“It Finds Me Anyway”: Media Consumption of News Avoiders

Section: Sociology of Journalism

The article discusses how news avoiders talk about the news-finds-me effect. The empirical materials consist of 44 interviews. The research shows that news avoiders do not feel uninformed. The interviewees express confidence that information about the most important events on the agenda will find them by itself. The channels of receiving information for news avoiders are social contacts (offline or online), casual consumption of traditional media (for example, the radio in a taxi), as well as social networks and computer algorithms. The effect of news-finds-me can also be evaluated in different ways. Some subjects of the interviews note that this effect allows them to stay on top of major events without effort, thus saving time, cognitive and emotional resources. The situation, when information finds its audience, legitimizes news avoidance and relieves people of the feeling of guilt about their unwillingness to follow the agenda. However, other subjects emphasize that the news-find-me effect does not give them the opportunity to protect themselves from negative information, forcing them to consume news they would like to avoid.

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To cite this article: Kazun A.D. (2023) «Oni vse ravno menya nakhodyat»: mediapotreblenie lyudei, izbegayushchikh novostei [“It Finds Me Anyway”: Media Consumption of News Avoiders]. Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seriya 10. Zhurnalistika 3: 3–25. DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.3.2023.325