Are people incidentally exposed to news on social media? A comparative analysis. Fletcher, R. & Nielsen, R. K. New Media & Society, 20(7):2450–2468, July, 2018. Publisher: SAGE Publications
Are people incidentally exposed to news on social media? A comparative analysis [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
Scholars have questioned the potential for incidental exposure in high-choice media environments. We use online survey data to examine incidental exposure to news on social media (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter) in four countries (Italy, Australia, United Kingdom, United States). Leaving aside those who say they intentionally use social media for news, we compare the number of online news sources used by social media users who do not see it as a news platform, but may come across news while using it (the incidentally exposed), with people who do not use social media at all (non-users). We find that (a) the incidentally exposed users use significantly more online news sources than non-users, (b) the effect of incidental exposure is stronger for younger people and those with low interest in news and (c) stronger for users of YouTube and Twitter than for users of Facebook.
@article{fletcher_are_2018,
	title = {Are people incidentally exposed to news on social media? {A} comparative analysis},
	volume = {20},
	issn = {1461-4448},
	shorttitle = {Are people incidentally exposed to news on social media?},
	url = {https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817724170},
	doi = {10.1177/1461444817724170},
	abstract = {Scholars have questioned the potential for incidental exposure in high-choice media environments. We use online survey data to examine incidental exposure to news on social media (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter) in four countries (Italy, Australia, United Kingdom, United States). Leaving aside those who say they intentionally use social media for news, we compare the number of online news sources used by social media users who do not see it as a news platform, but may come across news while using it (the incidentally exposed), with people who do not use social media at all (non-users). We find that (a) the incidentally exposed users use significantly more online news sources than non-users, (b) the effect of incidental exposure is stronger for younger people and those with low interest in news and (c) stronger for users of YouTube and Twitter than for users of Facebook.},
	language = {en},
	number = {7},
	urldate = {2020-03-21},
	journal = {New Media \& Society},
	author = {Fletcher, Richard and Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis},
	month = jul,
	year = {2018},
	note = {Publisher: SAGE Publications},
	pages = {2450--2468},
}

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