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In recent years, public discourse and political actors have increasingly used a deservingness rhetoric to refer to the arrival and permanent settlement of migrant groups. However, scholars have drawn on the concept of deservingness without developing a clear theoretical framework for it. Following our recent work on the migrant deservingness framework, in the present study we use the CARIN criteria (Control, Attitude, Reciprocity, Identity, Need) to establish the extent to which host nationals in eight nations impose conditions towards accepting permanent settlement among migrants. Specifically, we examine the links of these deservingness perceptions with news media consumption in seven European countries and Colombia using online survey panel data (N = 12,142). Our findings indicate that consuming news via commercial television and in popular newspapers, in particular, is linked to greater conditionality regarding migrant settlement. Consuming public television or quality news sources is only weakly linked to (reduced) conditionality. We discuss these findings using the migrant deservingness framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Europe has seen a rise of authoritarian sentiments in both politics and among the public, which is frequently manifested through perceived threats from immigrants. This study investigates the link of news media consumption with right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation through an online survey sample in seven European countries (N = 10,599; Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Sweden). Our findings indicate that viewing commercial television and reading popular newspapers is linked with greater levels of authoritarianism, and, in turn, greater perceived threat. Viewing public service television and reading quality newspapers is linked with lower levels of authoritarianism. We find this both through direct and indirect relationships. This pattern is replicated in most countries, although Hungary is an exception. Here, the pattern of public service and commercial television viewing is reversed. These results offer grounds for refinements and nuances in media effects theories and political debates in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A weeklong diary study (N = 460) into the exposure to news of Belgian (Flemish) adult media users (aged 25–45) shows that their information consumption is currently relatively diverse. An explanation for the observed diversity is that news consumers in Dutch-speaking Belgium have a wide array of internally balanced news titles and channels at their disposal, which they also actively consult. In addition, the study demonstrates that news consumption patterns span across all media platforms. This study thus illustrates that there is a weak influence of ideological attitudes and psychosocial dispositions on news consumption, measured in time of consumption per media title or channel. These findings call for a revision of theories of selective exposure that disregard the influence that the diversity of information supply can have on the selection procedures of recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has found that news coverage on immigration is often biased in negative ways and that it inspires the formation of negative attitudes towards immigrants. However, academic research about this link between news consumption and attitudes towards immigrants among adolescents remains limited. The current study aims to test this association from a media-exposure and intergroup-contact perspective using survey data from 875 adolescents in Flanders, Belgium. The findings show that only television news consumption, thus no other types of news consumption, was associated with adolescents' attitudes towards immigrants. Intergroup contact within the friend group, outside the school context, was linked to more positive attitudes. This study nuances earlier findings that news consumption predicts attitudes towards immigrants. Implications for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that direct and indirect intergroup contact reduces levels of prejudice towards immigrants. However, no research so far has explored the association of these different forms of contact with attitudes towards refugees. The present study analyses the relationship between the frequency and valence of direct intergroup contact with people with a migration background, the frequency of indirect contact with news on refugees, and the perception of realistic and symbolic threat, and attitudes towards refugees among adults in four European countries (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Sweden). Data were collected in 2017 via online questionnaires (N = 6,000). Using structural equation modelling, findings indicate that interethnic contact is positively related to attitudes towards refugees. Moreover, valence of direct contact is found to be more important to attitude formation than its frequency. Regarding indirect contact, exposure to news on refugees and public news consumption are positively related to attitudes, while commercial news consumption is negatively related to attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Flanders, citizens hold rather negative attitudes towards immigrants and refugees. This could be due to the news media, which depict newcomers in a rather negative way. The purpose of this study is to analyze whether there are separate media worlds at work in Flemish young people and adults and whether this results in different attitudes towards immigrants and refugees. To do so, we questioned 1,759 people aged 13 to 65 by means of an online questionnaire. Results indicate that overall news consumption increases with age, and that young people mainly use social media for their news consumption while adults still rely on traditional media. Interestingly, young adults are the most welcoming group towards immigrants and refugees. Although news media consumption seems to be related to fear of terrorism and attitudes towards newcomers to some extent, socio-demographic factors play an important role in the development of fear and negative attitudes towards newcomers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how household composition and news media consumption and trust are related to attitudes towards two minority groups--immigrants and refugees--in a representative sample of the adult population (n = 6000) in Belgium, Sweden, France, and the Netherlands. We find that Swedes hold the most positive attitudes towards both groups, while the French are found to be most negative. The Belgians and Dutch hold moderate attitudes. There is also evidence that attitudes on refugees are more negative than attitudes on immigrants in Sweden and France, but not in Belgium and the Netherlands. Using structural equation modeling, we find that household composition is not directly related to attitudes, but indirect effects through socio-economic status and media consumption indicate that singles hold more negative attitudes than couples. Public television consumption, popular online news consumption, and trust in media are positively related to attitudes, whereas commercial television consumption is negatively associated with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on Flemish college students' news orientations and their uses of traditional and new media for news within a public service media environment. We used five homogeneous focus groups that covered variation in news media use. The analysis of the focus groups revealed major differences in news behaviors and attitudes between participants who mainly depended on traditional media for news, and those who also went online for news. While a growing body of research reports on young people's increasing use of online media for news, particularly among those that are most disengaged with traditional news media, our findings indicated that only the most eager news-users were motivated to gather information online. Additionally, we found that traditional media, in particular national quality papers and the Flemish public service newscast, were still the main reference points for public affairs information among our participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated online and offline news consumption among Turkish (N = 539), Moroccan (N = 482) and Flemish (N = 753) youngsters between the ages of 12 and 19 as well as the motivations behind their news use. The potentially explanatory role of culture-specific and socio-demographic antecedents was examined. The results showed that news plays a more prominent role in Moroccan and Turkish youngsters' lives than in that of native Flemish youth. A striking finding was that Dutch television news is primarily looked at, particularly by the Moroccans, for its perceived credibility and for its function as a guide through the world. Flemish youngsters' most prevalent motives for news consumption on television are its intriguing content as well as the information it provides to talk about with peers and family members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How readers consume and recall news presented in online and print versions of two newspapers in the Netherlands are investigated in this experimental study. Few differences are found between the online and print versions in terms of news supply Reader attention to the news stories varies, depending on the newspaper and news category. No consistent reading pattern is evident and the print version readers do not read more than the online version readers. News Consumption seems to be more dependent on the news category; reader gender and interest in a particular topic than on whether the news appears in print or online. Finally, on the basis of cued and free recall questions, no consistent pattern differentiates readers of the print newspapers from the online versions. In conclusion, evidence has not been found that online readers consume and retain news differently from readers of the print versions examined in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]