Presentation at ECREA ECC 2016 in Prague

1. Media diets in an age of apps and social media:
Dealing with a third layer of repertoire elements
Damian Trilling
University of Amsterdam
Department of Communication Science
Amsterdam School of Communication Research
d.c.trilling@uva.nl
ECREA ECC Conference, Prague, 10-11-2016

2. Common assumptions

3. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Common assumptions
We do as if these assumptions would still hold . . .
(have they ever?)
“People use a fixed set of news
outlets”
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

4. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Common assumptions
We do as if these assumptions would still hold . . .
(have they ever?)
“People can name these outlets”
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

5. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Common assumptions
We do as if these assumptions would still hold . . .
(have they ever?)
“People use these outlets with a
constant frequency”
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

6. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Common assumptions
We do as if these assumptions would still hold . . .
(have they ever?)
“The content of the outlets is
static”
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

7. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Common assumptions
We do as if these assumptions would still hold . . .
(have they ever?)
“Outlets are a meaningful category
to categorize distinct content”
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

8. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Common assumptions
We do as if these assumptions would still hold . . .
(have they ever?)
“Content produced by one outlet is
delivered via one channel”
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

9. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
. . . and why they are wrong
But they are wrong.
• News providers spread their content via different channels:
website, apps, social media, . . .
• Large share (typically 33%–50%) of website traffic comes via
links on social media
• tailored, personalized, targeted content
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

10. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
. . . and why they are wrong
Some numbers
Out of 10 online news items read,. . .
• 3.9 are read by visiting the web site
• 2.1 via an app
• 0.3 via a news aggregator
• 1.6 via a Facebook-link
• 0.2 via a Twitter-link
• 1.0 via a link somewhere else
(source: own survey data)
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

11. Toward new theories of news flows

12. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Unbundling
Toward new theories of news flows
Transmission of societally relevant information
• before: few distinct channels, largely the same for everyone
• now: also social network sites, personalized media, . . .
• complicating factor: citizens influence the news diffusion
process by sharing articles (feedback loops)
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

13. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Unbundling
Toward new theories of news flows
Transmission of societally relevant information
• before: few distinct channels, largely the same for everyone
• now: also social network sites, personalized media, . . .
• complicating factor: citizens influence the news diffusion
process by sharing articles (feedback loops)
⇒ news products get unbundled
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

14. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Unbundling
Unbundling of news
• single news item instead of collection of items bundled in, e.g.
a newspaper
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

15. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Unbundling
Unbundling of news
• single news item instead of collection of items bundled in, e.g.
a newspaper
examples
• aggregators (Google News)
• pay-per-article (Blendle)
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

17. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Unbundling
Thorson & Wells: Curated news flows
curation is
“the production, selection, filtering, annotation, or framing of
content. Unlike the mass media era, in which communication could
be conceptualized as largely controlled by political elites and media
actors, in the digital information environment processes of curation
are also undertaken by actors such as friends and social contacts,
computer algorithms, and individual media users themselves.”
Thorson, K., & Wells, C. (2016). Curated flows: A framework for mapping media exposure in the digital
age. Communication Theory, 26, 309–328. doi:10.1111/comt.12087
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

18. News exposure as network of users and news items

19. is(nearly)identical
News item 5
News item 4
News item 3
News item 2
topic = economy
source = ANP
date = 06-12-2015
frames = [human interest, conflict]
reads
reads
A
B
C
reads
reads
... ... ...
medium = nu.nl
medium = nrc.nl
age = 59
gender = M
age = 27
gender =F
News item 1 age = 59
gender = M
... ... ...readsis (nearly)
identical

20. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Repertoires?
Consequences for repertoire research
Relevant components of media repertoires
media types, genres, topics, concrete products/brands, social
contexts
Hasebrink, U., & Domeyer, H. (2012). Media repertoires as patterns of behaviour and as meaningful
practices: A multimethod approach to media use in converging media environments. Participations, 9
(2), 757–779.
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

21. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Repertoires?
Consequences for repertoire research
Relevant components of media repertoires
media types, genres, topics, concrete products/brands, social
contexts
Hasebrink, U., & Domeyer, H. (2012). Media repertoires as patterns of behaviour and as meaningful
practices: A multimethod approach to media use in converging media environments. Participations, 9
(2), 757–779.
Let’s systematize that!
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

22. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Repertoires?
Layer 1:
media types
• radio
• newspaper
• TV
• “the internet”
• . . .
e.g., Hasebrink & Popp, 2006; Hasebrink & Dohmeyer, 2012; Schrøder, 2014
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

23. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Repertoires?
Layer 2:
individual outlets
• specific newspaper (“de Volkskrant”)
• specific website (“www.nu.nl”)
• specific TV program (“NOS Journaal”)
e.g., Van Rees & Van Eijck, 2003; Trilling & Schoenbach, 2013, 2015)
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

24. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Repertoires?
Layer 2:
individual outlets
• specific newspaper (“de Volkskrant”)
• specific website (“www.nu.nl”)
• specific TV program (“NOS Journaal”)
e.g., Van Rees & Van Eijck, 2003; Trilling & Schoenbach, 2013, 2015)
⇒ There is an intersection with the types of the first layer!
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

25. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Repertoires?
Problem
How to deal with unbundling in repertoire research?
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

26. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Repertoires?
Problem
How to deal with unbundling in repertoire research?
• Ignore (“people will ultimately use the same outlets anyway”)
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

27. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Repertoires?
Problem
How to deal with unbundling in repertoire research?
• Ignore (“people will ultimately use the same outlets anyway”)
• Add new items to list (“Facebook as news source”)
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

28. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Repertoires?
Problem
How to deal with unbundling in repertoire research?
• Ignore (“people will ultimately use the same outlets anyway”)
• Add new items to list (“Facebook as news source”)
• Both don’t really capture the consequences of unbundling
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

29. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Repertoires?
Problem
How to deal with unbundling in repertoire research?
• Ignore (“people will ultimately use the same outlets anyway”)
• Add new items to list (“Facebook as news source”)
• Both don’t really capture the consequences of unbundling
• We are essentially treating a threedimensional space as
twodimensional
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

30. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Towards a conceptualization of Layer 3
We need to think of a third layer or dimension of repertoires
that is orthogonal to the other two.
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

31. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
The 2D model
medium type
brand
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

32. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
The 2D model
medium type
brand
example repertoire:
{[’Volkskrant’, ’www’], [’Volkskrant’, ’paper’], [’nu.nl’, ’www’]}
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

33. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
The 3D model
medium type
brand
gateway
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

34. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
The 3D model
medium type
brand
gateway
example repertoire:
{[’Volkskrant’, ’www’,’Facebook’], [’Volkskrant’, ’paper’,None],
[’nu.nl’, ’www’,’app’]}
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

35. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Slicing the dice
Maybe we are interested in gateway–brand repertoires.
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

36. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Slicing the dice
Or in medium–brand repertoires.
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

37. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Translating this into practice
A conceptual problem, not tied to one methodology
• in survey research: don’t lump together items that belong to
different layers
• in qualitative studies: don’t forget to concider how people got
to their news
• in online tracking studies: adopt a network perspective
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

38. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Conclusions
• Apps, social media, etc. are not just new elements in a media
repertoire
• Need to systematize elements of repertoires in different
dimensions
• The dice of a media repertoire can be sliced in three ways
• . . . but it will be increasingly difficult to get a complete
picture of the whole dice
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling

39. Common assumptions Toward new theories of news flows The third layer Conclusion
Questions?
d.c.trilling@uva.nl
@damian0604
www.damiantrilling.net
www.personalised-communication.net
A third layer of repertoire elements Damian Trilling