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Media, Civic Engagement and Everyday Life
PP 056
From News Use to Public Connection. Audiences’ Everyday Experiences of Digital Journalism, Civic Engagement and Social Life
J. Swart
1
, C. Peters
2
, M. Broersma
1
1
University of Groningen, Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, Groningen, Netherlands
2
Aalborg University Copenhagen, Department of Communication and Psychology, Copenhagen, Denmark
This paper applies a user-oriented perspective to analyze how people experience and make use of news to connect to public life in the digital age. Whereas
in previous research ‘mediated public connection’ (Couldry, Livingstone and Markham 2007) is typically addressed through top-down, normative frame‑
works, we argue that an analysis grounded in everyday life practices and preferences paints a more accurate picture of the role news fulfills in a rapidly
changing media landscape. Although news has traditionally served as an important tool for people to connect to others and to engage in public life, digi‑
talization alters this by creating new avenues for civic engagement and novel rituals attached to different patterns, platforms and practices of news use. It
simultaneously fragments and opens up the news agenda by enabling users to navigate an increased supply of news on their own terms, which changes
the media repertoires people form, as well as the constructive role of news in everyday life (Swart, Peters, and Broersma 2016). Using Q methodology and
semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 36 Dutch media users of mixed gender, age, educational level and geographical background, this paper discusses
how the value of news for connecting to social life is experienced in the digital age. More specifically, we explore how news media function as a tool for
people to facilitate shared frames of reference that enable them to engage and participate in cultural, social, civic and political networks. Our analysis re‑
veals how different news outlets impact the inclusiveness, engagement, relevance and constructiveness associated with news use. It confirms that people
now understand the notion of civic engagement in more individualized, small-scale and issue-based ways. Second, our findings suggest that more than
knowing news events, most important to users’public connection is understanding how ongoing societal developments may become relevant within their
everyday lives. Finally, we found that news is perceived as constructive for connecting to public life in numerous mundane ways, which sometimes hold
little relation to journalism’s informational functions. Extrapolating from these empirical findings, this paper suggests that while news still functions as
an important instrument for people to link up to public life, this does not always match users’perspectives on, practices of and preferences about mediated
public connection.This indicates that news outlets potentially risk disconnection when they are no longer aligned with the public issues people encounter in
everyday life. A user perspective is required to comprehend – and possibly, adapt to – these shifts, to gain greater understandings what the changing news
media landscape means for people’s connections to society at large. References - Couldry, N., Livingstone, S. & Markham, T. (2007). Media Consumption and
Public Engagement: Beyond the Presumption of Attention. London: Palgrave. - Swart, J., Peters, C. & Broersma, M. (2016). Navigating Cross-Media News
Use. Media repertoires and the value of news in everyday life. Journalism Studies, online, 1–21.
PP 057
The Use of Social Media and Civic Engagement – Results from a Cross-Lagged Panel Study
J. Breuer
1
, S. Utz
1
1
Knowledge Media Research Center, Junior Research Group ERC - Social Media, Tübingen, Germany
The question whether the use of social media is beneficial or detrimental for civic engagement has been a cause for debate for quite a while now. While
some have argued that social media provide an opportunity to become active for individuals who are otherwise not politically or civically engaged, others
have referred to a displacement hypothesis which suggests that time spent with social media is missing for other activities, including civic or political
engagement. Some have also used terms like“slacktivism”to indicate that online activities, such as sharing or signing an online petition, are not the same
as civic engagement. Mirroring these controversies, the empirical findings on the relationship between social media use and civic engagement are overall
mixed. Previously, two cross-sectional studies conducted by the Pew Research Center with large representative samples from the United States looked at
“Social Media and Political Engagement”(2012) and“Civic Engagement in the Digital Age”(2013). Two of the key findings of those studies were that people
who regularly discuss political issues are also more likely to use social for civic purposes and that civic activities on social networking sites are more common
among users with a higher educational level. While those surveys provided many interesting insights, they were cross-sectional in nature and, hence, not
able to probe causal processes. In order to also assess potential longitudinal relationships between the use of social media and civic engagement, we used
data from five waves of a longitudinal panel study with adult internet users (age ≥ 18 years) in the Netherlands (Nwave 1 = 3367, Nwave 5 = 1627).
The survey covered various topics and also included questions about different types of civic engagement activities (including, e.g., voluntary community
work, signing a petition or donating money). Comparisons between users and nonusers of Twitter showed that the users overall engage in more civic
activities than the nonusers in all waves. With the exception of wave 5 in which the difference was smaller, Twitter users on average engaged in about 0.5
civic activities more than nonusers across waves (on a scale from 0 to 9). We found no such differences between users and nonusers of Facebook. We also
investigated the longitudinal relationship between social media use and civic engagement in a set of cross-lagged structural equation models in which
we included participants who reported the use of Twitter (n = 682) or Facebook (n = 2576) in at least one of the waves. We found no cross-sectional or
longitudinal relationship between the frequency of posting about news and the motive to use social media to keep up with the news and civic engagement.
However, educational level and trust in other people emerged as significant predictors of civic engagement. Our findings suggest that there is no direct ef‑
fect of social media use on civic engagement (or vice versa), but that users and nonusers of certain social media (e.g., Twitter) differ with regard to personal
characteristics that are also associated with civic engagement, such as education or trust.