Patterns of News Consumption in Austria: How Fragmented Are They?

Abstract

In today’s media landscape with an abundance of news outlets, it is often assumed that news media use becomes increasingly fragmented and polarized. Based on a large-scale survey of the Austrian population, fine-grained patterns of news exposure are explored. Criteria for the interpretation of these patterns as fragmented and polarized are discussed. We find that most people use several outlets. Most of their outlets overlap, and only some additional preferences really differ. Although Austria offers many news sources on the national level, the region of residence largely determines the choice for a specific news diet—which indicates that selectivity based on personal attitudes and psychological traits may play a less important role than situational or structural context factors.