Miriam Kroman Brems

In future studies, it's important to investigate whether a left-right divide like the one my study identifies can be found in other countries – and to explore what can explain it.

This aligns with prior findings of differences between use of LW and RW alt med, and LW and RW voters: Across different media systems, there is greater supply + demand for RW than LW alt med, and RW voters tend to have lower trust in MSM than LW voters.

Findings show that users of right-wing alternative media have lower political trust, more populist attitudes, and are more inclined to vote for right-wing populist parties. Similar associations were not found for users of left-wing alternative media.

Super happy and proud to see my latest article published in The International Journal of Press/Politics!

It investigates ass. between alternative news use in DK and pol trust, populist attitudes, and populist vote intentions and finds a notable difference beteen use of LW and RW alternative media 👇

Thus, the concerning tendencies the study does find can also be expected to be more pronounced in dissimilar contexts characterized by lower general levels of trust and ostracizing of what could be perceived as extreme points of view and parties representing them.

Findings must be understood in rel. to DK’s strong public service tradition, generally high levels of MSM trust, and inclusion of what could be perceived as extreme points of view and parties representing them in public debate and parliamentary system.

Altogether, the findings add considerable nuance to the picture of ANM users and findings suggest that, in the Danish case, there is reason to moderate some of the concerns often voiced in relation to the spread and use of alternative news media.

These findings suggest that use of RW ANM is associated with considerable dissatisfaction with the political elite. But also suggest users channel dissatisfaction into the rep. pol. system via the voting booth, i.e. it finds its outlet within the confinements of rep. politics.

Only use of the most radical RW ANM is associated with lower political trust. Users of RW ANM have more populist attitudes and greater predicted average probability of voting for RW-populist parties than the rest of the population. Similar pattern not found for LW users.

Users of LW and RW ANM take ideological positions further to the left and right and have more immigration-positive or immigration-critical policy attitudes compared to the rest of the population. Yet, findings suggest they do not, on avg., take extreme positions.

While the Danish users of ANM have lower levels of trust in MSM than the rest of the population, they do not have much lower trust and users’ levels of trust are high in international comparison. Most users do _not_ have higher trust in ANM than MSM.

Notable diff. btw users of LW and RW ANM: LW users only have lower trust in MSM that (allegedly) have a right leaning. Their trust in MSM with an (alleged) left leaning is comparable to rest of population’s. RW users have lower trust in MSM regardless of their left/right leaning.

Users have lower levels of trust in mainstream news than the rest of the population. This is the case for users of right-wing _and_ left-wing ANM and is the case whether we look at coverage of news in general or specific topics (immigration, climate, economy).

ANM are also sought out for party-political perspectives, used as platforms for idea development in (left-wing) political movements, or as communities of likeminded that give users a sense that they are not alone with their opinions, which some feel are marginalized in MSM.

For other users, ANM play a peripheral role as a supplement to MSM. These users typically have MSM that they are less critical of or feel they can use different MSM for balancing each other.

For some, ANM play central role as counterbalance to MSM. MSM provide one side of the story or a pic of reality with missing pieces. ANM give other side of the story + missing pieces. Both are necessary to get a full picture, i.e. no indications that ANM could substitute MSM.

ANM users do not live in echo chambers but combine ANM and MSM – and many other sources of information – in broad and eclectic news repertoires. MSM are especially sought out for general orientation. ANM can play different roles relative to MSM.

Only few ANM users say MSM lie. In other words, when users express lower trust, this only to a limited extent reflects that users do not believe what they read in MSM and rather reflects perceptions that something is missing from MSM coverage – other angles, facts, news stories.

Main reasons users give for not trusting public service and qual. newspapers are political bias in the news coverage, that MSM handpick experts who support MSM’s political agendas, and that MSM omit societal problems. Main reason for not trusting tabloids is superficiality.

Like the rest of the population, users of ANM have high support for professional journalistic norms like neutrality and balance. Use of ANM cannot be attributed to (explicit) preference for partisan news. Rather, users support the norms but think MSM fail to live by them.

Moreover, I have investigated how alternative news use is associated with (lower) trust in mainstream news and politicians, (more extreme) policy attitudes, and populist attitudes and vote intentions.

In the dissertation, I have investigated how widespread the use of alternative news media (ANM) is in Denmark, why they appeal to parts of the population, and how the users combine alternative and mainstream content.

In April, I defended my PhD dissertation “Alternative news use in a high-trust media and political context” at
@aarhusuni.bsky.social! Thanks to Kim Andersen, Karoline Ihlebæk, & Jakob Linaa Jensen for critically engaging with my work and for interesting discussions at the defense.

Findings below

You know you've been working too much on your dissertation when you look at the sunset and see a point estimate with CI... #phdlife

New paper out in Journalistica. Investigates how 12 Danish LW and RW alternative media construct & position themselves relative to the media- and pol mainstream. Key takeaway: AM within the same media- and pol system can take very diff positions vis-à-vis the mainstream

doi.org/10.7146/jour...