The Changing Media Landscape and Democracy
Short description
Since the turn of the century, the media landscape has changed radically, with a steadily growing supply of different types of media, media platforms, and media content. The question is how these developments affect democracy and the way it functions. Based on previous theory and research, there is a risk that we are moving towards a future characterised by widening knowledge and participation gaps between different groups, as well as weakening social cohesion as people’s media consumption becomes increasingly fragmented and, as a consequence, people are less and less likely to share the same perceptions of reality.
Aim
The research project The Changing Media Landscape and Democracy aims to investigate how changes in the media landscape affect democracy. More specifically, the project aims to address questions such as:
- Over time, how does the importance of demographic and preference-based factors change in explaining people’s news consumption?
- Over time, what is the relationship between people’s news consumption and their political participation, and do developments in the media landscape contribute to widening participation gaps?
- Over time, what is the relationship between people’s news consumption and their political knowledge, and do developments in the media landscape contribute to widening knowledge gaps?
- Over time, what is the relationship between people’s news consumption and their opinions and perceptions of reality, and do developments in the media landscape contribute to declining social cohesion?
- Over time, what characterises groups and individuals who do not use news media?
- What do the changes in the Swedish media landscape entail, and what consequences do they have for democracy and its ability to function?
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