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The Mix of Media Use Matters: Investigating the Effects of Individual News
Repertoires on Offline and Online Political Participation

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DOI: 10.1080/10584609.2017.1385549

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ISSN: 1058-4609 (Print) 1091-7675 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/upcp20

The Mix of Media Use Matters: Investigating the

Effects of Individual News Repertoires on Offline
and Online Political Participation

Jesper Strömbäck, Kajsa Falasca & Sanne Kruikemeier

To cite this article: Jesper Strömbäck, Kajsa Falasca & Sanne Kruikemeier (2017): The Mix of
Media Use Matters: Investigating the Effects of Individual News Repertoires on Offline and Online
Political Participation, Political Communication, DOI: 10.1080/10584609.2017.1385549

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 Political Communication, 00:1–20, 2017
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1058-4609 print / 1091-7675 online
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2017.1385549

The Mix of Media Use Matters: Investigating the

Effects of Individual News Repertoires on Offline
and Online Political Participation

JESPER STRÖMBÄCK, KAJSA FALASCA, and SANNE

KRUIKEMEIER
Downloaded by [Gothenburg University Library] at 01:02 03 November 2017

In contemporary high-choice media environments, people increasingly mix and com-

bine their use of various news media into personal news repertoires. Despite this, there
is still limited research on how people compose their individual news repertoires and
the effects of these news repertoires. To address this and further our understanding of
how media use influences political participation, this study investigates (a) how people
combine the use of offline and online media into personal news repertoires and (b) the
effects of different news repertoires on both offline and online political participation.
Based on a two-wave panel study covering the 2014 Swedish national election, this
study identifies five news repertoires, labeled minimalists, public news consumers, local
news consumers, social media news consumers, and popular online news consumers.
Among other things, the results show that social media news consumers are more likely
to participate in politics both offline and online.

Keywords media effects, news consumption, political participation

For democracy to function well, a prerequisite is that people are willing to engage. Not
only does political participation help ensure that those in political office are responsive, it
also helps to foster pro-democratic norms and to strengthen political efficacy (Pateman,
1970). Dahl (1998) consequently describes effective participation as a key criterion for
democratic processes. Moreover, it is essential that inequalities in political participation are
not too great, as political equality in a broader sense might otherwise be undermined
(Dahl, 2006; Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, 1995).
In this context, media use is crucial. As shown by numerous studies, there is a
positive relationship between media use and political participation (Eveland & Scheufele,
2000; Liu, Shen, Eveland, & Dylko, 2013; McLeod, Scheufele, & Moy, 1999). Although
research shows that there are many nuances, the overall pattern is that news media use
contribute to political participation. There are also studies showing the same pattern for
digital and social media use (Boulianne, 2009; Gil De Zúñiga, Jung, & Valenzuela, 2012;
Holt, Shehata, Strömbäck, & Ljungberg, 2013), although a meta-analysis “raise[s] ques-
tions about whether the effects are causal and transformative” (Boulianne, 2015, p. 11).

Jesper Strömbäck Professor in Journalism and Political Communication, University of Gothenburg.

Kajsa Falasca Assistant Professor in Media and Communication Science, Mid Sweden University. Sanne
Kruikemeier Assistant Professor Political Communication, University of Amsterdam.
Address correspondence to Kajsa Falasca, Media and Communication Science, Mid Sweden
University, Sundsvall, Sweden. E-mail: kajsa.falasca@miun.se

1
 2 Jesper Strömbäck et al.

Despite this, there are several gaps in our knowledge about the effects of media use on
political participation. First, most studies focus on the effects of using traditional news media
or digital media on political participation, and there are only a few studies that simulta-
neously investigate the effects of using traditional offline, online, and social media. Second,
there are only a few studies that examine how people combine the use of offline and online
media and how their “political information repertoires” or “news diets” influence political
participation (Edgerly, 2015; Wolfsfeld, Yarchi, & Samuel-Azran, 2016). This is problematic
insofar as the transition from low- to high-choice media environments means that people
increasingly mix the use of various media into personal news repertoires (Hasebrink &
Domeyer, 2012; Ksiazek, Malthouse, & Webster, 2010; Strömbäck, Djerf-Pierre, & Shehata,
2013; Taneja, Webster, Malthouse, & Ksiazek, 2012; Wolfsfeld et al., 2016). Third, most
studies are based on cross-sectional data, and these are inherently limited when the goal is to
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establish causal effects.

Against this background, the purpose of this study is to investigate (a) how people
combine the use of offline and online media into personal news repertoires and (b) the
effects of different news repertoires on both offline and online political participation.
Empirically, the study is based on a representative two-wave panel study covering the
2014 Swedish national election. Compared to previous research and using latent class
analysis (LCA, sometimes referred to as latent profile analysis because of the use of
continuous variables; Oberski, 2016), it contributes to extant research by using more
advanced statistical techniques to identify news repertoires while simultaneously investi-
gating the effects on both offline and online political participating and using panel data.

Changing Media Environments, Changing Media Use

One of the most important implications of the transition from low- to high-choice media
environments is that people’s preferences have become more important predictors of what
kinds of media and media content they expose themselves to (Arceneaux & Johnson,
2013; Prior, 2007; Strömbäck et al., 2013; Stroud, 2011). Simply put, the greater media
choice there is, the more selective people have to be; and the more selective people have to
be, the more important their preferences become.
This is not to say that personal preferences are all that matter. First, the supply of
different kinds of media and media content and the structure of media environments always
set the boundaries for and influence selective exposure (Elenbaas, De Vreese, Schuck, &
Boomgaarden, 2012; Esser et al., 2012; Mosca & Quaranta, 2016; Nir, 2012; Shehata &
Strömbäck, 2011). Second, the opportunity structures for selective exposure based on
different types of preferences, such as political interest or partisan preferences, varies across
media environments (Arceneaux & Johnson, 2013; Skovsgaard, Shehata, & Strömbäck,
2016; Stroud, 2011). Third, situational and contextual factors are also of great importance
(Webster, 2014; Wonneberger, Schoenbach, & Van Meurs, 2011).
Nevertheless, for those interested in politics and current affairs, it has never been as
easy to decide when, where, and through which platform(s) to follow news about politics
and current affairs. The flipside is that it has never been as easy for those less interested in
politics and current affairs to take part of various media without having to expose
themselves to such news. Several studies have also shown increasing differences in
news media use between groups in society (Aalberg, Blekesaune, & Elvestad, 2013;
Blekesaune, Elvestad, & Aalberg, 2012; Prior, 2007; Strömbäck et al., 2013) and that
political interest has become a more important predictor of news media use (Hopmann.,
Wonneberger, Shehata, & Höijer, 2016; Prior, 2007; Strömbäck et al., 2013). While some
 The Mix of Media Use Matters 3

studies classify those who are tuning out from news about politics and current affairs as
“news-avoiders” (Ksiazek et al., 2010; Strömbäck et al., 2013; Van Den Bulck, 2006),
others use the term “disconnected citizens” (Blekesaune et al., 2012). For these people,
increasing media choice has offered them the opportunity to take part of various media
without having to expose themselves to news and current affairs.
A key problem with most studies, however, is that they do not take into account how
people mix their use of various forms of media and media content. In contemporary, high-
choice, hybrid and fragmented media environments (Chadwick, 2013), people increasingly
form their personal “information repertoires” or “news diets” by using a mix of traditional
offline TV news, radio news and newspapers, online versions of traditional TV news,
Web-only media, and social media (Edgerly, 2015; Hasebrink & Domeyer, 2012; Helles,
Ørmen, Radil, & Jensen, 2015; Lee & Yang, 2014; Taneja et al., 2012). In the end, what
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probably matters most for how media use influences political participation or other out-
come variables is not people’s use of particular media, but their combinatory use of various
media in their online or offline formats. Ksiazek and colleagues (2010, pp. 552–553) have
thus argued that it might “be deceiving” to use “medium-by-medium” data, where the
impact of using specific media (such as television or print newspapers) is investigated. To
understand the impact of preferences on media use, or the effects of media use on outcome
variables such as political participation, it is therefore necessary to investigate how people
mix the use of various media into personal news repertoires.
While most studies do not investigate the combinatory use of various media, there are
exceptions. One approach is to construct additive indices based on the use of a range of
various media. Ksiazek and colleagues (2010) and Strömbäck and colleagues (2013), for
example, follow this approach in their studies on news-seekers and news-avoiders. The
downside with such an approach is that it only captures how much people use various
media. It does not capture how individuals mix the use of various media.
Another approach is to investigate people’s “news diets,” “political information
repertoires,” or “news repertoires.” Let us give a few examples. Bos, Kruikemeier, and
De Vreese (2016), for example, used latent profile analysis (LCA with continuous vari-
ables) to identify different user profiles based on their use of a range of media spanning
from the main commercial and public service broadcast news to the most used online news
sources and a range of newspapers. Their study showed that four user profiles can be
distinguished: minimalists, public news consumers, popular news consumers, and omni-
vores. Somewhat similarly, Edgerly (2015) measured people’s use of a range of offline and
online media, including partisan blogs. Using principal component analysis and cluster
analysis, she identified six “news repertoires”: news avoiders, online only, TV+print,
liberal+online, conservative only, and news omnivores. With the goal of investigating
how people mix the use of various media, but following another analytical approach,
Wolfsfeld and colleagues (2016) also measured the use of a range of traditional and social
media. They then constructed a “political exposure through traditional media” and a
“political exposure through social media” scale (p. 2105). Based on individuals’ scores
on these scales, they identified four ideal types representing distinct “political information
repertoires”: avoiders, traditionalists, socials, and eclectics. As a final example, Mosca and
Quaranta (2016) measured the use of different media types (newspapers, television, social
media, etc.) instead of individual media, and differentiated people’s media use by cross-
classifying the use of traditional and digital sources of information. According to their
analysis, four “news diets” can be identified: occasional or intermittent, traditional uni-
vores, digital univores, and omnivores (see also Hasebrink & Domeyer, 2012; Helles et al.,
2015; Lee & Yang, 2014; Taneja et al., 2012; Yuan, 2011).
 4 Jesper Strömbäck et al.

Based on the research just reviewed, we expect that it will be possible to identify
different news repertoires also in the case under study here: Sweden. Since the number of
news repertoires identified in previous studies differs, it is, however, less clear how many
news repertoires we can expect to find. Against this background, instead of posing a
hypothesis we ask the following research question (RQ):

RQ: What news repertoires, in terms of media user profiles, can be identified?

Media Effects on Political Participation Offline and Online

News media effects on political engagement have for a long time been central in media
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and communication research. One important conclusion from extant research is that there
are no universal effects across all people or across all forms of media use. The effect on
political engagement rather seems to depend on what type of media people use, why they
use it, and the level of use (Choi, 2016; Gil De Zúñiga, Molyneux, & Zheng, 2014;
Livingstone & Markham, 2008). Political engagement can be measured in different ways,
but here we focus on citizens’ political participation. Political participation is commonly
defined as a behavioral part of political engagement, and it involves activities with the
intention to influence political policy either directly or indirectly (Verba & Nie, 1972).
With respect to media effects, several studies have shown a positive relationship between
the use of different media for getting the news and political participation (Norris, 2000; Shah,
Cho, Eveland, & Kwak, 2005). Nevertheless, evidence showing citizens’ participating more
after having been exposed to various media remains scarce. As a result, it is not clear to what
extent positive relationships between media use and political participation reflect a selection
effect—where those who participate more are more avid news (media) consumers—or a media
effect—where those who consume particular (news) media or are more heavy consumers than
others become more likely to participate politically.
With respect to the use of digital and social media, and with the reservation that
questions of causality remain, previous research suggests positive effects on political
engagement (for an overview, see Boulianne, 2009). On theoretical grounds, it is often
argued that the unique social networking mechanisms might explain why citizens who use
digital and, in particular, social media for political information are more likely to engage in
political life (Boulianne, 2015). First, on social media it is expected that citizens, through
their social network ties, are incidentally exposed to politically and societally relevant
news (Kruikemeier & Shehata, 2016; Mitchell, Kiley, Gottfried, & Guskin, 2013). More
precisely, in an online environment, news is coming from trusted sources such as friends
and acquaintances, and the information might be encountered unexpectedly in the sense
that people are not looking for it but might still be exposed to political information when
friends or acquaintances share political news (Boulianne, 2015). Second, because the
information is coming from people’s own networks, such information might mobilize
citizens to become politically active to a larger extent than information coming directly
from news organizations. Third, online information might be contagious, in the sense that
seeing others reading news or participating in politics can be engaging by itself
(Boulianne, 2015). Fourth, in a digital environment, networks are often larger. This
increases the likelihood that people are being confronted with content from weak ties,
which facilitates information flows and makes it more likely that people are exposed to
politically relevant news (Boulianne, 2015). Fifth, online information is more immediate,
 The Mix of Media Use Matters 5

as information can be consumed at any time and in an interactive way; for example, by
finding more information via hyperlinks.
In line with these arguments, used to explain why using social media might contribute
to political participation, Gil De Zúñiga and colleagues (2014) found that social news
consumption has a direct positive effect on offline political participation and an indirect
positive effect on online participation. Using cross-sectional data, Bakker and De Vreese
(2011) also found that online news use is positively related to online and offline participa-
tion. In a similar fashion, Wolfsfeld and colleagues (2016) found that exposure to political
content on social media positively predicts offline and digital participation. Furthermore,
Mosca and Quaranta (2016) showed that media diets that include digital news consump-
tion positively affect offline participation such as boycotts, demonstrations, and occupa-
tions. Differentiating between types of digital media and using panel data, Dimitrova,
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Shehata, Strömbäck, and Nord (2014) in addition found a positive participation effect from
using social media but not from using online news, suggesting that the effects might differ
between different types of digital media.
Some studies are, however, less optimistic about the impact of online news use on
political participation. The main rationale for the more pessimistic arguments relates to the
literature on selective exposure. Online, people are simply more likely to self-select
political information (Bennett & Iyengar, 2008; Kruikemeier & Shehata, 2016; Prior,
2007). In an online environment, people might also receive more information that is in
line with their previous dispositions and engagement levels, due both to personal choices
and to algorithm-based filtering and network effects (Pariser, 2011). This suggests that in
an online media environment, politically mobilizing information mainly comes to those
who are already engaged politically, simultaneously making it less likely that non-engaged
citizens become mobilized to participate. Such arguments are, to some extent, also
supported by research (Dimitrova et al., 2014; Edgerly, 2015).
The effects of using different kinds of media notwithstanding, theoretically it can be
expected that the combinatory use of various media (i.e., news repertoires) differs from the
use of specific media. First, in real life, individuals mix the use of various media and
media format, so accounting for the effects of individual news repertoires gets closer to
how people actually use news media. Second, if the effects of using one type of media or
media format differ from the effects of using another, either by being stronger or weaker or
by being negative as opposed to positive, then the total media effect is better captured by
investigating the effects of news repertoires than the effects of using specific media.
Thus far, there is, however, no study investigating the effects of news repertoires
using panel data. While Edgerly (2015), Mosca and Quaranta (2016), and Wolfsfeld and
colleagues (2016) link news repertoires to political participation, they rely on cross-
sectional data, which are limited in terms of identifying the chain of causality. As a result,
our knowledge of the effects of different news repertoires on political participation is
highly limited.
With the reservation that the question of causality largely remains open, overall
research nevertheless suggests that the use of traditional, digital, as well as social
media has positive effects on political participation, and that the effects of using digital
and social media are greater than the effects of using traditional media. Making a
distinction between news websites and social media, research also suggests that the
effects on political participation are stronger for social media than for other digital
media such as news websites (Dimitrova et al., 2014). Against this background, we
expect that different news repertoires will have different effects on offline and online
political participation.
 6 Jesper Strömbäck et al.

As we do not yet have the answer to our RQ—asking what types of news repertoires
can be identified—it is difficult to be precise in terms of the effects of different news
repertoires on offline and online political participation. Nevertheless, given previous
research we expect that

news repertoires with lower levels of news consumption will have a negative
effect on both online (H1) and offline (H2) participation compared with news
repertoires with higher levels of news consumption.

In contrast, compared with news repertoires dominated by traditional news media,

we expect news repertoires dominated by social and online media to have more
positive effects on both online (H3) and offline (H4) political participation.
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Methodology and Data

Sample and Procedure

To investigate the research question and test the aforementioned hypotheses, we relied on two
waves from a panel study conducted in cooperation with the polling institute Novus in
Sweden. The panel data provide us with the opportunity to study the causal relationship
between different types of news consumption and political participation (Finkel, 1995). The
sample for the panel survey was drawn using stratified probability sampling from a database of
approximately 35,000 citizens from Novus’ pool of Web survey participants. Those included
in the pool are recruited continuously using random digit dialing. The recruitment is thus based
on random probability samples, and no self-selection is allowed.1 Approximately 7.8% of
those who are initially contacted and invited finally agree to be part of this pool of respondents.
The pool of Web survey participants covers different segments of the population and is largely
representative for the population in terms of sociodemographic characteristics.
The probability sample of 6,897 respondents, ages 18 to 75, from this pool was
stratified by gender, age, and county of residence. They were asked to complete a Web
survey several times during a period of about five months. For the analyses in this article,
we use Wave 1, which took place six weeks prior to the Swedish national election (August
1–August 13), and Wave 2, which took place immediately after the Swedish National
election (September 15–September 24).2 A total of 2,747 respondents participated in Wave
1 and 2,398 in Wave 2, resulting in a cooperation rate of 35% (Cooperation Rate 2,
American Association for Public Opinion Research). In Wave 1, 48.2% were female, mean
age was 46.3 (SD = 16.9), and 7.6% had a low level of education, 42.3% had a medium
level of education, and 50.2% had a high level of education. In terms of sociodemographic
characteristics, this sample is largely representative for the population at large, albeit with
some overrepresentation of those with higher education.3

Measures
To measure media exposure, which we subsequently use to investigate what news repertoires
can be identified, we used 21 items, including all the most important national news media in
both their traditional and online formats as well as social media. More specifically, we asked
respondents how often they listen to news on public service radio (via radio or via Internet or
cell phone), watch the public service TV news program Aktuellt or Rapport (via television or
via Internet or cell phone), watch the commercial TV news program TV4 Nyheterna (via
 The Mix of Media Use Matters 7

television or via Internet or cell phone), and read a local newspaper, a tabloid (Aftonbladet or
Expressen) or a broadsheet (Dagens Nyheter and SvenskaDagbladet) newspaper (either in print
or via Internet or cell phone). All these variables were measured on a scale ranging from 1
(daily) to 6 (never), which were then reverse-coded. Reading news via social media was
measured by asking respondents how often they use social media, such as Facebook and
Twitter, to get updates about the community, share news about politics and society, and get tips
on political news and events. These variables were measured on a five-point scale ranging from
1 (daily) to 5 (never), which were reverse-coded. All these variables were used for the latent
class analyses. Summary statistics can be provided upon request. We also measured several
control variables: sociodemographics (age, gender, and educational level) and general political
interest (measured on a scale ranging from 1 = not at all interested to 4 = very interested).
Online political participation was measured with the question “During the last month,
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how often have you done any of the following on the Internet?” The question included
eight items (see Appendix). The response scale ranged from 1 (daily) to 5 (never). Again
these items were reversed. A mean score was calculated (range 1–5) and used to measure
online political participation (Wave 1: eigenvalue = 3.62, explained variance = 45.3%,
Cronbach’s α = 0.81, M = 1.29, SD = 0.49; Wave 2: eigenvalue = 3.65, explained
variance = 45.6%, Cronbach’s α = 0.82, M = 1.34, SD = 0.54).
Offline political participation was measured using the question “During the past
month, have you done the following with the intention to influence a societal issue?”
The question included nine items (see Appendix). The responses were 1 (several times), 2
(once), and 3 (not); this was recoded into dichotomous variables for the analysis (1 and 2
were recoded as 1; 3 was recoded as 0). After performing a Mokken scale analysis (Van
Schuur, 2003) to examine whether the nine dichotomous variables form one scale, a mean
score was calculated (range 0–1) and used to measure offline political participation (Wave
1: H-coefficient = .45, M = .13, SD = .18; Wave 2: H-coefficient = .46, M = .16, SD = .19).

Analytical Strategy
While most studies investigating news repertoires have used principal component analysis,
cluster analysis, or simpler statistical techniques (Edgerly, 2015; Hasebrink & Domeyer,
2012; Lee & Yang, 2014; Taneja et al., 2012; Wolfsfeld et al., 2016), in this study we have
used latent class analysis (LCA; Hagenaars & McCutcheon, 2002; sometimes referred to
as latent profile analyses [see Oberski, 2016]) to examine different types of media users
(for similar approaches, see Bos et al., 2016; Van De Pol, Holleman, Kamoen, Krouwel, &
De Vreese, 2014). A latent class analysis “recovers hidden groups from observed data”
(Oberski, 2016, p. 275), and differs from other classification techniques in that it “fits a
model to the data rather than providing an ad hoc classification of the given data” (Van De
Pol et al., 2014, p. 402). It is particularly useful when variables are measured on different
scales. In our study, we identified individuals who share similar news repertoires, and
those individuals with the same news repertoire are then grouped together (see also Bos
et al., 2016). Using Mplus software (version 6), we included the 21 media exposure
variables mentioned earlier and performed the LCA seven times to determine which
solution fits our data. To avoid local maxima (Van De Pol et al., 2014), we used different
starting values to estimate our models. To identify the best models, we consulted several
commonly used fit indices. These include the Bayesian information criterion (BIC), where
a lower value means better fit; the likelihood ratio test (LRT), which compares whether a
model with K classes is significantly better then K-1 classes using significance tests; and
the entropy measure that assesses, in our case, how well the media exposure variables
 8 Jesper Strömbäck et al.

predict the membership of the groups (closer to 1 means better fit; Hagenaars &
McCutcheon, 2002; Van De Pol et al., 2014). After obtaining the best solution, we stored
the new variables: (a) variables for each group, indicating how likely it is that the
respondent belongs to this group (i.e., individual posterior probabilities; the number of
groups depends on the number of K classes) and (b) one variable indicating the best
solution (i.e., every individual respondent is classified in one specific group—this is a
nominal variable).
Second, we examined the extent to which different news repertoires affect offline and
online participation. To take full advantage of the panel data, we included the lagged value
of participation in our model. By doing this, we are able to examine the change in
participation over time. If we find that news use is positively associated with a change
in participation, this will give us a stronger indication of a causal relationship that runs
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from media use to participation (Finkel, 1995). This approach has been widely used by
others in political communication science (see, for example, Dimitrova et al., 2014).
Last, because the distribution of some of the dependent variables deviates from
normal—the distribution of “individual probability of membership of a class” and “parti-
cipation” was in some cases positively skewed—we used robust methods to examine the
relationship between types of news consumption and participation (Field, 2013). More
specifically, we deployed bootstrap tests using 5,000 subsamples.

Results
Turning to the results, we begin by addressing which news repertoires, in terms of media
user profiles, can be identified (RQ). To investigate this, as a first step we examined the
number of latent classes in the data (see Table 1). We found that the five-class and six-
class solution offered the best fit. Although the log likelihood and the BIC were lower for
each class that was included, the LRT test showed that the six-class solution was preferred
as the seven-class solution was not significantly better than the former. However, when we
compared the entropy score of the six-class with the five-class solution, the entropy score
of the five-class solution was slightly higher. Moreover, the difference in significance
score for the six-class solution compared to the five-class solution using the LRT test was
small. We also believe that a five-class solution makes more sense, as it is more in line
with previous work (see, e.g., Bos et al., 2016; Edgerly, 2015; Lee & Yang, 2014; Mosca
& Quaranta, 2016; Taneja et al., 2012).4

Table 1
LCA results with different fit indices

No. of Classes LL BIC No. of Par LRT p-value Entropy

1 – 99958.644 200249.856 42 N/A N/A
2 – 96747.445 194001.659 64 0.0000 0.971
3 – 94527.884 189736.739 86 0.0000 0.955
4 – 93059.070 186973.313 108 0.0000 0.900
5 – 91905.342 184840.058 130 0.0000 0.916
6 – 91098.260 183400.096 152 0.0244 0.904
7 – 90492.554 182362.886 174 0.4118 0.912
Note. The different fit indices: LL = log likelihood, BIC = Bayesian information criterion, No.
Par = number of parameters, LRT = Lo-Mendell-Rubin Adjusted LRT Test.
 The Mix of Media Use Matters 9

Building on the five-class solution, the results show that five news repertoires (unique
groups of media consumers) can be distinguished (see Table 2). In Table 2, the estimated
mean scores (based on the LCA) of using the investigated media per news repertoire are
included. The scale of the offline and online media ranges from 1 (never) to 6 (daily) and
for social media from 1 (never) to 5 (daily). To accompany the analysis and based on a
regression analysis, in Table 3 we present the predictors of membership in each group in
terms of sociodemographic factors and political interest.
The first class of respondents is labeled minimalists. As Table 2 shows, minimalists
consume very little news, although they still consume some news (e.g., the online version
of the tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet). Minimalists are often younger, higher educated, and
less interested in politics (see Table 3). In addition, this is a large group (38.8%). The
second class of respondents is labeled public news consumers, a rather small group (4.5%),
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that is likely to listen to the radio, watch public broadcasting news on television, and read
a quality newspaper. In addition, they are also likely to read a local morning newspaper.
As shown in Table 3, public news consumers are often older, have a higher education, and
are more likely to be interested in politics. The third class is labeled local news consumers.
Besides the fact that they are more likely to read a local newspaper in print (slightly more
than the public news consumer), they are also more likely to consume both public and
private news on television and listen to the radio. The main reason why the local news
consumer and the public news consumer differ is the fact that the local news consumer
does not often read a national quality newspaper. The group of local news consumers is
also fairly large (31.2%). People that are local news consumers are often older and have a
lower educational level. The fourth group, social media news consumers, is the third
largest group (18.1%). Social news consumers are more likely to consume news from
social media, such as Facebook. Social news consumers are more likely to be younger,
female, and interested in politics. Finally, popular online news consumers are omnivores.
These individuals consume news from public and commercial broadcasters (both online
and offline) and they are also more likely to read the online version of Aftonbladet. People
in this class are more often interested in politics. This class is quite small (7.4%).
To sum up this part of the analysis, in line with other studies from countries such as the
Netherlands (Bos et al., 2016), Germany (Hasebrink & Domeyer, 2012) and the United States
(Taneja et al., 2012), the results show that it is possible to identify distinct news repertoires
(i.e., groups of media user profiles). Although the number and kind of media included in the
analyses vary across studies, which affects the precise groups identified and the labels used,
there were also some similarities in terms of the number of groups identified and in the fact that
the largest group consists of minimalists(Bos et al., 2016; Lee & Yang, 2014).

Predicting Online and Offline Participation

Turning to the effects on political participation, our hypotheses predicted that news
repertoires with lower levels of news consumption will have a negative effect on both
online (H1) and offline (H2) participation compared with news repertoires with higher
levels of news consumption. In contrast, compared with news repertoires dominated by
traditional news media, we expect news repertoires dominated by social and online media
to have more positive effects on both online (H3) and offline (H4) political participation.
To test H1 and H3, we first examined whether membership of a specific class has an
impact on online political participation. To this end, we used regression analyses in which
we included the lagged value of online participation in Wave 1, the specific news
repertoires (membership of each class), and several control variables such as gender,
 Downloaded by [Gothenburg University Library] at 01:02 03 November 2017

Table 2
The five-class solution showing the estimated means of media use for each media repertoire

Minimal- Public News Local News Social Media News Popular Online News
ists Consumers Consumers Consumers Consumers
PB radio (Public radio news) 2.41 4.29 3.93 2.92 3.61
PB radio (Online) 1.46 1.82 1.66 1.96 3.70
Aktuellt on SVT (Public 2.20 3.94 4.82 2.95 4.57
broadcasting news)
Aktuellt on SVT (Online) 1.27 1.46 1.47 1.58 4.67
Rapport on SVT (Public 2.27 4.32 5.03 3.08 4.44
broadcasting news)
Rapport on SVT (Online) 1.26 1.56 1.47 1.59 4.38
Nyheterna on TV4 (Commercial 2.34 3.23 4.17 2.82 4.19
news)
Nyheterna on TV4 (Online) 1.25 1.37 1.36 1.49 3.59
Aftonbladet (Tabloid newspaper) 1.31 1.37 1.76 1.42 2.10
Aftonbladet (Online) 3.01 2.73 3.06 3.96 4.57
Expressen (Tabloid newspaper) 1.19 1.33 1.61 1.32 1.92
Expressen (Online) 1.87 2.21 2.22 2.63 3.41
Local morning paper 2.57 3.62 4.36 2.87 3.49
Local morning paper (Online) 2.16 1.95 2.40 3.07 3.36
Dagens Nyheter (Quality 1.34 2.14 1.74 1.61 2.13
newspaper)
Dagens Nyheter (Online) 1.70 2.18 1.69 2.73 3.01
Svenska Dagbladet (Quality 1.10 5.58 1.22 1.28 1.77
newspaper)
Svenska Dagbladet (Online) 1.40 2.89 1.47 2.27 2.63
SNSs updated 1.77 1.60 1.46 4.28 2.71
SNSs share news 1.13 1.32 1.11 2.59 1.98
SNSs receiving 1.29 1.47 1.18 3.88 2.24
Note. SNSs, Social Network Sites (Facebook and Twitter).
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Table 3
Predicting membership of the classes using sociodemographics and political interest

Public News Local News Social Media News Popular Online News
Minimalists Consumers Consumers Consumers Consumers
B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE)
Constant 1.25 (.05)*** –.11 (.02)*** –.20 (.05)*** .07 (.04) –.00 (.04)
Female –.02 (.02) –.01 (.00) .01 (.01) .03 (.01)* –.01 (.01)
Age –.01 (.00)*** .00 (.00)*** .01 (.00)*** –.01 (.00)*** .00 (.00)
Medium educational level .06 (.03)* .03 (.01)* –.06 (.03)† –.04 (.02)† .01 (.02)
(ref. = low)
High educational level .08 (.03)** .07 (.01)*** –.10 (.03)** –.04 (.02) –.00 (.02)
Political interest –.18 (.01)*** .01 (.00)*** .01 (.01) .13 (.01)*** .03 (.01)***
N 2746 2746 2746 2746 2746
R2 .2290 .0433 .2290 .1388 .0088
*** p < .001. ** p < .01. * p < .05. †p < .10.
 12 Jesper Strömbäck et al.

age, educational level, and political interest. More precisely, membership of a class means
that if a respondent belongs to one class (e.g., social media news consumers), she or he is
not able to also be part of another class (e.g., popular online news consumers). We
included the membership of each classification (coded as 0 – not a member of this
class, or 1 – member of this class) as a dummy variable in the models. In this way, we
can compare the impact of membership in one class to the impact of membership in
another class, using minimalists as the reference group.
As shown in Table 4, the results show that only social news consumers are more
likely to become politically active online (b = .13, p < .001) compared to the minimalists.
In contrast, the results also show that local news consumers are less likely to become more
politically active online (b = –.03, p = .039) compared to the minimalists. Turning to the
relationships between news repertoires and offline participation, the regression analyses
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again show that only social news consumers are more likely to become active in politics
offline (b = .06, p < .000), compared to the minimalists. All in all, these results lend
support for H3 and H4, while at the same time not lending support for H1 and H2.

Robustness Checks
To further test hypothesis H1 and H2 and examine the robustness of the effects, we also
ran two regression analyses predicting online and offline political participation using the
individual probability of belonging to a specific class as the independent variable. This

Table 4
Predicting participation using membership classification (most likely class membership) as
predictor

Online Participation Offline Participation

(Wave 2) (Wave 2)
B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE)
Constant .13 (.04)** –.06 (.02)**
Online participation (Wave 1) 86 (.03)***
Offline participation (Wave 1) .68 (.03)***
Public news consumers .03 (.03) –.01 (.01)
(ref. = minimalists)
Local news consumers –.03 (.01)* –.01 (.01)
Social media news consumers .13 (.03)*** .06 (.01)***
Popular online news consumers .06 (.04)† .02 (.02)
Female .02 (.01)* .02 (.01)**
Age –.00 (.00)*** –.00 (.00)
Medium educational level .02 (.02) .01 (.01)
(ref. = low)
High educational level .02 (.02) .02 (.01)
Political interest .04 (.01)*** .03 (.00)***
N 2397 2397
R2 .7236 .5258
*** p < .001. ** p < .01. * p < .05. †p < .10.
 The Mix of Media Use Matters 13

analysis was different from the previous ones, because in the previous analyses we used
the membership classification as predictors. The results are presented in Tables 5 and 6.
Importantly, the results are very similar to the ones found in the previous analyses.
Specifically, we again find a robust effect of membership of the social news consumption
group, compared to membership of the other groups, on both forms of participation. We
also find, in some comparisons, a positive significant effect of membership in the popular
online news consumption group on online participation and a negative significant effect of
membership in the local news consumption group on online participation. With respect to
membership in the minimalist group, no support was found for H1 and H2.
As another robustness check, we also examined the results of the six-class solution
(results not shown here).5 Using the same regression analyses described in the latter
analyses, our analyses showed that the results remained largely the same. More specifi-
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cally, we again found that membership in the social media news consumer group posi-
tively affects online and offline participation, compared to membership in the minimalist
group. We also found that members of the popular online news consumers group are more
likely to become active in politics online, compared to members of the minimalist group.
Yet, we did not find that local news consumers, compared to the minimalist group, become
less likely to participate online.
Finally, we included the 21 media exposure items as separate predictors in the models,
to examine their individual effect on both forms of political participation (results not
shown here). We again found that the social media items have, in particular, a positive
effect on both online and offline participation.

Discussion and Conclusions

While research on the role of media in facilitating citizens’ political participation is
extensive, evidence about the causal effects still remains rather inconclusive. One key
problem is the lack of panel data, but equally important is that most studies are based
on comparing the effects medium-by-medium. In contemporary media environments,
where extensive media choice means that people increasingly mix the use of various
media and media forms, it has, however, become increasingly important to investigate
how people combine the use of various traditional and newer media into personal news
repertoires and how these news repertoires influence political participation. Simply put,
investigating the effects of exposure to a single (news) medium does not suffice when
it is probably the combinatory use of various old and newer media that matters most.
From that perspective, this study adds to existing literature not only by analyzing
citizens’ news repertoires but also their effects on both online and offline political
participation and by using panel data.
As shown by the results, based on people’s use of a range of traditional news media in
their traditional or online formats, as well as their use of social media, several distinct news
repertoires can be identified. The largest group consists of minimalists (38.8%), who consume
very little news. After minimalists are local news consumers (31.2%), social media news users
(18.1%), popular online news consumers (7.4%), and public news consumers (4.5%).
From a democratic perspective, it is noteworthy and problematic that the largest group
consists of minimalists. However, this finding dovetails with previous research in Sweden
and other countries, showing a growing or large group of news-avoiders (Aalberg et al.,
2013; Blekesaune et al., 2012; Prior, 2007; Strömbäck et al., 2013). The prevalence of
minimalists also dovetails research in other countries that has investigated different news
repertoires (see, e.g.,Bos et al., 2016; Lee & Yang, 2014).
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Table 5
Predicting online participation using probabilities of class membership

Online Participation Online Participation Online Participation Online Participation Online Participation
(Wave 2) (Wave 2) (Wave 2) (Wave 2) (Wave 2)
B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE)
†
Constant .13 (.05)** .16 (.06)** .10 (.05) .27 (.06)*** .20 (.06)**
Online participation (Wave 1) .86 (.03)*** .86 (.03)*** .86 (.03)*** .86 (.03)*** .86 (.03)***
Minimalists ref. category –.03 (.03) .03 (.02)† –.14 (.03)*** –.07 (.04)†
Public news consumers .03 (.03) ref. category .06 (.03)* –.11 (.04)** –.04 (.05)
Local news consumers –.03 (.02)† –.06 (.03)* ref. category –.17 (.03)*** –.10 (.04)*
Social media news consumers .14 (.03)*** .11 (.04)*** .17 (.03)*** ref. category .07 (.05)
Popular online news consumers .07 (.04)† .04 (.05) .10 (04)* –.07 (.05) ref. category
Female .02 (.01)† .02 (.01)† .02 (.01)† .02 (.01)† .02 (.01)†
Age –.00 (.00)*** –.00 (.00)*** –.00 (.00)*** –.00 (.00)*** –.00 (.00)***
Medium educational level .03 (.02)† .03 (.02)† .03 (.02)† .03 (.02)† .03 (.02)†
(ref. = low)
High educational level .02 (.02) .02 (.02) .02 (.02) .02 (.02) .02 (.02)
Political interest .04 (.01)*** .04 (.01)*** .04 (.01)*** .04 (.01)*** .04 (.01)***
N 2397 2397 2397 2397 2397
R2 .7239 .7239 .7239 .7239 .7239
*** p < .001. ** p < .01. * p < .05. †p < .10.
 Downloaded by [Gothenburg University Library] at 01:02 03 November 2017

Table 6
Predicting offline participation using probabilities of class membership

Offline Participation Offline Participation Offline Participation Offline Participation Offline Participation
(Wave 2) (Wave 2) (Wave 2) (Wave 2) (Wave 2)
B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE) B (bootstrap SE)
Constant –.06 (.02)** –.07 (.02)** –.07 (.02)** .01 (.02) –.04 (.02)
Offline participation (Wave 1) .67 (.03)*** .67 (.03)*** .67 (.03)*** .67 (.03)*** .67 (.03)***
Minimalists ref. category .01 (.01) .01 (.01) –.07 (.01)*** –.02 (.02)
Public news consumers –.01 (.01) ref. category –.00 (.01) –.07 (.02)*** –.03 (.02)
Local news consumers –.01 (.01) .00 (.01) ref. category –.07 (.01)*** –.03 (.02)†
Social media news consumers .07 (.01)*** .07 (.02)*** .07 (.01)*** ref. category .04 (.02)*
Popular online news consumers .02 (.02) .03 (.02) .03 (.02)† –.04 (.02)* ref. category
Female .02 (.01)** .02 (.01)** .02 (.01)** .02 (.01)** .02 (.01)**
Age –.00 (.00) –.00 (.00) –.00 (.00) –.00 (.00) –.00 (.00)
Medium educational level .01 (.01) .01 (.01) .01 (.01) .01 (.01) .01 (.01)
(ref. = low)
High educational level .02 (.01)† .02 (.01)† .02 (.01)† .02 (.01)† .02 (.01)†
Political interest .03 (.00)*** .03 (.00)*** .03 (.00)*** .03 (.00)*** .03 (.00)***
N 2397 2397 2397 2397 2397
R2 .5276 .5276 .5276 .5276 .5276
*** p < .001. ** p < .01. * p < .05. †p < .10.
 16 Jesper Strömbäck et al.

Turning to the effects of different news repertoires on political participation, among

the important findings is the positive relationship between a social media news repertoire
and both offline and online participation. This result is noteworthy considering that we
controlled for previous participation as well as for political interest. This finding suggests
that social media has the potential to increase political participation. Interesting to note,
though, is that this effect was found for social media but not for online use of more
traditional news media. Thus, it is not whether media are digital or not that seems to
matter, but the characteristics of different digital media. These results suggest that the
social network characteristics or “network media logic” (Klinger & Svensson, 2015) are
more mobilizing than traditional online or offline news (Dimitrova et al., 2014; Gil De
Zúñiga et al., 2012). Also important to note is that a news repertoire based on social media
news not only affects online participation but offline participation as well.
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With respect to the other news repertoires, the results show, however, few significant
effects on political participation, and there was no support for the hypotheses predicting
that news repertoires with lower levels of news consumption would have a negative effect
on political participation offline and online. Instead we found a negative effect of the local
news repertoire on political participation, even when comparing with minimalists. An
explanation might, however, be that local news consumers are often older and less
educated, and therefore less susceptible to being mobilized by using media.
Nevertheless, the overall pattern is that while a social media news repertoire has a
positive effect on offline and online political participation, the other news repertoires do not.
Broadening the perspective, this study has several important implications. First, and
to reiterate a point already made, one important implication is that research on media use
and its effects needs to move beyond medium-by-medium comparisons. While this study
adds to a still quite limited number of studies investigating how people mix and combine
the use of various news media, more research is needed to fully understand the
antecedents and effects of different news repertoires. Second and related, the recurrent
finding that the group of news-avoiders or minimalists is the or among the largest groups
calls for more research on why some groups of people choose not to follow the news.
One key part of the answer is a lack of political interest (Prior, 2007; Strömbäck et al.,
2013), but it is clearly not the full answer. Third, there is a need for further research on
the stability of people’s news repertoires. To our knowledge, thus far there is no study on
how stable people’s news repertoires are, but the degree of stability of people’s news
repertoires has major implications for how we understand different news repertoires,
their antecedents, and effects.
Fourth, this study raises conflicting expectations as to whether offline and online
political participation is likely to increase or decrease in the future. On the one hand, the
migration from traditional news media to social media suggests that political participation
might increase. On the other hand, the fact that minimalists constitute the largest group
while several studies have shown an increase in the share of news-avoiders (Aalberg et al.,
2013; Strömbäck et al., 2013) suggests a limit to the degree to which political participation
will take place or increase. If “monitorial citizenship” (Schudson, 1998) is becoming more
common, the democratic potential of social media to increase political participation might
be offset by minimalists being the most common news repertoire.
Fifth, there is a great need to understand the effects of different news repertoires on
other, democratically relevant, outcome variables. This holds particularly true for the
effects on political knowledge, not least since some studies suggest that social media
have a positive effect on political participation but not on political knowledge, while
traditional media have a positive effect on political knowledge but not on political
 The Mix of Media Use Matters 17

participation (Dimitrova et al., 2014). Thus, it might be the case that the same news
repertoire that has a positive effect on political participation has a negative effect on
political knowledge. In order to understand the democratic implications of contemporary
news repertoires, it is thus essential to explore their effects on political knowledge as well.

Notes
1. While it could be considered problematic using a Web panel when investigating—among other
things—Internet use, in Sweden 93% of the population has access to Internet in their homes, and
it is primarily among those older than 76 years that Internet penetration is lower
(Internetstiftelsen i Sverige, 2016). As our sample does not include those older than 75 years
old, this is less of a problem.
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2. The waves were part of a larger study with multiple waves. For this study, we used the third and fourth
waves, because the data for these waves were collected around the Swedish national election.
However, in this article, for interpretation purposes, we refer to them as Wave 1 and Wave 2.
3. In 2014, the mean age in the population was 41.2 years, the gender distribution 50% male and
50% female, while 12% had low education, 46% medium education, and 39% higher education.
4. We also performed all the analyses using the six-class solution to examine similarities and
differences (see Robustness Checks section for detailed information and results).
5. The groups that were identified are the minimalists (34.55%), local news consumers (24.28%),
social media news consumer (16.60%), public news consumer – reading quality newspapers in
print (4.51%), the public news consumer – reading an online tabloid news website (14.89%),
and popular online news consumer (5.17%).

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Appendix
Online political participation was measured with the question “During the past month, how
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often have you done any of the following on the Internet?” The scale ranged from
1 = Daily to 5 = Never, but was reverse-coded in our analyses. The different forms of
online political participation asked about were as follow:
1. Visit a website of a political party/youth organization
2. Read a blog about politics and society
3. Write texts about social and political issues on your own blog
4. Comment on or discuss issues related to politics and society online
5. Follow any politician or political party via Twitter
6. Follow any politician or political party via Facebook
7. Follow any politician or political party via YouTube
8. Follow any politician or political party via Instagram
Offline political participation was measured using the question “During the past month,
have you done the following with the intention to influence a societal issue?” The response
alternatives were 1 = Yes, several times, 2 = Yes, once, and 3 = No. In our analyses,
responses were recoded into a dichotomous variable and reverse-coded. The different
forms of offline political participation asked about were as follow:
1. Sign a petition
2. Contact a politician
3. Write a letter or debate article for a newspaper
4. Write a debate article or blog post on the Internet
5. Argue for your views in a political discussion
6. Contact mass media
7. Attend a demonstration
8. Attend a political meeting
9. Try to convince others to vote for a particular party

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