High-choice Media Environment

This subtheme focuses on the effects and implications of a high-choice media environment. The media landscape has undergone a fundamental transformation in the previous decades. Where consumers used to be limited to choosing from a restricted number of media channels, they can now consume whatever media of their choice on various channels (e.g., social media, podcasts, and YouTube). This gives consumers more autonomy about what media they consume and enables them to seek out information that fits their interests. From a user perspective, this can be seen as a good development.

However, a high-choice media environment also sparks concerns. As consumers have more choices for what media to consume, they must be more selective. Therefore, their preferences become more important which could lead to selective exposure. Scholars worry that some citizens increasingly consume soft news (e.g., sports and entertainment), and avoid hard news (e.g., politics and public affairs). This is expected to result in less knowledge of current affairs and news facts. Furthermore, developments in the media landscape, such as the rise of digital media, have had an enormous impact on how news is made. The traditional gatekeeping process has lost ground, and news organizations compromise on journalistic quality as they concentrate on audience-appealing material at the price of more in-depth reporting due to additional newsroom downsizing and audience rivalry. Therefore, in a high-choice media environment, it is more difficult to guarantee the quality and trustworthiness of news.

Research within this subtheme includes studies on media contents and effects, issue diversity, trust in media, digital journalism and selective exposure.