Open AccessThe overstated generational gap in online news use? A consolidated infrastructural perspective
Author(s) -
Frank Mangold,
Sebastian Stier,
Johannes Breuer,
Michael Scharkow
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
new media and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1461-7315
pISSN - 1461-4448
DOI - 10.1177/1461444821989972
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , social media , german , the internet , preference , digital media , advertising , public relations , sociology , political science , internet privacy , business , computer science , world wide web , geography , economics , archaeology , artificial intelligence , microeconomics
Recent research by Taneja et al. suggested that digital infrastructures diminish the generational gap in news use by counteracting preference structures. We expand on this seminal work by arguing that an infrastructural perspective requires overcoming limitations of highly aggregated web tracking data used in prior research. We analyze the individual browsing histories of two representative samples of German Internet users collected in 2012 ( N = 2970) and 2018 ( N = 2045) and find robust evidence for a smaller generational gap in online news use than commonly assumed. While short news website visits mostly demonstrated infrastructural factors, longer news use episodes were shaped more by preferences. The infrastructural role of social media corresponded with reduced news avoidance and more varied news repertoires. Overall, the results suggest that research needs to reconsider commonly held premises regarding the uses of digital media in modern high-choice settings.