closely related to civic engagement (e.g. Shah et al., 2001).
History seems to repeat itself. Two decades ago, Becker and Schoenbach (1989) compared users’ experience with the then new media in 11 western countries: cable and satellite TV, VCRs, teletext and videotext. They found that new media did not change the lives of the citizens dramatically, but allowed more specialization of media use according to individual needs. This is still true in the middle of the first decade of the third millennium: Interest in news has not disappeared. But it can now be – and is – satisfied by a wider variety of information channels. They are increasingly used to fulfil different needs of specific groups in society. So far, none of those information outlets really seems to disappear. Riepl’s law of 1913 still seems to hold true.
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου