Shut down or turn off? The interplay between news overload and consumption

Chen, Victoria Y.; Chen, Gina Masullo

doi:10.1080/15456870.2019.1616738

Cited by 14 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Savolainen [7] writes that in reality people adopt a combination of these two complementary strategies. This withdrawal strategy resonates with Chen and Chen's [5] question about whether people "shut down or turn off?" as a response to being overloaded.…”

Section: Coping With News In the Digital Eramentioning

confidence: 89%

“…"Drowning, buried, snowed under" [3]-various such expressions have been used to describe the situation of modern societies and individuals that have the infrastructure and resources (not ignoring the existence of a digital divide), that enable them to access information in a variety of forms. When the amount of information becomes difficult to process, this leads to information overload which can result in anxiety, feelings of powerlessness, loss of control [4], being overwhelmed, stressed, confused, distracted and frustrated [5]. In Bawden's [6] earlier work, he identified with the idea that information overload may not have been rigorously researched and is not an easily measurable phenomenon.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Managing News Overload (MNO): The COVID-19 Infodemic

Ahmed

2020

Information

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A crucial area in which information overload is experienced is news consumption. Ever increasing sources and formats are becoming available through a combination of traditional and new (digital) media, including social media. In such an information and media rich environment, understanding how people access and manage news during a global health epidemic like COVID-19 becomes even more important. The designation of the current situation as an infodemic has raised concerns about the quality, accuracy and impact of information. Instances of misinformation are commonplace due, in part, to the speed and pervasive nature of social media and messaging applications in particular. This paper reports on data collected using media diaries from 15 university students in the United Arab Emirates documenting their news consumption in April 2020. Faced with a potentially infinite amount of information and news, participants demonstrate how they are managing news overload (MNO) using a number of complementary strategies. Results show that while consumption patterns vary, all diaries indicate that users’ ability to navigate the news landscape in a way that fulfils their needs is influenced by news sources; platform reliability and verification; sharing activity; and engagement with news.

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Section: Coping With News In the Digital Eramentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing News Overload (MNO): The COVID-19 Infodemic

Ahmed

2020

Information

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“…These strategies to protect the participants’ psychological well-being, including limiting time spent consuming online information and using a passive approach to the information flow, are supported by research showing that passive information acquisition from news media is beneficial for psychological well-being. In contrast, active news consumption (e.g., using news alerts or making frequent online searches) and excess time spent engaging with media and COVID-19, is associated with anxiety and stress [ 39 , 40 ]. Prior research has described persons with T2D as passive information receivers rather than active information seekers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences of Online COVID-19 Information Acquisition among Persons with Type 2 Diabetes and Varying eHealth Literacy

Sjöström

Hajdarević

Hörnsten

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internet has been a major source of information for people to keep updated with news and guidelines. However, concerns have been raised about the ‘infodemic’, which includes the overabundance of online information and the spread of misleading information. Adequate eHealth literacy skills among world citizens have therefore been emphasized as vital during the pandemic. Persons with type 2 diabetes have been at increased risk of severe outcomes of COVID-19 disease. This study aimed to explore online COVID-19 information acquisition experiences among persons with type 2 diabetes and varying eHealth literacy. Fifty-eight participants filled out the eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS), along with a qualitative questionnaire with free-text questions. Additionally, 10 participants were interviewed. Thematic analysis was applied to identify patterns in participants’ experiences. Two domains were identified: perceived challenges with online information about COVID-19, and coping strategies to manage challenges. The perceived challenges were: being exposed to information overload, dealing with conflicting information, and being strongly emotionally affected. The related coping strategies were: protecting oneself, trusting authorities, taking command, and using common sense. These strategies often involved triangulation of the information obtained, including participants consulting their common sense, various sources, or family and friends. This paper highlights the crucial role of authorities in delivering online information, that according to health literacy principles, is easy to access, understand, and use. Furthermore, our results reinforce the importance of diabetes nurses, as well as healthcare professionals in general, in encouraging patients to share their Internet findings, promote information from reliable sources, and deliver tailored information that suits individual needs. Because our results underline the importance of social support in eHealth literacy and the assessment of online health information, the inclusion of family and friends needs to be increasingly considered in diabetes care. Due to the small homogenous sample, the results of this study cannot be generalized. However, the reader can assess the transferability to other situations and settings based on our contextual descriptions.

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“…While we conceptualized and measured the level of perceived news overload based on previous studies, more recent studies show "overload" is a multifaceted concept. For example, Chen and Chen (2019) noted that news overload consists of six concepts: stress, reluctance, confusion, worry, overwhelming, and beyond one's capability to process. Thus, a more detailed and delicate approach to news overload is needed in future studies.…”

Section: Conclusion and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, online platforms such as the internet, e-readers, and Facebook have been noted to generate more news overload (Eveland & Dunwoody, 2002;Holton & Chyi, 2012;Nordenson, 2008). When the level of perceived news overload was compared between traditional and new media, news consumption through SNSs, mobile news, and search engines was a positive predictor of overload, while TV news use was negatively associated with the level of overload (Chen & Chen, 2019). This may be because of the fact that it is not necessary to spend time in retrieving the content while consuming TV news (Edmunds & Morris, 2000).…”

Section: Role Of News Overload In Linking News Repertoire and Political Information Efficacymentioning

confidence: 99%

News Repertoires and Political Information Efficacy: Focusing on the Mediating Role of Perceived News Overload

Lor

Choi

2021

Sage Open

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In an era of news abundance, people increasingly feel uncertain as to whether they possess adequate information to participate in politics. However, previous research has not paid attention to the issue of such efficacy. To fill the gap, this study examines (a) how different types of news repertoire are associated with political information efficacy and (b) how perceived news overload mediates the relationship. The findings show that people have three distinct types of news repertoires, such as commentary-oriented, TV, and social media news repertoires, and those who consume news via a commentary-oriented news repertoire tend to have a higher level of political information efficacy, while the use of TV and social media news repertoires does not show significant effects on political information efficacy. In addition to that, the perceived news overload negatively mediates the link between all three types of news repertoires and political information efficacy. Two-wave original survey data were used for analyses.

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Shut down or turn off? The interplay between news overload and consumption

Cited by 14 publications

References 53 publications

Managing News Overload (MNO): The COVID-19 Infodemic

Managing News Overload (MNO): The COVID-19 Infodemic

Experiences of Online COVID-19 Information Acquisition among Persons with Type 2 Diabetes and Varying eHealth Literacy

News Repertoires and Political Information Efficacy: Focusing on the Mediating Role of Perceived News Overload

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