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Media Poverty: media use and citizenship in conditions of deprivation

Media Poverty: media use and citizenship in conditions of deprivation

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What we do

Media Poverty examines how conditions of poverty affect people’s possibilities to enact informed and active citizenship through their use of the media.

This project will study media use in condtions of poverty through a multi-method, comparative design, using Norway as critical case. Media Poverty is organised in four work packages. In the first, we statistically map media use patterns among poor citizens. In the second, we examine qualitiatively how media use is embedded in everyday conditions of poverty, and how these conditions afford public (dis)connection. In the third, we test causal relationships between access to news and electoral participation among disconnected citizens, through a nationwide field experiment. In the last work package, we develop and recommend policy measures that target the real-life barriers of citizens living in poverty.

Why is this Important?

The media is a binding force between citizens and the world beyond their private sphere. Thus, people’s use of the media is a precondition for the enactment of informed and active citizenship. At the same time, poverty is systematically linked to disconnection from the public and political world, and to low political participation. For citizens who live in conditions of poverty, the consequences are crippled possibilities for civic agency and the reinforcement of marginalisation. For democracy, the civic withdrawal of this group challenges its legitimacy. We now lack knowledge about how conditions of poverty impact people’s use of the media. Policymaking stops short at measures of access to news, failing to address the real-life conditions of poverty. In consequence, we have a weak understanding of the problem at hand and insufficient strategies to promote active citizenship to all.

Goals

The objectives of Media Poverty are to renew our understanding of how poverty affects the civic uses of media, to challenge the current paradigm of access, and to equip policymakers with better knowledge to address poverty-stricken citizens.

International Advisory Board

Ranjana Das, University of Surrey

Nick Couldry, London School / Economics and Political Science

Robert Walker, University of Oxford / Beijing Normal University

Contact

Torgeir Uberg Nærland

Research Professor - Bergen

tona@norceresearch.no
+47 56 10 76 40

Project facts

Name

Media Poverty: media use and citizenship in conditions of deprivation

Status

Active

Duration

01.09.21 - 01.07.25

Location

Bergen

Total budget

11.866.000 NOK

Research areas

Research group

Research Topics

Funding

Research Council of Norway (RCN)

Prosjekteier

NORCE

Project members

Hilde Danielsen
Brita Ytre-Arne
Johannes Bergh
Synnøve Skarsbø Lindtner

Samarbeidspartnere

Universitetet i Bergen, Institutt for samfunnsforskning
Publications
Beyond representation: Public service media, minority audiences and the promotion of capabilities through entertainment – Nærland, Torgeir Uberg; Dahl, John Magnus Ragnhildson. 2022, Poetics. NORCE, UIB.
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Contact

Postal Address: P.O.B 22 Nygårdstangen
NO-5838 Bergen

E-mail: post@norceresearch.no

Phone: +47 56 10 70 00

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