Abstract

How do audiences understand today’s high-choice media environment? This study focuses on the beginning stages of the sensemaking process and how audiences group, differentiate, and give meaning to various media organizations. Adopting a multidimensional scaling (MDS) approach, 13 media organizations are visually mapped by the implicit thoughts used to compare them. The output—a sensemaking map—is analyzed across two studies, with a mixed-method sequential explanatory design. Study one uses national survey data of U.S. adults (n = 1502) to generate and interpret an overall, aggregate sensemaking map. Study two combines this procedure with in-depth interviews of 18 U.S. adults, to identify distinct types of personal sensemaking maps and logic. Both studies point to the central role that assessments about media genre (news–entertainment) and political orientation (liberal–conservative) play in the sensemaking process. Ultimately, more attention should be paid to audience sensemaking about media, particularly as research about disinformation, media literacy, and news avoidance grow.

摘要

受众如何理解当今的高选择性媒体环境？本研究侧重于意义构建过程的开始阶段，以及受众如何对各种媒体组织进行分组、区分和赋予意义。采用多维缩放 (MDS) 方法，13 家媒体组织通过用于比较它们的隐含思想进行可视化映射。输出——意义建构图——在两项研究中进行了分析，采用混合方法的顺序解释设计。研究一使用美国成年人的全国调查数据（n = 1502) 生成和解释一个整体的、聚合的意义构建图。研究二将此程序与对 18 名美国成年人的深入访谈相结合，以确定不同类型的个人意义建构图和逻辑。两项研究都指出了对媒体类型（新闻-娱乐）和政治取向（自由-保守）的评估在意义构建过程中发挥的核心作用。最终，应该更多地关注受众对媒体的意义构建，特别是随着关于虚假信息、媒体素养和新闻回避的研究的增长。