Positioning enjoyment and appreciation as key components of news use

Abstract

In response to the continued convergence and hybridization of news and entertainment media content, this research explores the roles of enjoyment and appreciation in contemporary news use. Three studies (two surveys and one experiment) show a clear link between enjoyment, appreciation, and news use. Both enjoyment and appreciation are positively related to agreement, value alignment, attitude change, and attitude reinforcement in the context of news use. News enjoyment is related to increased positive and decreased negative emotions, while news appreciation is connected to an increase in and tolerance of mixed emotions. Importantly, news enjoyment decreases actual knowledge while facilitating greater affective polarization. News appreciation increases more positive feelings toward other people. These results illustrate the value of merging research on entertainment and news media, and they also suggest that news enjoyment is a driving factor in the growth of less democratic news use outcomes.