RI News Consumption Interview Takeaways

February 24, 2021

University of Rhode Island Social Science Institute for Research, Education, and Policy

Principle Investigator: Dr. Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz

Research Associates: Kristin Sodhi and Travis Doumaney

Web: uri.edu/ssirep/research/

The interviews focused mostly on younger Rhode Islanders with a mixture of seven participants from college educated (3), non-college educated (4), under 24 (1), Latino/a (2), White (4), and African American (1) groups.[1]

The full demographic breakdown of wave 1 participants is:

  • Participant 1, College educated, African American, 25 year old Female
  • Participant 2, No college education, Latina, 42 year old Female
  • Participant 3, No college education, White, 25 year old Male
  • Participant 4, College educated, White, 29 year old Male
  • Participant 5, College educated, Latino, 23 year old Male
  • Participant 6, No college education, White, 26 year old Male
  • Participant 7, No college education, White, 50-60 year old Female (exact age still being verified)

Findings

Personal Networks and Infrequent Consumption

  • All but one person expressed an extreme reliance on personal connections, social networks, and direct-communications instead of conventional news sources for local information.
    • It was common for wave 1 participants to consume local information from platforms like Reddit, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Even on these platforms, participants more often turned to low-level sources (other users, for example) rather than high-level sources (news network accounts, for example).
    • Participants frequently mentioned that these platforms were useful because of the opportunity for discussion and their direct-feedback/personal nature. For example, one participant said that if they want information on nearby restaurants, new businesses, or outdoor sports, they turn to Facebook friends. Another participant recounted a time that they saw distant smoke and a series of firetrucks in their town– they turned to digital news outlets online to try to get information but could not find anything. After turning to facebook, they got the information they were looking for from a post made by a personal contact.
    • Almost every participant said if they need to, they turn to google for information rather than looking through a specific outlet.
  • Trust of news and information was a consistent concern. Every participant noted that “fake news” was rampant and dangerous. Most said that they trusted sources based on friends’ recommendations, based on name-recognition, or based on repetition.
  • National and global news are more frequently consumed than local news.
    • Most participants felt more informed on national events than on what was happening in Rhode Island or in their town.
    • Multiple participants read/watched national news outlets daily (Yahoo News, NBC, NYT, WSJ were mentioned), but very rarely did the same for local news (state or town level).
      • However the two that mentioned using local news (for both it was local TV and specifically “Turn to 10”) were loyal users and indicated stronger trust of the source.
    • Almost every participant cited a lack of easy access for local information when compared to national information. “National news just finds its way to you, but local news is a lot harder to get,” explained one participant while talking about how much more active effort is needed to seek out local news. Multiple participants added they use Apple’s News system daily on their phone, which contributed to the always-available feeling of national news versus local.
    • Multiple participants expressed a want for an increased awareness of local news but it is unclear how much of this is attributable to the researcher asking them about their knowledge (bias).
      • They further suggested a free digital news stream focused on state news that was as accessible as their smartphone-delivered national news but admitted they had not sought out such a tool.
    • Multiple participants sought out local news information only when related to travel information such as road/traffic conditions and closures.

Non-Traditional Formatting and Pay Structures

  • Only one participant had cable TV access (another likely used cable TV but was not specifically asked). These two participants primarily watched local news from Channel 10 on a television, but used their smartphone or FaceBook for auxiliary information such as local crime reporting and general trending information. Both of these participants, while not in our over 65 demographic, were the oldest of our participants. Outside of these participants, it was rare for anyone to directly pay for news access on any platform and a few indicated aversion to doing so. No participants were involved in other paid subscriptions for local (or national) news services.
    • One participant acknowledged that broad-access digital news was free to use because of an advertising and personal-data tradeoff. This participant preferred this pay model over the more conventional pay-as-you-go and paid-circulation methods and wondered how small scale local networks could adopt strategies to be “free” for their users.
  • Every participant read the newspaper on happenstance, in one case saying that their coworker sometimes gets it and passes it off during lunch break. Another participant said sometimes papers will cycle through their social circle and eventually make their way to them. All indicated that when reading newspapers, the papers are out of date.
  • Every participant used their smartphone to access local news. For most participants, it was the only way they accessed local news. At least one also used a computer and for two, television.
  • News was almost exclusively consumed at home. One participant mentioned reading old newspapers at work and another listened to the radio (Sports News) most of the day while at work (which involves significant driving).  Every participant consumed news on their phone, local and national, the most when at home.

More Frequent Information Consumption in the Face of Covid-19

  • Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, every participant– including those who rarely read or watch local news– reported seeking out Covid-19 related news multiple times a day.
    • Many participants still were more exposed to national Covid-19 news rather than local Covid-19 news, saying they felt national news was more accessible and that they relied on family, friends, and other personal contacts to give them state-level Covid-19 information. In keeping with the majority preference for social-media delivered information, one participant talked about how they liked to get “direct” Covid-19 news, such as watching videos and reading posts of Italian citizens explaining what life was like in Italy.
    • With the speed of changes in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic responses varied. Our most recent participant (4/2) indicated a move to begin avoiding news particularly on this topic due to anxiety.
      • This participant felt that they were knowledgeable about the local situation based on regularly viewing morning and evening local news. They also reported watching daily broadcasts of President Trump and Governor Raimondo on the topic.

[1] Participants fit multiple groups