Old age is also a time for change: trends in news intermediary preferences among internet users in Canada and Spain

Abstract

The social distancing imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the digitalisation of societies, which also influenced habits related to the consumption and dissemination of news. In this context, older individuals are often blamed for contributing to disinformation, which is associated with the echo chambers fostered by social media. Mass media, social media and personal communication tools act as mass, social or personal intermediaries when it comes to keeping up to date with the news. This paper analyses the preferred intermediaries of older online adults (aged 60 and over) for following the news and how they change over time. We analysed two waves of an online survey-based longitudinal study conducted in Canada and Spain, before Covid-19 pandemic (2016/17), and during Covid-19 (in 2020). We found that most participants exclusively use mass intermediaries or combine mass with social and personal intermediaries to keep abreast of the news. However, only 28% of respondents inform themselves exclusively through the alleged echo chambers of social and personal intermediaries. Results also show that media ecologies evolve in different directions, and, despite the forced digitalisation driven by the pandemic, digital media usage did not always increase or evolve towards newer technologies. This paper contributes to understanding the diverse intermediaries used by older adults to obtain news and how such media ecologies can contribute to contrasting different sources of information beyond the alleged echo chambers of social media.