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Who are the users of Danish alternative media? A survey study on the prevalence of alternative news use in Denmark and profiles of the users Cover

Who are the users of Danish alternative media? A survey study on the prevalence of alternative news use in Denmark and profiles of the users

Nordicom Review
Volume 45 (2024): Issue 1 (January 2024)
By: Miriam Kroman BremsORCID  
Open Access
|Mar 2024

Figures & Tables

FIGURE 1

Estimated use of alternative media among the adult Danish population (per cent)Comments: N = 2,455. Data weighted to match the adult Danish population on age, gender, level of education, and place of residence.
Estimated use of alternative media among the adult Danish population (per cent)Comments: N = 2,455. Data weighted to match the adult Danish population on age, gender, level of education, and place of residence.

FIGURE 2

Predicted average probability of alternative news use, by gender and age (per cent)Comments: N = 2,455. McFadden’s pseudo-R2 = 0.028; Nagelkerke’s pseudo-R2 = 0.059. Variables included in the model: gender and age. CI error bars omitted for better graphical overview (for graphs with error bars see Appendix E in the online supplement).
Predicted average probability of alternative news use, by gender and age (per cent)Comments: N = 2,455. McFadden’s pseudo-R2 = 0.028; Nagelkerke’s pseudo-R2 = 0.059. Variables included in the model: gender and age. CI error bars omitted for better graphical overview (for graphs with error bars see Appendix E in the online supplement).

FIGURE 3

Predicted average probability of alternative news use by level of education and place of residence (per cent)Comments: N = 2,455. McFadden’s pseudo-R2 = 0.035; Nagelkerke’s pseudo-R2 = 0.072. Variables included in the model: gender, age, level of education, and place of residence. CI error bars omitted for better graphical overview (for graphs with error bars, see Appendix E in the online supplement).
Predicted average probability of alternative news use by level of education and place of residence (per cent)Comments: N = 2,455. McFadden’s pseudo-R2 = 0.035; Nagelkerke’s pseudo-R2 = 0.072. Variables included in the model: gender, age, level of education, and place of residence. CI error bars omitted for better graphical overview (for graphs with error bars, see Appendix E in the online supplement).

FIGURE 4

Predicted average probability of alternative news use by political interest (per cent)Comments: N = 2,118. McFadden’s pseudo-R2 = 0.066; Nagelkerke’s pseudo-R2 = 0.135. Variables included in the model: gender, age, level of education, place of residence, ideological orientation, and political interest. Results for “do not wish to answer” not displayed in figure (n = 22). CI error bars omitted for better graphical overview (for graphs with error bars, see Appendix E in the online supplement).
Predicted average probability of alternative news use by political interest (per cent)Comments: N = 2,118. McFadden’s pseudo-R2 = 0.066; Nagelkerke’s pseudo-R2 = 0.135. Variables included in the model: gender, age, level of education, place of residence, ideological orientation, and political interest. Results for “do not wish to answer” not displayed in figure (n = 22). CI error bars omitted for better graphical overview (for graphs with error bars, see Appendix E in the online supplement).

FIGURE 5

Predicted average probability of alternative news use by ideological orientationComments: N = 2,118. McFadden’s pseudo-R2 = 0.066; Nagelkerke’s pseudo-R2 = 0.135. Variables in the model: gender, age, level of education, place of residence, political interest, and ideological orientation (0 = left; 10 = right). Vertical lines indicate lower and upper quartiles. CI error bars omitted for better graphical overview (for graphs with error bars, see Appendix E in the online supplement).
Predicted average probability of alternative news use by ideological orientationComments: N = 2,118. McFadden’s pseudo-R2 = 0.066; Nagelkerke’s pseudo-R2 = 0.135. Variables in the model: gender, age, level of education, place of residence, political interest, and ideological orientation (0 = left; 10 = right). Vertical lines indicate lower and upper quartiles. CI error bars omitted for better graphical overview (for graphs with error bars, see Appendix E in the online supplement).

FIGURE 6

Predicted average probability of alternative news use by mainstream news orientationComments: N = 2,118. McFadden’s pseudo-R2 = 0.102; Nagelkerke’s pseudo-R2 = 0.202. Variables included in the model: gender, age, level of education, place of residence, political interest, ideological orientation, public service orientation, national dailies orientation, tabloid orientation. Vertical lines indicate lower and upper quartiles. CI error bars omitted for better graphical overview (for graphs with error bars, see Appendix E in the online supplement).
Predicted average probability of alternative news use by mainstream news orientationComments: N = 2,118. McFadden’s pseudo-R2 = 0.102; Nagelkerke’s pseudo-R2 = 0.202. Variables included in the model: gender, age, level of education, place of residence, political interest, ideological orientation, public service orientation, national dailies orientation, tabloid orientation. Vertical lines indicate lower and upper quartiles. CI error bars omitted for better graphical overview (for graphs with error bars, see Appendix E in the online supplement).

Other variables in the analysis

VariableMeanStandard deviationMinimum valueMaximum valuen
Political interest2.78.85142,433
Ideological orientation5.312.580102,118
Public service orientation4.522.24072,455
National dailies orientation.931.39072,455
Tabloid orientation2.302.46072,455

Use of different types of alternative media

Category% (weighted)n
Use no alternative media76.61,867
Use left-wing alternative media, low/moderate alternativeness3.281
Use right-wing alternative media, low/moderate alternativeness7.6195
Use left-wing and right-wing alternative media, low/moderate alter-nativeness1.538
Use right-wing alternative media, high alternativeness8.2208
Use left-wing and right-wing alternative media, high alternativeness2.966
Total1002,455

Sociodemographic variables in the analysis weighted and unweighted

VariableWeighted (%)Unweighted (%)n
GenderFemale50.652.31,283
Male49.447.71,172
Age18–2917.813.9342
30–3915.813.9342
40–4914.514.8363
50–5920.121.5527
60+31.835.9881
Level of educationLower secondary12.712.5306
General upper secondary11.810.5257
Vocational43.744.21,084
Short-cycle tertiary5.86.1149
Medium-cycle tertiary16.617.4426
Long-cycle tertiary9.49.5233
ResidenceOuter municipalities6.36.4158
Rural municipalities25.126.2644
Middle-range municipalities16.517.1419
City municipalities52.150.31,234

Classification of Danish alternative media

Left-wingRight-wing
High degree of alternativeness

  • Den Korte Avis

  • Document

  • NewSpeek

Low or moderate degree of alternativeness

  • Konfront

  • Netavisen Pio

  • Solidaritet

  • 180Grader

  • 24NYT

  • ditOverblik

  • Folkets Avis

  • Indblik

  • Kontrast

Measurements of alternative media use in previous studies

StudyMethodItem(s) and/or number of outlets includedCountryEstimated share of population using alternative media
Andersen et al., 2021Survey self-report

  • “How often do you use online news websites or social media to follow…‘News about societal issues not reported by the traditional media’; ‘News that provide an alternative view on societal issues than traditional media’ [italics original]?”

  • “How often do you use online news websites or social media to follow news that provide an alternative view than the traditional media on the following topics?” ‘News about crime’; ‘News about the climate and environment’; ‘News about integration and immigration’ [italics original]”.

  • Scale: never (1), more rarely (2), once a month (3), once a week (4), several times a week (5), daily (6)

SwedenAcross four survey waves, approximately 16% report using alternative media once a week or more often.
Frischlich et al., 2022Survey self-report

  • “In recent years, numerous news websites have emerged that often disseminate their content via social media and present themselves as an alternative to the established or ‘mainstream’ media. Which of the following alternative news media, if any, have you used to access news in the past week?”

  • List of six alternative media provided and a category of “other” alternative news.

Germany12%
Müller & Bach, 2021Digital tracking (2.5 months in 2017; 1 month in 2019)137 online news sites defined as populist alternative news media. Use defined as at least one visit to the page in the observation periods.Germany

  • 16.5% (2017)

  • 7.4% (2019)

Müller & Schulz, 2021Survey self-report

  • List-frequency technique including 12 alternative media with affinity for populism. Respondents were asked whether they knew the outlets and if so, how often they used them.

  • Scale: never (0) to very frequently (5)

Germany

  • Total share of users (use at least one outlet at least “very rarely”): 28.1%

  • Occasional users (use at least one outlet “very rarely” but none “frequently” or “very frequently”): 12.6%

  • Frequent users (use at least one outlet “frequently” or “very frequently”): 15.5%

Schulze, 2020Survey self-report (secondary analysis of 2019 Reuters Institute Digital News Report data)

  • “In recent years a number of online news sites have emerged with their content often distributed via social media.

  • Which, if any, of the following have you heard of/used in the last week?” (Item quoted from Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2019: 24–25).

  • Four to seven alternative media included in each country.

  • Austria

  • Finland

  • Germany

  • Sweden

  • Use at least one of the listed outlets during the last week:

  • Austria: 8%

  • Finland: 7%

  • Germany: 9%

  • Sweden: 22%

Steppat et al., 2021Survey self-report

  • “Some people are disappointed by political news coverage and have the feeling that the (most frequently used) mainstream media sources do not report information fully. As a result, these people seek out alternative sources of information (e.g. they may seek out sources on the Internet where they can find their opinion better represented or can cross-check information). Do you belong to this group?”

  • Scale: no, not at all (1), no, mostly not (2), yes, mostly (3), yes, definitely (4) Respondents who answered 3 or 4 were asked to specify up to three alternative media in an open-ended question.

  • Coded into media categories by the study’s authors, one of which was self-proclaimed alternative media matching the definition in Holt et al., 2019.

  • Denmark

  • Switzerland

  • Italy

  • Poland

  • US

  • Respondents who consider themselves alternative media users and seek out self-proclaimed alternative media, according to the study’s authors’ coding:

  • Denmark: 16%

  • Switzerland: 15%

  • Italy: 11%

  • Poland: 12%

  • US: 19%

Theorin & Strömbäck, 2020Survey self-report

  • “In general, how often do you visit the following news sites on the Internet?”

  • List included one right-wing and one left-wing alternative news medium.

  • Scale: daily (6), 5–6 days a week (5), 3–4 days a week (4), 1–2 days a week (3), more seldom (2), and never (1)

Sweden

  • Left-wing outlet:

  • At least one day a week: 6%

  • More seldom: 9%

  • Right-wing outlet:

  • At least one day a week: 5%

  • More seldom: 10%

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2024-0014 | Journal eISSN: 2001-5119 | Journal ISSN: 1403-1108
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Language: English
Page range: 81 - 113
Published on: Mar 21, 2024
Published by: University of Gothenburg Nordicom
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 2 issues per year
Keywords:
left-wing and right-wing alternative media,
alternative news users,
partisan media,
degrees of alternativeness,
Danish media system
Related subjects:
Social sciences,
Communication science,
Mass communication,
Public and political communication

© 2024 Miriam Kroman Brems, published by University of Gothenburg Nordicom
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

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