Evidence Summary
A Study of a Sample of Facebook Users Finds They Do Not Seek Political
News through Facebook But Are Exposed to Political News through This Medium
A Review of:
Schaferm, S., Sulflow, M., & Muller, P. (2017).
The special taste of snack news: an application of niche theory to understand
the appeal of Facebook as a source for political news. First Monday, 22(4-3). http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v22i4.7431
Reviewed by:
Elizabeth Stovold
Information Specialist, Cochrane Airways Group
St George’s, University of London
Tooting, London, United Kingdom
Email: estovold@sgul.ac.uk
Received: 4
Dec. 2017 Accepted: 22 Feb. 2018
2018 Stovold.
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Abstract
Objective – To investigate Facebook as a source of
exposure to political news stories and to compare the reasons for using
Facebook as a news source and the gratifications obtained, compared with other
news sources.
Design – Survey questionnaire.
Setting – Facebook.
Subjects – 422 German Facebook users.
Methods – An online survey was developed to investigate the use of Facebook
as a news source compared with other sources. Specific research questions were
informed by the ‘theory of niche’ (Dimmick, 2003)
which examines the coexistence and competition between different media outlets
by examining the breadth, overlap and superiority of one platform over another.
The survey was distributed using a ‘snowball’ technique between July and August
2015. The survey was shared by 52 student research assistants on their Facebook
profiles. They asked their friends to complete the survey and share it with
their own networks.
Main results – The
mean (M) age of the 422 respondents was 23.5 years (SD=8.25). The majority were
female (61%) with a high school degree (89%). TV news and news websites were
the most frequently used sources of political news. Facebook ranked third,
ahead of newspapers, search engines, magazines, email provider websites, and
Twitter. The mean score for the importance of Facebook as a news sources was
2.46 (SD=1.13) on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is low and 5 is high. This fell in
the middle of the range when compared with the top ranked source assessed by
importance (TV news, M 4.40, SD=0.88) and the lowest (email providers, M 1.92,
SD=0.97). Users rarely visited Facebook with the purpose of finding news (M
1.59, SD=0.73). However, they estimated around 24% of the posts they see were
concerned with political news, and when encountered, these stories are
frequently read (M 3.53, SD=1.18). However, the level of interaction as
measured by liking, commenting, sharing or status updates was low (M 1.94
SD=1.09; M 1.37, SD=0.79; M 1.51, SD=0.85 and M 1.4, SD=0.78 respectively).
The ‘gratification’
categories where Facebook as a news source scored the highest were for killing
time (M 2.97, SD=1.29), entertainment (M 2.92, SD=1.05), and surveillance (M
2.77, SD=1.01). When compared to newspapers and TV news, it was found that
Facebook has a lower score for niche breadth, meaning that it serves a specific
rather than general news function. Facebook also had a lower overlap score when
compared with the other media, thereby performing a complementary function,
while TV news and newspapers perform similarly. TV news scored better for
providing balanced information, surveillance and social utility while Facebook
scored highest for killing time. There was no difference in the category of
entertainment. There was a similar picture when comparing Facebook with
newspapers.
Conclusion – The authors conclude
that while users do not actively seek political news through Facebook, they are
exposed to political news through this medium. Respondents did not consider the
news to be well balanced, and that currently Facebooks’ niche is restricted to
entertainment and killing time. The authors note that this may be disappointing
for news organisations, but there is potential to expose large audiences to
political news when they are not actively seeking it. The findings represent a
specific time point in a changing landscape and future research will need to
take these changes into account. Comparisons with other online news sources and
the use of objective measures to validate self-reported data would be valuable
areas for future research.
Commentary
The first part of the study reviews research
around the notion of ‘snack news’, where news is presented in a compact form
containing only essential headlines and passively consumed rather than actively
sought and read in depth. The authors then discuss the ‘theory of niche’ as
applied to media outlets, and provide a good overview of the research in both
these areas. The authors developed their research questions in the context of
the ‘theory of niche’ which allowed them to compare the perceived
gratifications users derive from traditional news media with Facebook.
The study was evaluated with the Glynn (2006)
critical appraisal tool and was found to be valid, with an overall score of 75%
for validity. The survey questions were described in the text as part of the
reported results. This enabled the authors to show how the specific questions
related to the research objectives, however it would have been helpful to have
the survey presented in its entirety to help readers wishing to replicate the
study. The results are described in detail and there is a thorough discussion
and interpretation of the findings, together with a discussion of the
limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.
Where the study lost points was for the
population sample. This is very small sample as a proportion of all Facebook
users, and represents a very young demographic. Because of this, it is not
clear how generalizable the findings of this study are, particularly in other
age brackets. The authors acknowledge this limitation, as well as their
reliance on self-reported data, which is open to bias and both under- or
over-estimations by the respondents.
What the study of this sample of Facebook
users shows is that this small group still regards traditional media such as
newspapers and TV news programs as reliable sources of news. However they do
not consider that Facebook provides balanced information. This is encouraging
for library and information professionals who seek to educate their patrons to
evaluate and critically appraise their information sources. The study focused
on the motivations behind using Facebook as a news source and the perceived
gratifications of using this platform. It did not examine the origins of the
news stories, or which news sites and other Facebook pages the respondents
followed and if this has any impact on users’ perceptions. This would be an
interesting avenue for future research, together with the author’s
recommendations.
References
Dimmick, J.W. (2003). Media competition and coexistence: The
theory of the niche. Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates.
Glynn, L. (2006). A critical appraisal tool for library and information
research. Library Hi Tech, 24(3), 387-399. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/07378830610692145