UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Coping with diversity: exposure to public-affairs TV in a changing viewing environment Wonneberger, A. Publication date 2011 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Wonneberger, A. (2011). Coping with diversity: exposure to public-affairs TV in a changing viewing environment. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:10 Oct 2021 This dissertation studies the consequences of a changing viewing environment for exposure to COPING WITH DIVERSITY news and current-affairs programs in the Netherlands from 1988 to 2010. The increasing variety of viewing alternatives has raised concerns about viewers who systematically drop out from news exposure or shift to more entertaining infotainment or soft-news formats. This study develops an integrated approach to audience behavior. Combining influences of viewing moti- vations and aspects of viewing situations yields a comprehensive understanding of viewing behavior. People-meter data on the level of individual viewers are used to analyze how viewers have responded to the expansion of choice opportunities. The results reveal that Dutch viewers have spent more time watching a greater diversity of public-affairs TV over the last two decades. These findings indicate stable habits of watching public-affairs TV and contradict fears of audience fragmentation and specialization. Exposure to Public-Affairs TV in a Changing Viewing Environment ISBN 978-94-6191-078-3 ANKE WONNEBERGER COPING WITH DIVERSITY Exposure to Public-Affairs TV in a Changing Viewing Environment Anke Wonneberger Coping with Diversity. Exposure to Public-Affairs TV in a Changing Viewing Environment ISBN 978-94-6191-078-3 © Anke Wonneberger Amsterdam, 2011 Printed by Ipskamp Drukkers, Enschede Cover: Freek Batstra The Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) Kloveniersburgwal 48 1012 CX Amsterdam The Netherlands Contact: [email protected] COPING WITH DIVERSITY Exposure to Public-Affairs TV in a Changing Viewing Environment ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D. C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op donderdag 1 december 2011, te 12:00 uur door Anke Wonneberger geboren te Lauchhammer, Duitsland Promotiecommissie Promotor: Prof. dr. K. Schönbach Co-promotor: Dr. L. van Meurs Overige leden: Prof. dr. J.W.J. Beentjes Prof. dr. U. Hasebrink Dr. E. Lauf Prof. dr. P.C. Neijens Prof. dr. C.H. de Vreese Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 Dynamics of Individual Television Viewing Behavior: 13 Models, Empirical Evidence, and a Research Program CHAPTER 2 Dimensionality of TV-News Exposure: A Comparison of 35 Exposure Measures from People-Meter Data CHAPTER 3 Interest in News and Politics or Situational Determinants? 57 Why People Watch the News CHAPTER 4 Staying Tuned. TV-News Audiences in the Netherlands 81 1988–2010 CHAPTER 5 How Keeping up Diversifies: Watching Public-Affairs TV 105 in the Netherlands 1988–2010 CONCLUSION 133 APPENDIX A Composition of the People-Meter Data 147 APPENDIX B Dutch Public-Affairs Programs, 1988–2010 151 ENGLISH SUMMARY 167 NEDERLANDSE SAMENVATTING 169 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 171 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1 Overview of the Research Project 9 FIGURE 1.1 The Model of Program Choice by Webster and Wakshlag 16 FIGURE 1.2 The Model of Program Choice by Klövekorn 17 FIGURE 1.3 A Framework of Levels Influencing Program Choice 21 FIGURE 1.4 A Process Model of Sequential Viewing Patterns 22 FIGURE 3.1 Interaction Effects between Structural and Motivational 70 Factors on the Expected News Viewing Duration FIGURE 4.1 Proportion of News Programs Relative to the Duration of 89 Total Programming per Broadcaster per Year and Total Hours of News Programming per Week FIGURE 4.2 News Exposure over Time 91 FIGURE 4.3 News Avoidance over Time 92 FIGURE 4.4 Trends and Relative Strength of Effects on News 94 Exposure, 1988–2010 FIGURE 5.1 Amount of Public-Affairs Formats Broadcast per Year (in 115 Hours) FIGURE 5.2 Average Exposure per Program Format per Year 116 FIGURE 5.3 Relative Frequencies of Information Viewer Types over 119 Time LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1.1 Factors Influencing TV Viewing 28 TABLE 2.1 Factor Solution of News Exposure Measures from People- 45 Meter Data TABLE 2.2 OLS Regression of Viewer Characteristics on Measures of 47 News Exposure TABLE 2.3 Negative-Binomial Regression of Viewer Characteristics on 48 Measures of News Exposure TABLE 2.4 Logistic Regression of Viewer Characteristics on News 48 Avoidance TABLE 2.A1 Descriptive Statistics of Measures of News Exposure from 55 People-Meter Data TABLE 3.1 Maximum Rating per Program during Sample Week 64 TABLE 3.2 Multivariate Regression Models on News Exposure: 67 Improvement by Motivational and Situational Factors TABLE 3.3 Changes of Expected Values of News Viewing Measures 68 [and 95% Confidence Intervals] for Predictor Changes from ½ Standard Deviation below to ½ Standard Deviation above the Mean TABLE 3.A1 Multivariate Regression Models on News Exposure 77 TABLE 4.1 Negative-Binomial Regression Models on News Viewing 93 Duration: Contributions of Motivational and Situational Factors per Year TABLE 4.A1 Changes of Expected News-Viewing Minutes [and 95% 102 Confidence Intervals] for Predictor Changes from ½ Standard Deviation below to ½ Standard Deviation above the Mean TABLE 5.1 Typology of Public Affairs Formats with Examples of 108 Dutch Programming TABLE 5.2 Typology of Information Viewers: Cluster Solution of 117 Duration and Proportion of Exposure to News and Current-Affairs Formats TABLE 5.3 Characteristics of Information Viewer Types: Means (and 120 Standard Deviations) TABLE 5.A1 Multinomial Logistic Regression Models of Viewer 129 Characteristics and Viewing-Related Factors on Information Viewing Patterns TABLE B.1 Overview of Public-Affairs Programs, March 1988 153 TABLE B.2 Overview of Public-Affairs Programs, March 1990 154 TABLE B.3 Overview of Public-Affairs Programs, March 1992 155 TABLE B.4 Overview of Public-Affairs Programs, March 1994 156 TABLE B.5 Overview of Public-Affairs Programs, March 1996 157 TABLE B.6 Overview of Public-Affairs Programs, March 1998 158 TABLE B.7 Overview of Public-Affairs Programs, March 2000 159 TABLE B.8 Overview of Public-Affairs Programs, March 2002 160 TABLE B.9 Overview of Public-Affairs Programs, March 2004 161 TABLE B.10 Overview of Public-Affairs Programs, March 2006 162 TABLE B.11 Overview of Public-Affairs Programs, March 2008 163 TABLE B.12 Overview of Public-Affairs Programs, March 2010 164 INTRODUCTION Watching the news on TV. What seems to be a simple activity has been extensively studied and debated by scholars in Communication and Political Science. Does news exposure help people to keep up with current-affairs and be involved with politics? Who watches the news and why? Can it still be taken for granted that people follow the news on TV as it could have been perhaps twenty or thirty years ago? This dissertation adds to the ongoing discussion by studying TV news consumption in the Netherlands. The main contributions of this work can be summarized by the following three points: . A longitudinal perspective: Changes of news exposure over the last two decades in the Netherlands are analyzed and related to changes of TV programming and audience behavior. An integrated approach on audience behavior: Individual and situational determinants are combined for a comprehensive understanding of news viewing behavior. Use of people-meter data: The studies are based on observational measurements of news exposure and overall viewing behavior. In this introduction, I describe the overall research goal that motivates and links the individual studies reported in the following chapters. Furthermore, I briefly introduce the Netherlands as a research venue and elaborate on the theoretical assumptions on audience behavior that have been used to study news viewing. This is followed by an introduction to people-meter data that provide measures of news exposure closer to reality than self-reported measures. I will conclude with an outline of the individual chapters and a description of their contribution to the main research question. Television as a Public-Affairs Medium A main argument throughout this dissertation is the persisting relevance of television as a medium of public-affairs information. This assumption is based on normative expectations about the societal value of public-affairs information, theoretical assumptions about TV news exposure, and empirical evidence on news 2 Introduction consumption. The relevance of the information function of TV, however, has been threatened by changes of the TV environment; in particular, by increasing choice opportunities. Typical duties of citizens in democracies are voting, having political or societal knowledge and opinions, and actively participate in societal life beyond elections. Such normative expectations differ depending on the model of democracy that is applied – from a procedural to a participatory or deliberative one (Drale, 2004; Habermas, 2006; Strömbäck, 2005).