News literacy and public service news broadcasting : Is there a connection? Evaluating news literacy among viewers and non-viewers of PSB news programming in Austria

Callecod-Weinrich, Kimberly (author), Krek, Janez (author)

News literate individuals have the requisite knowledge, skills, and motivation to navigate today’s complex news ecosystems and participate in civic life. This study’s objective was to use survey research to evaluate news literacy and its attitudinal dimensions among viewers and non-viewers of television news programming on public service broadcasters (PSBs), drawing on an existing measurement model developed by Maksl, Ashley, and Craft. Results obtained from a representative sample of adult news consumers in Austria (n = 492) suggest that regular PSB news viewers are significantly more likely to exhibit the characteristics of more highly news literate individuals, even when controlling for age and educational level. Establishing a baseline measurement of news literacy in this cohort in the midst of a transforming media landscape fills a research gap in the nascent discipline and provides a useful point of reference for future scholarship.

• Language: English
• Keywords: news literacy, news literacy measurement, public service broadcasters, public service media, media literacy, news consumers, Austria
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 1-10
• Numbering: Vol. 15, iss. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-166385
• UDC: 366.636:37.011.2
• ISSN on article: 2158-2440
• DOI: 10.1177/21582440241311648
• COBISS.SI-ID: 221563907
• Publication date in RUL: 10.01.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: SAGE open
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 2158-2440
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2586967

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: novičarska pismenost, merjenje novičarske pismenosti, javne radiotelevizije, javni mediji, uporabniki novic, medijska pismenost, mediji

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0126
• Name: Sistemski vidiki strategij edukacije in spodbujanja socialne vključenosti v vzgoji in izobraževanju