News from the User's Perspective: With Naivety to Validity

In journalism studies, news is still closely tied to journalistic institutions. However, the rise of digital platforms as gateways to news, catalyzing processes of dedifferentiation, challenges established news definitions. This makes a dedication to the audience understanding of news all the more urgent. That is, in order to measure news in everyday life contexts as validly as possible, scientific operationalization and lay definition of news should be as close as possible.Accordingly, drawing on 26 semi-structured in-depth interviews with subjects diverse in age, gender, and education, this article explores what constitutes news from user's perspectives, and to this end, differentiates between news originator, content, style, channel, and function. Interviews were complemented by card-laying tasks with participants being asked to decide whether or not different actors, actants, headlines, and social media posts were news (dimensions). Findings show that people have a heterogeneous understanding of news originators and channels, but their associations of news content and style are informed by traditional journalistic norms. Thereby, audiences emphasize neutrality and news as output of selfless activity. The article concludes that an institutionally shaped definition of news does not capture the term's extension in people's everyday exposure any more. Finally, methodological-practical implications are discussed.

Automated summary

In journalism studies, the definition of news is challenged by the rise of digital platforms, which has led to a more urgent need to understand news from the audience's perspective. This article explores how users perceive news in terms of its origin, content, style, channel, and function through interviews and card-laying tasks. The findings suggest that people have diverse understandings of news originators and channels, but their associations with news content and style are influenced by traditional journalistic norms. The article concludes that the institutional definition of news no longer fully captures its meaning in everyday exposure.