Political interest | 2.78 | .85 | 1 | 4 | 2,433 |
Ideological orientation | 5.31 | 2.58 | 0 | 10 | 2,118 |
Public service orientation | 4.52 | 2.24 | 0 | 7 | 2,455 |
National dailies orientation | .93 | 1.39 | 0 | 7 | 2,455 |
Tabloid orientation | 2.30 | 2.46 | 0 | 7 | 2,455 |
Use no alternative media | 76.6 | 1,867 |
Use left-wing alternative media, low/moderate alternativeness | 3.2 | 81 |
Use right-wing alternative media, low/moderate alternativeness | 7.6 | 195 |
Use left-wing and right-wing alternative media, low/moderate alter-nativeness | 1.5 | 38 |
Use right-wing alternative media, high alternativeness | 8.2 | 208 |
Use left-wing and right-wing alternative media, high alternativeness | 2.9 | 66 |
Total | 100 | 2,455 |
Gender | Female | 50.6 | 52.3 | 1,283 |
Male | 49.4 | 47.7 | 1,172 | |
Age | 18–29 | 17.8 | 13.9 | 342 |
30–39 | 15.8 | 13.9 | 342 | |
40–49 | 14.5 | 14.8 | 363 | |
50–59 | 20.1 | 21.5 | 527 | |
60+ | 31.8 | 35.9 | 881 | |
Level of education | Lower secondary | 12.7 | 12.5 | 306 |
General upper secondary | 11.8 | 10.5 | 257 | |
Vocational | 43.7 | 44.2 | 1,084 | |
Short-cycle tertiary | 5.8 | 6.1 | 149 | |
Medium-cycle tertiary | 16.6 | 17.4 | 426 | |
Long-cycle tertiary | 9.4 | 9.5 | 233 | |
Residence | Outer municipalities | 6.3 | 6.4 | 158 |
Rural municipalities | 25.1 | 26.2 | 644 | |
Middle-range municipalities | 16.5 | 17.1 | 419 | |
City municipalities | 52.1 | 50.3 | 1,234 |
High degree of alternativeness |
Den Korte Avis Document NewSpeek |
|
Low or moderate degree of alternativeness |
Konfront Netavisen Pio Solidaritet |
180Grader 24NYT ditOverblik Folkets Avis Indblik Kontrast |
Survey self-report |
“How often do you use online news websites or social media to follow…‘News about societal issues “How often do you use online news websites or social media to follow news that provide Scale: never (1), more rarely (2), once a month (3), once a week (4), several times a week (5), daily (6) |
Sweden | Across four survey waves, approximately 16% report using alternative media once a week or more often. | |
Survey self-report |
“In recent years, numerous news websites have emerged that often disseminate their content via social media and present themselves as an alternative to the established or ‘mainstream’ media. Which of the following alternative news media, if any, have you used to access news in the past week?” List of six alternative media provided and a category of “other” alternative news. |
Germany | 12% | |
Digital tracking (2.5 months in 2017; 1 month in 2019) | 137 online news sites defined as populist alternative news media. Use defined as at least one visit to the page in the observation periods. | Germany |
16.5% (2017) 7.4% (2019) |
|
Survey self-report |
List-frequency technique including 12 alternative media with affinity for populism. Respondents were asked whether they knew the outlets and if so, how often they used them. Scale: never (0) to very frequently (5) |
Germany |
Total share of users (use at least one outlet at least “very rarely”): 28.1% Occasional users (use at least one outlet “very rarely” but none “frequently” or “very frequently”): 12.6% Frequent users (use at least one outlet “frequently” or “very frequently”): 15.5% |
|
Survey self-report (secondary analysis of 2019 Reuters Institute Digital News Report data) |
“In recent years a number of online news sites have emerged with their content often distributed via social media. Which, if any, of the following have you heard of/used in the last week?” (Item quoted from Four to seven alternative media included in each country. |
Austria Finland Germany Sweden |
Use at least one of the listed outlets during the last week: Austria: 8% Finland: 7% Germany: 9% Sweden: 22% |
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Survey self-report |
“Some people are disappointed by political news coverage and have the feeling that the (most frequently used) mainstream media sources do not report information fully. As a result, these people seek out alternative sources of information (e.g. they may seek out sources on the Internet where they can find their opinion better represented or can cross-check information). Do you belong to this group?” Scale: no, not at all (1), no, mostly not (2), yes, mostly (3), yes, definitely (4) Respondents who answered 3 or 4 were asked to specify up to three alternative media in an open-ended question. Coded into media categories by the study’s authors, one of which was self-proclaimed alternative media matching the definition in Holt et al., 2019. |
Denmark Switzerland Italy Poland US |
Respondents who consider themselves alternative media users and seek out self-proclaimed alternative media, according to the study’s authors’ coding: Denmark: 16% Switzerland: 15% Italy: 11% Poland: 12% US: 19% |
|
Survey self-report |
“In general, how often do you visit the following news sites on the Internet?” List included one right-wing and one left-wing alternative news medium. Scale: daily (6), 5–6 days a week (5), 3–4 days a week (4), 1–2 days a week (3), more seldom (2), and never (1) |
Sweden |
Left-wing outlet: At least one day a week: 6% More seldom: 9% Right-wing outlet: At least one day a week: 5% More seldom: 10% |