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Is there a way out of the bubble? Motives for the consumption of ideologically diverse news by doomscrollers

Kazun A.D.,

HSE University, Moscow, Russia, adkazun@hse.ru

elibrary_id: 822971 | ORCID: 0000-0002-9633-2776 | RESEARCHER_ID: K-6835-2015

Article received: 2023.02.16. Accepted: 2023.05.07


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2023.04.12
EDN: JVQNYI

Rubric: Russia today

For citation:

Kazun A.D. Is there a way out of the bubble? Motives for the consumption of ideologically diverse news by doomscrollers. – Polis. Political Studies. 2023. No. 4. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2023.04.12. EDN: JVQNYI

The research was conducted as part of the HSE Basic Research Program in 2023.

Abstract

The study is based on 46 interviews with doomscrollers – people who identify themselves as painfully excessive news consumers. Doomscrollers are characterized by an increase in the time of viewing news and an expansion of the list of resources used. Therefore, we can expect that they consume, among other things, the news of their ideological opponents. There are three forms of consumption: non-consumption, forced and voluntary (regular or episodic) consumption. When making decisions to watch news from media sources they disagree with, people evaluate the utility and cost (emotional, cognitive, time) of involvement in the information flow. There are different motives to consume opponent’s news: the willingness to understand your opponents, the desire to confirm one’s personal point of view, to maintain a moderate position, and find a “golden mean”. In addition, such news may be used for entertainment purposes. Based on the informant’s explanation of their use of ideologically opposite news sources, it can be assumed that such media consumption does not help people to go beyond their filter bubble. Most of these explanations do not imply the possibility of correcting their own beliefs. Ideologically opposite news simply becomes a means of making sure one is right, winning an argument, or making fun of ideas one does not agree with.

Keywords

doomscrolling, media consumption, selective exposure, echo chambers, filter bubbles, news, high-choice media environment, hatewatching, ironic viewing.

 Full Text

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