Public Space: How Shared News Landscapes Close Gaps in Political Engagement

Although many studies documented how news increases political knowledge gaps, most insights are based on single country studies. Why are gaps wide in some countries and narrower in others? We propose that fragmentation of the broadcast news landscape provides citizens with differential opportunities to become informed. A shared (less fragmented) news landscape in a country offsets the advantages of individual motivation and ability to seek political information, and narrows gaps in engagement. Analyses of a cross-national survey of respondents in 13 countries and content analyses of news items from over 50 international print and television outlets show evidence consistent with the theoretical statements.