Abstract
ABSTRACT Based on interviews with 41 informants, this article presents an analysis of whether, how and why everyday news use is constrained by everyday conditions of poverty in the “media welfare state” of Norway. While prior news avoidance studies indicate that socioeconomically disadvantaged citizens are among the groups in society who use little or no news daily, the relationship between news media habits and precarious life conditions is largely unexplored by media and journalism scholars. This study nuances assumptions of this demographic as being systematically disconnected from the realm of news—yet highlights the variety of poverty-related factors restricting their news engagement. By problematizing the relationship between choice and access underlying much news avoidance research, it argues that limited news consumption in the poverty demographic—even within favorable conditions—must be understood as a product of multilevel constraints rather than choice. In this way, the article offers new empirical insight into the news use and avoidance of a critical demographic seldom studied before, while challenging dominant framings of the precariat as news avoiders and as disconnected citizens.
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