Abstract

Studies have extensively discussed what characterizes news media sources as alternative. However, this study focuses on users and the range of news sources they perceive as alternative media. We expect that these audience perceptions vary between countries, depending on the level of media fragmentation and polarization. We use original survey data from five countries (Denmark = 2,667 respondents; Italy = 2,121; Poland = 2,536; Switzerland = 1,859; United States = 3,493) and investigate (i) what sources are perceived by users as alternative and (ii) whether these perceptions differ among users embedded in more or less fragmented-polarized media environments. Our results reveal that users have distinctive types of media in mind when reporting alternative media consumption, fanning out on a spectrum from traditional mass media outlets to self-proclaimed alternative news media. Interestingly, despite a greater supply of alternative news sources and an overall higher propensity to indicate the use of alternative news sources, citizens in more fragmented-polarized media environments are more likely to indicate using mass media outlets as alternative news media. We conclude from these findings that media fragmentation and polarization in a political information environment contribute to the convergence of the alternative-to-mainstream spectrum in the eyes of their audiences.

摘要

研究广泛讨论了替代性新闻媒体来源的特征。然而，这项研究的重点是用户和他们感知的新闻来源的范围作为替代媒体。我们预计，这些受众的看法因国家/地区而异，具体取决于媒体碎片化和两极分化的程度。我们使用来自五个国家的原始调查数据（丹麦 = 2,667 名受访者；意大利 = 2,121；波兰 = 2,536；瑞士 = 1,859；美国 = 3,493），并调查 (i) 用户认为哪些来源是替代来源，以及 (ii) 这些来源是否身处或多或少碎片化两极分化的媒体环境中的用户之间的看法有所不同。我们的研究结果表明，用户在报告另类媒体消费时会考虑不同类型的媒体，从传统大众媒体到自称的另类新闻媒体。有趣的是，尽管替代新闻来源的供应量更大，并且总体上更倾向于表明使用替代新闻来源，但在更加分散的两极分化媒体环境中，公民更有可能表明使用大众媒体作为替代新闻媒体。我们从这些发现中得出结论，政治信息环境中的媒体碎片化和两极分化有助于在受众眼中替代主流谱系的融合。