In today's digital age, the prevalent issues of misinformation and echo chambers are frequently cited as drivers of political polarization. However, recent research reveals a crucial yet often overlooked aspect: the quality of our online news consumption, or rather, the lack thereof. Only 3.4% of the content we see online is news, this number doesn't include social media.
Whether people are interested in seeing news on their social media varies significantly, similar to preferences for reading newspapers or watching TV news. On social media, some people follow news accounts and regularly see news in their feeds, while others do not. However, social media allows for accidental exposure to news when content becomes popular or is widely shared. Research shows that most people don't learn much from these incidental encounters with news.
Dominique Wirz conducts research on news consumption on Instagram and TikTok. She specifically examines how news media companies produce news for these platforms and how the unique features of Instagram and TikTok influence how much we can learn from this news.
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