The transition from low- to high-choice media environments has had far-reaching implications for citizens’ media use and its relationship with political knowledge. However, there is still a lack of comparative research on how citizens combine the usage of different media and how that is related to political knowledge. To fill this void, we use a unique cross-national survey about the online and offline media use habits of more than 28,000 individuals in 17 European countries. Our aim is to (i) profile different types of news consumers and (ii) understand how each user profile is linked to political knowledge acquisition. Our results show that five user profiles – news minimalists, social media news users, traditionalists, online news seekers, and hyper news consumers – can be identified, although the prevalence of these profiles varies across countries. Findings further show that both traditional and online-based news diets are correlated with higher political knowledge. However, online-based news use is more widespread in Southern Europe, where it is associated with lower levels of political knowledge than in Northern Europe. By focusing on news audiences, this study provides a comprehensive and fine-grained analysis of how contemporary European political information environments perform and contribute to an informed citizenry.

从低选择的媒体环境过渡到高选择的媒体环境对公民的媒体使用及其与政治知识的关系产生了深远的影响。但是，仍然缺乏关于公民如何结合使用不同媒体及其与政治知识的关系的比较研究。为了填补这一空白，我们使用了一项独特的跨国调查，调查了17个欧洲国家/地区的28,000多人的在线和离线媒体使用习惯。我们的目标是（i）对不同类型的新闻消费者进行简介，以及（ii）了解每个用户简介如何与政治知识获取相关联。我们的结果表明，有五个用户配置文件–新闻极简主义者，社交媒体新闻用户，传统主义者，在线新闻寻求者和超级新闻消费者–可以确定，尽管这些配置文件的流行程度在各个国家有所不同。研究结果进一步表明，传统的和基于网络的新闻饮食都与更高的政治知识相关。但是，基于在线的新闻使用在南欧更为普遍，与北欧相比，该新闻与较低的政治知识水平相关。通过关注新闻受众，本研究对当代欧洲政治信息环境如何表现和为知情的公民做出了全面而细致的分析。