This document summarizes a presentation on news consumption habits in the digital age. It finds that people's offline news habits, such as relying primarily on print, TV, or radio, influence which online news sources they visit. Younger "digital natives" aged 18-29 visit a greater variety of news websites than older "digital immigrants" and "settlers". While the internet increases access to information, habits dictate that people rely on established news entities. Understanding news consumption habits across media can provide insights into the future of journalism.

1. News Consumption Revisited:
Examining the Power of Habits
in the 21st
Century
Angela M. Lee
Ph.D. Candidate
Annenberg School for Communication
University of Pennsylvania
alee@asc.upenn.edu
11th
International Symposium on Online Journalism
April 24th, 2010 // Austin, TX
Michael X. Delli Carpini
Dean
Annenberg School for Communication
University of Pennsylvania
mxd@asc.upenn.edu

2. The New Era: Journalism In
Transition
 Optimism among 1st
wave of online journalism
studies: Internet liberates news information.
 “A revolution”; “future of journalism”; “a whole new
journalism”
 Q: How does the Internet make a difference in
online news consumption?
 Democratize news information?

3. Online News: Old Wine in New
Bottle?
 Dominance of tradition news entities online
 Supply most news content;
 “Shovelware” of content;
 Have most traffic.
 Hindman (2008): “Accessibility does not equate
visibility”
 In theory: Internet allows all voices to be heard
 In practice: Only those with megaphones are heard
(i.e., Yahoo, MSNBC, CNN)
 “Myth of digital democracy”

4. (New) Theory of Media Attendance
 Def.: People lapse into habitual patterns of media
consumption when supply > demand.
 Habits = “gratifications” in U&G, but rarely
examined in Communication research
 Habits: An activity that is routinely performed, and
often developed early on in one’s life.
 Primacy
 Frequency

5. Habits & Digital Divides
 Contemporary Americans have grown up in three
different news media and technological
environments:
 Digital Natives (18-29): Print’s less central, TV&Radio
news are still influential but declining. Grew up with
Internet.
 Digital Immigrants (30-64): TV&Radio news
dominated, though print was still important. Adopted
the Internet later in life.
 Digital Settlers (65+): Print dominated, TV&Radio news
on the rise. Grew up in analog-only environments
Source: Palfrey & Grasser, 2008

6. Data & Method
 Biennial Media Consumption Survey 2008
(BMCS) by the Pew Research Center for the
People & The Press
 N=3600 nationally representative sample of adults
 Survey administered from April 29-May 21, 2008
 Logistic Regression Analysis
 SPSS 17.
 Chi-squares, Gamma and OLS also performed, and all
findings yield the same conclusion as that of Logistic
Regression Analysis

7. H1a-d & H2a-d
 In traditional media landscape…
 H1a: Settlers’ (65+) primary & most frequented
news medium = Print
 H1b-c: Immigrants’ (30-64) primary & most
frequented news medium = TV/Radio
 H1d: Natives’ (18-29) primary & most frequented
news medium = Internet
 As would be expected, all hypotheses are
supported, except for TV news use.
 Q: TV?

8. Post-Hoc Analysis of TV Usage (freq.)
N= 271
Broadcast: ABC, NBC, CBS
Cable: CNN, MSNBC, ESPN, CNBC, FOX, BBC

9. H3a-d (Migration of Offline Habits
Online)
 Specific websites that one turns to online will be
influenced by one’s offline consumption habits
 H3a: Settlers (65+): Primarily visit print
newspaper sites
 H3b,c: Immigrants (30-64): Primarily visit
TV/radio sites
 H3d: Natives (18-29): Primarily visit non-
traditional news sites
 i.e., Drudge, Digg, Slate, Topix, Blackamericaweb,
Charter, Cox.net

10. …H3e
 Being natural inhabitants of the Internet,
Natives (18-29) will visit a greater variety of
news websites than Immigrants or Settlers.

11. H3a-d Findings
Newspaper:  TV: Half  Radio:  Untraditional: 
Note: CNN, MSNBC and Fox = 70% of TV news sites
Q: Untraditional: Weird pattern? 6% total Settlers; Small N
N= 485
*See paper for logistic regression analyses*

12. Post-Hoc: “YI” (30-47) look more like Natives;
“SI” (48-64) look more like Settlers.
Q: Convergence of online news uses among younger population?
N= 485

13. H3e Findings (Supported)
 Significantly more natives (29%) reported a
greater variety of news sources than immigrants
(27%) or settlers (11%). Also:

14. Limitations
 Suitability of data
 Exploratory in nature
 Possibility of alternative explanations
Nonetheless…
 Emergence of interesting patterns
 Suggestive role of habits both offline and online

15. Implications
1. Habits dictate traditional news medium choices
2. Habitual offline news uses influence online news uses
3. Even if there is accessibility and visibility, as long as
news consumers don’t have the habit of seeking
alternative sources, “digital democracy” is merited
only in theory but not practice
4. Possible maturation of habitual news uses over time
5. Younger population (18-47) is converging in their
online news use patterns

16. Future of (Online) Journalism?
 “We can only change what we understand” (G.S.
Adam, 1993)
 We need to understand why and how people
consume news across media
 Angela’s forthcoming dissertation: Examining news
consumption via Uses & Gratifications + Integrative
Model of Behavior Change

17. Thank you
for your time and attention
Angela M. Lee
alee@asc.upenn.edu
Michael X. Delli Carpini
mxd@asc.upenn.edu
Photo by: Angela M. Lee