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How news feels: anticipated anxiety as a factor in news avoidance and a barrier to political engagement

A man walks in London's Canary Wharf. REUTERS/Russell Boyce

A man walks in London's Canary Wharf. REUTERS/Russell Boyce

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Published in: Political Communication

This paper explores how the preconceptions of lower- and middle-class people in the UK shape the way they engage with the news.  

Abstract: This study uses an inductive, qualitative approach to examine the perspectives of lower- and middle-class people in the United Kingdom who regularly access little or no professionally-produced news. Findings suggest that people’s preexisting perspectives about what news is (anxiety-inducing) and offers for them (little practical value) play an important role in shaping attitudes toward news and subsequent behaviour. These perspectives highlight the importance of emotional dimensions of news use beyond its presumed value as a source of information. While political communication scholarship has often treated news consumption as the cornerstone of good citizenship, we find avoiders hold uneven, weakly internalised norms about a perceived duty to stay informed, in part because they anticipate news will make them anxious without being relevant to their lives, resulting in limited engagement with news, and by extension, civic and political affairs. Promoting more informed societies requires grappling with these entrenched perspectives.

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Meet the authors

Dr Benjamin Toff

Dr Benjamin Toff is a Research Associate at the Reuters Institute and previously led the Trust in News Project. He is an assistant professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. He... Read more about Dr Benjamin Toff

Prof. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is a Professor at the Department of Communication of the University of Copenhagen and a Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Before leaving Oxford in 2024, he worked at the Institute,... Read more about Prof. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen