What is news? Mapping the diversity of news experiences in digital trace data

Abstract

Political communication research centers the definition of news around institutions and norms tied to professional journalism. However, qualitative audience research increasingly shows that this approach does not match the reality of citizens anymore – news has become a much more fluid, fragmented concept than just what has been produced by journalists. Not accounting for these changes means that researchers are missing out on important sources of political information, potentially leading to biased estimates of exposure. This is especially true in the area of digital trace studies in which researchers are faced with an abundance of detailed data but so far mostly limited their analyses to lists of popular news outlets to research political information exposure. The aim of this paper is threefold: Conceptually , we propose to combine existing conceptualizations of news into a taxonomy of news. Methodologically , we apply this taxonomy to classify domains in digital trace data of Dutch users, showing its applicability to study changes in information environments on a larger, quantitative scale. Empirically , we show the extent to which a focus on general interest newsroom journalism leads to distortions and blind spots in news diversity research. Our results show that there is much to be found when zooming in on the long tail of news, outside of larger newsroom journalism sources. In particular for the study of news diversity and media effects, throwing away part of the data for research-practical purposes leads to missing the nuances that might just be of interest.

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