News on Smartphones
Logan Molyneux, Alexis Haskell · 2024
News is now most commonly accessed using a mobile device, a technological and social development that has reshaped news production and consumption. This chapter takes up the argument that mobile news consumption is superficial – fleeting in exposure, shallow in consumption, and consequently insubstantial. These charges cause us to ask how mobile devices and their affordances have shaped news production and news consumption on smartphones. We review research suggesting that, while producers must rethink how to present content on small, vertical screens, they’ve also gained unprecedented, immediate access to their audiences. Consumers, for their part, seem to favor brief, disjointed news sessions when using mobile devices, which we describe as ‘snacking.’ Following this, scholars have wondered whether these developments might have consequences for the downstream effects of news, such as learning and mobilization, and research thus far is inconclusive. Our review concludes that the effects of mobile news consumption are heavily context dependent given smartphones’ portability and connectivity, opening multiple pathways for future research. In the meantime, these provisional conclusions are challenged by younger generations who are growing up in a mobile news environment.