ABSTRACT

Contemporary versions of democratic theory tend to hold citizens to a relatively high standard. As the keystone of democracies, citizens are expected to pay attention to local, regional, national, and international public affairs and to acquire information they can use to formulate opinion (Berelson, 1952; cf., Schudson, 1998). The strongest version of this requirement suggests that citizens should be ever-vigilant; responsibility for acquiring information primarily rests with them. A more moderate expectation acknowledges that news is selectively presented by media sources and that public affairs information vies with other information for public attention (Lippmann, 1922). This contest is most visible in newscasts, front pages, and other news venues. A reasonable set of expectations of citizens

recognizes that their selection of public affairs news is a partial function of what is available and how it is presented. Recent normative and research treat-

ments of news audiences have focused on how people respond to expanding content options, particularly those options that have multiplied with the introduction of high-bandwidth media. If audiences were to choose content at random, heedless of cues and enticements offered by media producers, the large number of content options online would decrease the probability of any one option being selected. Of course, few audience members choose entirely at random; content producers (e.g., news editors) exercise substantial influence over what people choose to read in print and online (Graber, 1988; Eveland and Dunwoody,

1998). Basic processes of media development suggest that online content providers will develop focused sites containing content of interest to a small segment of the news audience (Merrill and Lowenstein, 1979). This segmentation strategy could result in audience members consuming only a fraction of the range of possible current affairs information. The internet provides opportunities for users to preselect their news preferences such that they are able to avoid entire categories of news online. The ultimate version of this process is what Negroponte (1995: 153) dubbed “The Daily Me.” Some researchers have suggested that specialized news sites and delivery options will fracture the national news audience into internally homogeneous groups (Sunstein, 2001). The result will be a polarized nation, with divisions in knowledge and opinions becoming increasingly prevalent. Writing about the segmentation of

audiences through cable television and other high-bandwidth media, Katz (1996) put a decidedly normative spin on changes in audience knowledge. He suggested that segmentation of the audience in modern democracies was part of larger patterns of increasing social segmentation in these countries. He decried this development, suggesting that common public spaces where ideas and issues are discussed for a general audience can be highly functional for democratic nations. As a result of audience fragmentation, common public perceptions and agendas are less likely to emerge (Chaffee and Metzger, 2001). Thus, any development toward segmentation (and, therefore, fragmentation) could ultimately weaken modern democracies (Katz, 1996). At the same time, some observers have

suggested that online news media may give audiences more independence in choosing what news to view and more power over processes of news production and presentation (Corrado, 1996; Havick,

2000). The wealth of news content online available on traditional and internet-only outlets and the high levels of selectivity and interactivity these sites provide are often thought to free citizens, at least partially, from the hierarchical power of news editors and to increase citizen’s involvement with political information and the public sphere. This chapter provides a review of both

the recent literature on news on the internet and the concepts researchers use to define the potential effects of the medium. Our goal is to identify a set of findings and ideas that researchers, critics, and policy-makers can use to think about certain effects of the internet. The review begins with some background on how media effects researchers have thought about comparing the effects of exposure to news in different media. We turn from there to the growing literature on the presentation of news online. Our goal here is to identify whether and how news on the internet is different from what audiences may find in the traditional media (for a discussion of the structure medium comparisons, see Eveland, 2003). The focus then turns to how people are using the internet for news consumption and whether that consumption has an effect on what and how people learn about public affairs. Finally, we will draw on the literature dealing with online news reading to discuss a set of concepts that we hope will help readers of this handbook consider and study how online news consumption operates in contemporary society.