Summary

An analysis of divergent online news preferences of journalists and consumers and what this means for media and democracy in the digital age.

The websites of major media organizations--CNN, USA Today , the Guardian , and others--provide the public with much of the online news they consume. But although a large proportion of the top stories these sites disseminate cover politics, international relations, and economics, users of these sites show a preference (as evidenced by the most viewed stories) for news about sports, crime, entertainment, and weather. In this book, Pablo Boczkowski and Eugenia Mitchelstein examine the divergence in preferences and consider its implications for the media industry and democratic life in the digital age.

Drawing on analyses of more than 50,000 stories posted on twenty news sites in seven countries in North and South America and Western Europe, Boczkowski and Mitchelstein find that the gap in news preferences exists regardless of ideological orientation or national media culture, and that it is not affected by innovations in forms of storytelling, such as blogs and user-generated content on mainstream news sites. Drawing upon these findings, they explore the news gap's troubling consequences for the matrix that connects communication, technology, and politics in the digital age.

Choice Review

This reviewer has difficulty imagining a more detailed comparison of the news preferences of journalists and online audiences. Boczkowski (Northwestern) and Mitchelstein (visiting professor, Universidad de San Andres, Argentina) studied 20 news websites in seven countries--all in the Western Hemisphere or western Europe--and analyzed the content of nearly 40,000 news stories to reveal what they call the "news gap." They conclude that the gap is dynamic--shrinking in times of heightened political activity (election years) and growing at other times. The results are consistent across countries and ideologies in the areas sample. The research certainly has limitations, but it is the most detailed exploration of the topic to date. The book examines major news media outlets in each country, and does not include audiences who avoid those media altogether in favor of nontraditional news sources or entertainment-focused news. The results are consistent with those David Tewksbury reports in News on the Internet (CH, Nov'12, 50-1300), but Boczkowski and Mitchelstein provide more data than does Tewksbury. Fans of quantitative data will love the 75 pages of tables. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. D. Caristi Ball State University