Shrinking core? Exploring the differential agenda setting power of traditional and personalized news

Möller, J., Helberger, N., Trilling, D., Irion, K. & Vreese, C.H. de

info, vol. 18, num: 6, pp: 26-41, 2016

Abstract

A shared issue agenda provides democracies with a set of topics that structure the public debate. The advent of personalized news media that use smart algorithms to tailor the news offer to the user challenges the established way of setting the agenda of such a common core of issues. This paper tests the effects of personalized news use on perceived importance of these issues in the common core. In particular we study whether personalized news use leads to a concentration at the top of the issue agenda or to a more diverse issue agenda with a long tail of topics. Based on a cross-sectional survey of a representative population sample (N=1556), we find that personalized news use does not lead to a small common core in which few topics are discussed extensively, yet there is a relationship between personalized news use and a preference for less discussed topics. This is a result of a specific user profile of personalized news users: younger, more educated news users are more interested in topics at the fringes of the common core and also make more use of personalized news offers. The results are discussed in the light of media diversity and recent advances in public sphere research.

Links

common core, fragmentation, frontpage, Media law, media law & policy, Personalisation, survey

Bibtex

Article{Moeller2016,
	title = {Shrinking core? Exploring the differential agenda setting power of traditional and personalized news},
	author = {Möller, J. and Helberger, N. and Trilling, D. and Irion, K. and Vreese, C.H. de},
	url = {http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/info-05-2016-0020},
	doi = {https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/info-05-2016-0020},
	year = {0927},
	date = {2016-09-27},
	journal = {info},
	volume = {18},
	number = {6},
	pages = {26-41},
	abstract = {A shared issue agenda provides democracies with a set of topics that structure the
public debate. The advent of personalized news media that use smart algorithms to tailor the
news offer to the user challenges the established way of setting the agenda of such a common
core of issues. This paper tests the effects of personalized news use on perceived importance
of these issues in the common core. In particular we study whether personalized news use
leads to a concentration at the top of the issue agenda or to a more diverse issue agenda with
a long tail of topics. Based on a cross-sectional survey of a representative population sample
(N=1556), we find that personalized news use does not lead to a small common core in which
few topics are discussed extensively, yet there is a relationship between personalized news
use and a preference for less discussed topics. This is a result of a specific user profile of
personalized news users: younger, more educated news users are more interested in topics at
the fringes of the common core and also make more use of personalized news offers. The
results are discussed in the light of media diversity and recent advances in public sphere
research.},
	keywords = {common core, fragmentation, frontpage, Media law, media law &amp; policy, Personalisation, survey},
}