NAPNF · Countering News Avoidance with Personalized News Formats

This MSCA research project ‘Countering News Avoidance with Personalized News Formats (NAPNF)’ uses an interdisciplinary approach combining sociology and (media) psychology to ask: How does personalized content relate to news avoidance behaviors, and what steps can be taken to counteract their negative influence on news consumption? Despite news avoidance’s prominence in scholarly discussions on how to increase trust in media and other institutions, there is still a dissensus on how to both fundamentally conceptualize news avoidance and understand this audience behavior. NAPNF addresses this gap. To answer this question, this project will first determine the specific profiles of news avoiders via a qualitative approach which will lead to a more multifaceted comprehension of the different rationales of these avoiders. Second, I will conduct a panel survey on how these specific profiles relate to the level of knowledge of contested (e.g., migration) and uncontested issues (e.g., festivities). To date, research has insufficiently addressed to what extent news avoiders actually stay informed on societal issues. Third, personalized news formats based on these contested and uncontested issues will be used in experiments to evaluate whether these formats might stimulate or obstruct news avoidance. NAPNF combines the expertise at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and the Digital Democracy Centre (DDC) on media trust and literacy with my six years’ experience as a quantitative and qualitative scholar in journalism, AI, and newsroom innovation. The project will link academic research to practical recommendations which can contribute to the development of strategies that attract news avoiders in the European society, improve audience reach, and potentially generate societal benefits for the news industry.