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Kim Moody Thesis (PDF 3MB) Political Information Choices in a Media Saturated Environment: Credibility or Convenience? Kim Elizabeth Moody BSc(AES) (Griffith), GradDipLib&InfSt (QUT) Submitted in fulfilment of the QUT Doctor of Philosophy School of Media and Communication Creative Industries Faculty 2011 Supervisory Team Principal Supervisor Dr Jason Sternberg Creative industries Faculty Associate Supervisors Professor Clive Bean Faculty of Education Professor Helen Partridge Faculty of Science and Technology Professor Christine Bruce Faculty of Science and Technology 3 Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made. ___________________ Kim Elizabeth Moody 5 Acknowledgements (in no particular order) I would like to say thank you… To my parents, Peter and Carol Moody, for teaching me to always ask ‘why?’ To Professor Gillian Hallam for pointing out that this was an option To Professor Helen Partridge for kicking things off To Dr Jason Sternberg for bringing things to a close To Professors Clive Bean and Christine Bruce for clarity and wisdom To my brother, Greg Moody, for telling me I could when I thought I really couldn’t To all my friends for support and distraction (as needed), but with Special Mention going to Dr Iain Brownlie, Dr Shelley Wilkinson and (soon to be Dr) Liz Ellison for outstanding efforts in diversion, understanding and generally lightening things up when they got too heavy To my beloved furry boys who started this with me, but didn’t see the end: Boofy and Brady, I miss you, my special boys To my beloved furry and finned boys who did see this to the end: JiJu, Cheddar and Hal, for cuddles, company and supervision To the staff of QUT Library, most especially the Document Delivery Staff, who sourced countless articles for me without complaint And above and beyond all these, my endless thanks and appreciation go to Janet Fitzgerald, without whose emotional, psychological, intellectual, financial and practical support none of this would have been achievable. You mean more to me than words can express. 7 Abstract This thesis examines the ways in which citizens find out about socio-political issues. The project set out to discover how audience characteristics such as scepticism towards the media, gratifications sought, need for cognition and political interest influence information selection. While most previous information choice studies have focused on how individuals select from a narrow range of media types, this thesis considered a much wider sweep of the information landscape. This approach was taken to obtain an understanding of information choices in a more authentic context - in everyday life, people are not simply restricted to one or two news sources. Rather, they may obtain political information from a vast range of information sources, including media sources (e.g. radio, television, newspapers) and sources from beyond the media (eg. interpersonal sources, public speaking events, social networking websites). Thus, the study included both media and non-news media information sources. Data collection for the project consisted of a written, postal survey. The survey was administered to a probability sample in the greater Brisbane region, which is the third largest city in Australia. Data was collected during March and April 2008, approximately four months after the 2007 Australian Federal Election. Hence, the study was conducted in a non-election context. 585 usable surveys were obtained. In addition to measuring the attitudinal characteristics listed above, respondents were surveyed as to which information sources (eg. television shows, radio stations, websites and festivals) they usually use to find out about socio-political issues. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to explore patterns of influence between the audience characteristics and information consumption patterns. The results of this analysis indicated an apparent difference between the way citizens use news media sources and the way they use information sources from beyond the news media. In essence, it appears that non-news media information sources are used very deliberately to seek socio- political information, while media sources are used in a less purposeful way. If media use in a non-election context, such as that of the present study, is not primarily concerned with deliberate information seeking, media use must instead have other primary purposes, with political information acquisition as either a secondary driver, or a by-product of that primary purpose. It appears, then, that political information consumption in a media- 9 saturated society is more about routine ‘practices’ than it is about ‘information seeking’. The suggestion that media use is no longer primarily concerned with information seeking, but rather, is simply a behaviour which occurs within the broader set of everyday practices reflects Couldry’s (2004) media as practice paradigm. These findings highlight the need for more authentic and holistic contexts for media research. It is insufficient to consider information choices in isolation, or even from a wider range of information sources, such as that incorporated in the present study. Future media research must take greater account of the broader social contexts and practices in which media-oriented behaviours occur. The findings also call into question the previously assumed centrality of trust to information selection decisions. Citizens regularly use media they do not trust to find out about politics. If people are willing to use information sources they do not trust for democratically important topics such as politics, it is important that citizens possess the media literacy skills to effectively understand and evaluate the information they are presented with. Without the application of such media literacy skills, a steady diet of ‘fast food’ media may result in uninformed or misinformed voting decisions, which have implications for the effectiveness of democratic processes. This research has emphasized the need for further holistic and authentically contextualised media use research, to better understand how citizens use information sources to find out about important topics such as politics. Keywords Media as practice Media literacy Media diets Information repertoires Political information Media scepticism Need for cognition Media gratifications Human information behaviour Political communication Australia Table of Contents Statement of Original Authorship 5 Acknowledgements 7 Abstract 9 Table of Contents 11 List of Tables 15 List of Abbreviations 17 Glossary of Key Terms 17 Chapter One: Introduction 19 Introduction 19 Research problem and approach 20 The research study 23 Significance of research 23 Research limitations 24 Thesis overview 25 Conclusion 28 Chapter Two: The Australian Media Landscape 29 Introduction 29 Australia 29 The role of the media 30 Media regulation in Australia 31 Media ownership concentration in Australia 35 Australian attitudes towards the media 38 Australian media sectors 39 Newspapers 40 Broadcast media 41 The Brisbane media landscape 48 Digital and Internet Media 49 Conclusion 50 Chapter Three: The Literature on Audience Characteristics: Independent Variables for the Study 51 Introduction 51 Situating the present study within the broader Australian media and communications research tradition 51 Media scepticism – the development of a construct 55 Need for cognition (NFC) 62 Media gratifications 65 Political Interest 78 Conclusion 84 Chapter Four: Information Consumption Patterns: Dependent Variables 87 Introduction 87 Information repertoires and media diets 87 Socio-political information 88 Media versus non-news media information sources 89 Socio-political information repertoires 92 11 Media diets 92 Mainstream/non-mainstream media diet 93 Private/public media diet 99 Tabloid/broadsheet media diet 101 Conclusion 104 Chapter Five: Research Methods 107 Introduction 107 Sample and procedure 107 The survey technique 110 Survey development 116 Measuring the independent variables 117 Measuring the dependent variables 128 Descriptive statistics of the dependent variables 135 Statistical analyses 135 Conclusion 137 Chapter Six: Findings 139 Introduction 139 Background to hypotheses tested in the study 140 Multiple linear regression 143 Independent variables – unique contributions 149 Media Scepticism 149 Need for Cognition 154 Media Gratifications Sought 159 Political interest 163 Dependent variables - the models 166 Mainstream/non-mainstream media diet 167 Private/public media diet 168 Tabloid/broadsheet media diet 170 Television socio-political information repertoire 171 Radio socio-political information repertoire 174 Print media socio-political information repertoire 177 Internet socio-political information repertoire 179 Non-news media socio-political information repertoire 180 Overall socio-political information repertoire 182 Conclusion 184 Chapter Seven: Discussion 189 Introduction 189 Media use versus non-news media information source use 190 The perceived homogeneity of the Brisbane media environment 195 The diminished importance of trust, or, the irony of media literacy 199 No election, no information-seeking: Everyday media practices in a media saturated society 205 The role of convenience in
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