Less attention has been paid to the more nuanced ways people interact with news and the range of content and sources they access across platforms, despite dramatic changes in these areas. In a recent set of focus groups, CNTI set out to better understand how the public defines news, journalism and journalists as well as what role they \u2014 and technology \u2014 play in keeping individuals informed about important issues and events. Unlike many studies on news habits, we opted for a more open-ended exploration<\/mark><\/a> of how people get informed about issues and events by avoiding explicitly asking people about \u201cnews\u201d at the outset of conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our first two essays explored how people understand what news and journalism<\/mark><\/a> are, who can (and does) create that work, and how they view the role of generative AI<\/mark><\/a> in creating news. In this essay, we look more closely at how participants engage with this news ecosystem, describing the extensive set of habits and practices they have adopted in order to navigate this changing landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We found, across countries and demographic groups, that participants focused much more on describing the habits and methods that they use to stay informed<\/strong> than they were on the sources <\/strong>themselves. Far from the \u201cpassive\u201d news landscape that is often described in news habit research, our focus groups participants revealed active approaches to making sense of the mounting volume of multi-platform content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While they rely on access to an always-on environment in which information is \u201cpushed\u201d to them, participants see themselves as playing an important role both in curating the information that they regularly consume and in digging deeper into news to verify facts, deepen their understanding, and add perspectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The explosion of digital technologies has increased participants’ access to news and information throughout their days. Participants described getting information about topics of interest from a variety of sources: conversations with friends, family and colleagues; posts on social media feeds; messages in WhatsApp groups; and notifications or suggested content from news aggregator apps and other online portals. Sometimes, they seek out news and information from websites and mobile apps from specific news brands. Many keep radio and television programs playing in the background during their daily activities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt’s all at your fingertips. You can have as much or as little as you want.\u201d (Australia)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou know, at times, something is happening at that very moment. And then, you’re just browsing Instagram, and then a piece of news comes across, you know. It’s around you.\u201d (Brazil, from Portuguese)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In all, participants describe daily lives awash in news and information. This has created a new set of challenges for individuals as they look to keep up with information and events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many participants described a kind of constant scanning of the information around them, sometimes followed by a deeper dive into content that captures their attention:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I prefer to follow a variety of different topics, mostly health, pop culture, current events going on [in] the world, sports, a little bit of politics and such. I don’t usually actively seek out this information, unless a headline catches my eye and then I will do research to get more information on the topic. And I honestly don’t really have any key sources.\u201d (United States)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n More intentional news consumption, as described by these participants, usually happens during a moment of calm in their day or week: on a coffee break during the day, when babies are sleeping, after the chores are done, after the work day ends, on a weekend or when someone is looking for substance over distraction:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor me it\u2019s news apps. So CNN, BBC, ABC. I get up in the morning at a ridiculous hour because I am a single mum and that\u2019s my only quiet time before it all kicks off. I look at those things.\u201d (Australia)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Older participants sometimes noted that they seek information from more traditional sources because they feel less digitally savvy than some of the younger participants, but even these participants described a fluid relationship to getting informed, in which they check in on the news periodically throughout the day, rather than solely at scheduled times dictated by print or broadcast schedules:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would much rather get it like on the go and in like a snippet format, rather than to sit down and actually watch a program for like 30 minutes.\u201d (South Africa)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Past research has characterized these behaviors as a shift from more \u201cactive\u201d forms of news consumption to \u201cpassive\u201d consumption. However, many participants described, in detail, ways in which they are actively taking control of the information they consume, putting a significant level of effort into curating their feeds, seeking out new information within social platforms, and cross-referencing information across multiple sources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike a morning television newscast, in which producers and hosts curate a selection of \u201ctop stories\u201d for a broad audience, most people are engaging with a new kind of morning newscast for which they<\/em> are the producers, curating a deluge of social media posts, app notifications, recommended stories and trending hashtags \u2014 often while the broadcast streams play in the background. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenge with the new arrangement, as seen in the labors described by most participants, is which information to pay attention to<\/em>. Throughout the focus groups, participants often described three driving factors in making their choices: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Participants often described the role that social relationships play in anchoring their interest and attention in particular topics. Across countries and age groups, people mentioned spouses, friends, colleagues and other people in their lives, noting that these relationships will encourage them to learn more about an issue to build their own knowledge on the topic and\/or as a way to invest in the relationship:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs friends, if it’s important in their world, I’m more than willing to sort of lend an ear and an eye if it means something to them.\u201d (Australia)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI actively seek out certain news from time to time if I hear something from somebody on social media or text messages etc.\u201d (United States)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI’ll […] wait for my wife to tell me, \u2018Did you hear about this or this or that?\u2019\u201d (Australia)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[A]lso in our township we talk, we get information from our peers.\u201d (South Africa)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n As a few people \u2014 including one professional psychic \u2014 noted clearly, staying on top of the information that is circulating in their social communities means staying on top of both more and less trustworthy information. In other words, some information is valuable to know, even if it isn\u2019t accurate \u2014 but as discussed below, participants also described efforts to verify relevant information: \u201cWith the neighbors sometimes, you don\u2019t believe them but you find that they are telling the truth. Sometimes you believe her, yet she has put her spiced version.\u201d (South Africa)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our focus groups often echoed what many studies show: social media plays a big part in how people get exposed to at least headline level news and information. One novel and striking element of the focus group discussions, however, was the way participants described actively curating the information that they receive in their newsfeeds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On various digital platforms, participants described in detail their engagement with a mix of hand-picked accounts that they follow:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have an electronic subscription to the newspaper published in the large city near me. I have intentionally followed a variety of Twitter\/X accounts. Both of those sources might prompt me to seek more specific information about issues and events.\u201d (United States)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Several participants described following professional journalists and news organizations on Facebook, X (Twitter) or Instagram:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “[W]hen I\u2019m talking about Twitter, I think of the journalists who have a profile there and post information about their topics of choice. […] Most of those sites, the news websites, the portals \u2014 they also have profiles on media platforms.” (Brazil, from Portuguese)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes, Instagram can be considered a new source, as I follow many news pages, you know, news outlets pages, they deliver news to me, so I consider Instagram to be a news provider.\u201d (Brazil, from Portuguese)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll the newspapers I get it on my Facebook but physical newspapers no, not really.\u201d (South Africa)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Others described following individuals, creators and organizations who curate news and information from a particular perspective that they share, including religious, political and niche interests:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI just genuinely follow more people that I feel are more aligned with my way of thinking. And I don’t know. I feel like that’s what other people do. They kind of subscribe to following certain yeah news, uh studios and stuff like that, that they feel like ohh, you know I can trust them and stuff like that.\u201d (Australia)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think anyone can have a platform, and I think of social media when I think of a platform in the smallest sense of the word. I follow this account with 1,000 on Twitter that provide news, and good news at that, for a very niche subject.\u201d (United States)<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cnti.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/cnti-news-access-quotes-04.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cnti.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/cnti-news-access-quotes-02.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cnti.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/cnti-news-access-quotes-01.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cnti.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/cnti-news-access-quotes-03.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>Encountering Information Everywhere<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Actively Creating a \u201cPassive\u201d News Environment<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Real-life Social Relationships<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I usually follow a lot of psychic pages, so I usually know, like, like psychic news. Or, like, what’s happening in the psychic community, basically. So yeah, I see the good as well as the bad I guess, the scammers.” (Australia)<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nCurated Feeds<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n