How Loyalty Works: Why Do People Continue Their Relationship with Journalism?

Constanza Gajardo*, Irene Costera Meijer

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

While loyalty has become increasingly relevant for journalism, it has rarely been examined as a single phenomenon and even less from an audience perspective. The empirical knowledge surrounding loyalty has centred on its role in trust, news choice, and the sustainability of the profession. Nonetheless, we still do not know how a relationship with journalism unfolds and becomes meaningful for news users. This research aims to advance an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of loyalty with journalism. To this end, we conducted 35 semi-structured in-depth interviews with regular news users (18–65 years old). By exploring the language, feelings, emotions, and stories that people use to describe their relationship with journalism, this article offers a holistic and comprehensive examination of what loyalty means as part of audiences’ everyday news consumption. In doing so, we aim to expand journalism’s vocabulary about loyalty, adding width and depth to our understanding of the potential benefits and implications that loyalty entails for the profession.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)650-668
Number of pages19
JournalJournalism Studies
Volume24
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarollo (ANID) [Becas Chile Scholarship Program | Grant 72180532].

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Funding

This work was supported by Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarollo (ANID) [Becas Chile Scholarship Program | Grant 72180532].

FundersFunder number
Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo72180532
Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo

    Keywords

    • audience studies‌
    • journalism
    • Loyalty
    • news preferences
    • news users
    • qualitative audience research

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