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Exploring digital divides in older adults’ news consumption

Annika Bergström
Annika Bergström
   | Dec 01, 2020
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Published Online: Dec 01, 2020
Page range: 163 - 177
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2020-0021
Keywords
© 2020 Annika Bergström, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Regression analysis, digital news use, 2014–2018 (OLS, beta coefficients)

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Morning paper, web
  age 66–85 −0.006 −0.005 −0.005 −0.013* −0.018***
  sex 0.188** 0.053 0.278*** 0.214*** 0.204**
  education 0.101** 0.098** 0.113*** 0.197*** 0.187***
  political interest 0.107* 0.185*** 0.186*** 0.193*** 0.217***
  newspaper reading −0.081*** −0.059*** −0.085*** −0.057*** −0.029**
  radio news 0.051** 0.051** 0.047** 0.055*** 0.076***
  television news 0.018 0.014 0.062** 0.049* 0.064**
  Internet habits 0.185*** 0.197*** 0.236*** 0.207*** 0.245***
R2 0.14 0.14 0.18 0.16 0.19
Radio news, web
  age 66–85 −0.007 0.003 −0.001 0.006 −0.004
  sex 0.167** 0.076 0.132** 0.011 0.224***
  education 0.075* 0.018 0.082*** 0.084*** 0.086***
  political interest 0.122** 0.161*** 0.129*** 0.154*** 0.189***
  newspaper reading −0.078*** −0.034** −0.065*** −0.049*** −0.064***
  radio news 0.014 0.100*** 0.134*** 0.131*** 0.169***
  television news 0.055* 0.005 −0.011 0.044* 0.023
  Internet habits 0.099*** 0.070*** 0.079*** 0.115 0.120***
R2 0.06 0.07 0.10 0.11 0.13
Television news, web
  age 66–85 −0.007 0.012 0.003 0.014* 0.014*
  sex 0.167* 0.057 0.163** 0.181*** 0.168**
  education 0.075* 0.028 0.121*** 0.113*** 0.090**
  political interest 0.122** 0.172*** 0.089* 0.174*** 0.212***
  newspaper reading −0.078*** −0.063*** −0.108*** −0.094*** −0.109***
  radio news 0.014 0.027 0.056*** 0.006 0.034*
  television news 0.055* 0.073** 0.085*** 0.170*** 0.130***
  Internet habits 0.099*** 0.134*** 0.137*** 0.194*** 0.225***
R2 0.06 0.07 0.09 0.12 0.13
News in social media
  age 66–85 −0.016*** −0.020*** −0.028*** −0.036*** −0.371***
  sex −0.083 −0.158*** −0.131* −0.257*** −0.038***
  education 0.054* 0.055* 0.087*** 0.024 0.070***
  political interest 0.160*** 0.136*** 0.154*** 0.146*** 0.170**
  newspaper reading −0.043*** −0.039*** −0.080*** −0.034** −0.046***
  radio news 0.009 0.020 0.021 0.019 0.030*
  television news −0.011 0.021 0.010 0.042* 0.049*
  Internet habits 0.073*** 0.094 0.146*** – 0.154***
R2 0.09 0.10 0.13 0.12 0.13
n 2,004 2,474 2,914 3,136 3,211

Use of web version among frequent, sporadic, and non-users of print and broadcast news, 2014–2018 (per cent)

66–70 yrs 71–75 yrs 76–80 yrs 81–85 yrs
Morning papers in print
  frequent users 19 (2,868) 17 (2,904) 13 (1,877) 13 (1,096)
  sporadic users 23 (597) 18 (474) 12 (243) 11 (151)
  non-users 28 (1,324) 24 (1,051) 15 (607) 10 (410)
Radio broadcast news
  frequent users 13 (2,991) 14 (2,834) 11 (1,750) 12 (1,007)
  sporadic users 3 (1,044) 3 (794) 2 (430) 4 (246)
  non-users 3 (737) 2 (777) 4 (541) 2 (404)
Television broadcast news
  frequent users 18 (3,827) 18 (3,788) 16 (2,357) 16 (1,425)
  sporadic users 10 (641) 7 (349) 9 (148) 10 (63)
  non-users 10 (321) 8 (270) 9 (222) 9 (169)

News use of different sources, 2014–2018 (per cent, Kendall's Tau-c)

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Morning paper, print
  Average (16–85 yrs) 49 43 39 33 30
  66–70 yrs 70 66 60 53 52
  71–75 yrs 74 67 68 62 60
  76–80 yrs 78 72 68 68 64
  81–85 yrs 73 72 67 67 58
Kendall's Tau-c 0.05 0.05* 0.07*** 0.12*** 0.07***
Morning paper, web
  Average (16–85 yrs) 18 20 23 23 24
  66–70 yrs 16 18 23 23 27
  71–75 yrs 10 16 19 20 24
  76–80 yrs 12 11 12 14 16
  81–85 yrs 8 12 13 13 14
Kendall's Tau-c −0.06*** −0.06*** −0.10*** −0.09*** −0.11***
Radio news, broadcast
  Average (16–85 yrs) 41 44 43 42 42
  66–70 yrs 60 63 63 62 63
  71–75 yrs 60 65 65 66 64
  76–80 yrs 64 65 64 62 66
  81–85 yrs 58 56 66 60 62
Kendall's Tau-c 0.00 −0.02 0.02 −0.01 0.01
Radio news, web
  Average (16–85 yrs) 6 7 8 9 11
  66–70 yrs 6 7 8 11 13
  71–75 yrs 5 9 9 11 12
  76–80 yrs 7 6 8 10 9
  81–85 yrs 7 8 7 9 11
Kendall's Tau-c 0.01 0.00 −0.01 −0.01 −0.03*
Television news, broadcast
  Average (16–85 yrs) 53 52 52 48 52
  66–70 yrs 83 82 79 90 77
  71–75 yrs 87 88 86 85 85
  76–80 yrs 90 86 85 87 86
  81–85 yrs 84 84 85 88 88
Kendall's Tau-c 0.04* 0.02 0.06*** 0.07*** 0.09***
Television news, web
  Average (16–85 yrs) 9 11 12 15 18
  66–70 yrs 10 13 16 19 22
  71–75 yrs 9 14 14 20 23
  76–80 yrs 12 10 13 19 19
  81–85 yrs 10 14 13 16 21
Kendall's Tau-c 0.01 −0.00 −0.03* −0.01 −0.02
News on social network sites
  Average (16–85 yrs) 22 25 32 33 32
  66–70 yrs 6 9 15 15 16
  71–75 yrs 4 5 9 12 12
  76–80 yrs 1 4 6 6 7
  81–85 yrs 1 1 2 3 4
Kendall's Tau-c −0.04*** −0.06*** −0.10*** −0.09*** −0.10***
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