Understanding and Alleviating Inequalities in Digital News Consumption

Informations projet

INEQNEWS

N° de convention de subvention: 101077310

DOI

10.3030/101077310

Date de signature de la CE 14 Septembre 2023

Date de début 1 Octobre 2023

Date de fin 30 Septembre 2028

Financé au titre de

• European Research Council (ERC)

Coût total

€ 1 196 778,00

Contribution de l’UE

€ 1 196 778,00

Coordonné par

VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INEQNEWS (Understanding and Alleviating Inequalities in Digital News Consumption)

Période du rapport: 2023-10-01 au 2026-03-31

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

Digital technologies have changed how people access news, but not everyone benefits equally from these changes. Many citizens now go online daily, yet they do so in very different ways. Some rarely encounter any news, others rely mainly on social media feeds shaped by algorithms, and many read news only through short sessions on their mobile phones. These patterns matter because news helps people understand public affairs, make political choices and navigate issues that affect their everyday lives.

INEQNEWS examines how the move to digital and mobile news creates new inequalities in exposure to reliable information, in opportunities to learn from it and in vulnerability to misinformation. Research already shows that people with lower levels of education or income, women with limited available time and younger adults tend to use less news and have lower levels of political knowledge. Digital environments may widen these gaps, because mobile formats encourage brief and fragmented reading and platform-curated feeds make it harder to recognise, recall or evaluate information. Older adults may use more news overall but can be more likely to believe false content circulating online.

The project studies these issues in the United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil and Chile, countries that differ widely in media systems, levels of inequality and everyday patterns of news use. Many people in Western Europe consume little or no online news, while users in Latin America rely more heavily on social media for information. By comparing countries in both the Global North and the Global South, the project identifies how social and technological factors combine to produce unequal access to public information.

INEQNEWS investigates who is most disadvantaged in the digital environment and why. It examines how algorithms and mobile devices shape news exposure, how people with very low news use navigate online spaces and which types of content reach them. It also tests new digital tools that could support more regular news use, strengthen learning and reduce the effects of misinformation.

The project brings together passive tracking of online behaviour, large panel surveys, in-depth interviews and computer-assisted analysis of news content. Its results will help media organisations, technology companies and public institutions design more inclusive news environments and support a more informed and equal digital public sphere.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

Since October 2024, INEQNEWS has carried out substantial work to understand inequalities in digital news use. The project began with large-scale surveys and digital trace data collection in Brazil and the United Kingdom. Between October and December 2024, the team recorded how participants used news sites, social media and mobile apps, and combined these records with three survey waves. More than two thousand people in Brazil and over one thousand in the United Kingdom participated, and almost all agreed to share detailed information from both mobile phones and computers. This created a rich dataset on digital news use, covering hundreds of thousands of news pages, millions of social media views and extensive app activity.

To contextualise this behaviour, the team built comprehensive lists of news outlets in both countries and coded all online domains that attracted substantial traffic. Since late 2024, the project has analysed this material to understand the content people encounter online and to identify differences across social groups.

Following the quantitative phase, the team conducted 73 trace-based, semi-structured interviews with adults in Brazil and the United Kingdom between April and June 2025. These interviews linked participants’ digital traces with their own reflections on how they navigate online information. This approach offers a deeper view of how people with low levels of news use experience the digital environment and how class, gender and age shape these experiences.

The project has already produced important scientific outputs. One study developed a new scale measuring feelings of alienation from news (news is not made for me) and demonstrated how this relates to democratic attitudes. This work has been published in a leading journal and provides a more precise way to study disengagement. Another study, based on the interviews, examines how people interpret their digital news environment and has received very strong peer reviews. Other manuscripts analyse entertainment preferences, media repertoires among underrepresented groups and how digital behaviour reflects social inequalities. Several studies have been presented at international conferences, and others are under review at major journals.

The project has also advanced research methods by introducing the news is not made for me scale and refining trace-based interviewing, combining behavioural data with qualitative insight. It is also developing interdisciplinary work that links communication research and sociology to explain how class shapes news use.

Together, these achievements and the integrated dataset substantially strengthen our ability to analyse how digital environments reproduce or reduce informational inequalities.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

The project has produced advances that move research on news inequalities beyond the current state of the art. One major result is the creation of the “News is Not Made for Me” scale, which measures feelings of exclusion from news. This scale was not part of the original plan, but it emerged from previous qualitative work and filled an important gap. Existing measures of news avoidance could not capture how strongly some groups feel that news does not reflect their lives. The new scale offers a clearer and more sensitive way to study this form of disengagement. Its rapid publication in a leading international journal shows its value, and early interest from scholars suggests that it will be widely used in future research. It also offers practical value for organisations that want to understand why certain groups feel disconnected from the news.

The project also advanced research methods by adapting trace interviews to the study of inequalities in digital news use. Although trace interviews existed in other fields, their use to understand how social background shapes news experiences is new. By combining behavioural data with in-depth reflection, the method reveals how people interpret and navigate the information they encounter online. This produces insights that were previously difficult to access and strengthens the project’s ability to explain how class, gender and age influence digital news use.

These innovations have strong potential impacts. The scale can help media organisations, public institutions and civil society groups identify barriers to engagement and design more inclusive news services. The refined interview method can support future evaluations of media literacy efforts or platform design. The project’s integrated dataset provides a rich base for future research on misinformation vulnerability and unequal access to information.

To ensure further uptake, continued validation of the scale in additional countries and languages will be useful, as will opportunities to demonstrate and teach the trace interview method. Collaboration with media organisations and public bodies can help translate these findings into concrete improvements in how news is produced and delivered.