TY - JOUR
T1 - What drives political news engagement in digital spaces? Reimagining ‘echo chambers’ in a polarised and hybridised media ecology
AU - HAW, Ashleigh
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship and was undertaken at the University of Western Australia. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2019 Annual Conference of the Australia and New Zealand Communications Association (ANZCA)–special thank you to the conference organisers for their generous review of this paper, notably A/Prof Sora Park and Dr Kate Holland from the University of Canberra for convening this special issue. I would also like to thank A/Prof Farida Fozdar from the University of Western Australia and Prof Rob Cover from RMIT University for their valuable guidance with this project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, © 2020 Australian and New Zealand Communication Association.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Today’s hybridised media landscape has brought about fundamental shifts in political news consumption, increasing concerns about polarisation and ‘echo chambers.’ There is, however, no clear consensus regarding how echo chambers impact exposure to dissenting ideas or the purpose they serve for audiences. This paper discusses research combining Critical Discourse Analysis with a cultural studies Audience Reception epistemology to explore how 24 Western Australians engage with online news representations of asylum seekers. Findings revealed that, while many self-selected into echo chambers, most were motivated by convenience and/or self-care, and echo chambers did not restrict exposure to dissenting ideas. I argue that these findings challenge those reported in the ‘selective exposure’ literature, aligning more closely with a ‘uses and gratifications’ framework. I discuss the implications for communications scholarship and practice, highlighting a need to re-orient conceptualisations of news consumption that problematise echo chambers and more closely examine the different functions echo chambers serve.
AB - Today’s hybridised media landscape has brought about fundamental shifts in political news consumption, increasing concerns about polarisation and ‘echo chambers.’ There is, however, no clear consensus regarding how echo chambers impact exposure to dissenting ideas or the purpose they serve for audiences. This paper discusses research combining Critical Discourse Analysis with a cultural studies Audience Reception epistemology to explore how 24 Western Australians engage with online news representations of asylum seekers. Findings revealed that, while many self-selected into echo chambers, most were motivated by convenience and/or self-care, and echo chambers did not restrict exposure to dissenting ideas. I argue that these findings challenge those reported in the ‘selective exposure’ literature, aligning more closely with a ‘uses and gratifications’ framework. I discuss the implications for communications scholarship and practice, highlighting a need to re-orient conceptualisations of news consumption that problematise echo chambers and more closely examine the different functions echo chambers serve.
KW - audience reception
KW - critical discourse analysis
KW - echo chambers
KW - media
KW - political news
KW - uses and gratifications
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079784443&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/22041451.2020.1732002
DO - 10.1080/22041451.2020.1732002
M3 - Article
SN - 2204-1451
VL - 6
SP - 38
EP - 54
JO - Communication Research and Practice
JF - Communication Research and Practice
IS - 1
ER -