Abstract of the 2022 winning paper is posted below.
First Place Winner
The Diets of Newsjunkies: Intrinsic Need For Orientation and Hard News Consumption, Soft News Consumption, and Use of Partisan and Less-partisan News Outlets • Justin Martin, The Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Doha, Qatar and Krishna Sharma, Northwestern University
Abstract: This study examined the newsjunkie characteristic, intrinsic need for orientation (INFO), as a predictor of hard news consumption, soft news consumption, use of partisan outlets, and use of less-partisan outlets, while controlling for news medium reliance, social media use, political partisanship, and demographics, among U.S. adults (N=2,059). Using uses and gratifications and self-determination theory as frameworks, the study hypothesized that INFO would positively predict hard news consumption (political, international, etc.) more strongly than it would predict soft news consumption entertainment, sports, lifestyle/fashion news). This hypothesis was supported. INFO was the strongest predictor of hard news consumption, and was a much stronger predictor of hard news use than of soft news use. The study also hypothesized that INFO would more strongly predict use of less-partisan news outlets than use of partisan news outlets, a hypothesis that was partially supported; the INFO characteristic was not associated with use of partisan FOX News, but was also a strong, positive correlate of using partisan MSNBC. Still, a strong INFO was predictive of getting news from less-partisan NBC, ABC, CNN, and BBC. Implications for research on uses and gratifications, the intrinsic need for orientation, and hard and soft news consumption are discussed.
