Journal
NEW MEDIA & SOCIETY
Volume 25, Issue 8, Pages 2118-2139Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/14614448211027393
Keywords
cross-cutting exposure; diversity; echo chambers; filter bubbles; News audiences; passive tracking
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The rise of new, distributed forms of news access has shaped people's news use, leading to more diverse news repertoires. However, it is also associated with a higher prominence of partisan outlets.
There is still much to learn about how the rise of new, 'distributed', forms of news access through search engines, social media and aggregators are shaping people's news use. We analyse passive web tracking data from the United Kingdom to make a comparison between direct access (primarily determined by self-selection) and distributed access (determined by a combination of self-selection and algorithmic selection). We find that (1) people who use search engines, social media and aggregators for news have more diverse news repertoires. However, (2) social media, search engine and aggregator news use is also associated with repertoires where more partisan outlets feature more prominently. The findings add to the growing evidence challenging the existence of filter bubbles, and highlight alternative ways of characterizing people's online news use.
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