Realizing Good Intentions? A Field Experiment of Slow News Consumption and News Fatigue

Abstract

Slow news can be seen as a potential solution to one of the central problems currently pertaining to journalism, news fatigue. By publishing fewer stories and providing news curation, slow news media offer an alternative to the overwhelming supply of fast news in today's media environment. However, we lack knowledge about the antecedents and consequences of slow news consumption: who are willing to use this type of journalism and, if they are, how will it affect their news fatigue? In order to examine these questions, this study presents a longitudinal field experiment with two survey waves and tracking data of the respondents’ consumption of a free membership to a Danish slow news media. Results show that slow news is most likely to attract consumers already engaged with news and that consumption to some extent is increasing their news fatigue. Thereby, the study illustrates how the good intentions of the slow journalism movement are not easily fulfilled.