Skip to main content

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Commun.
Sec. Health Communication
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2024.1422318

Is News Consumption Related to Abortion Attitudes? An Exploratory Study with a Nationally Representative Sample of US Adults

Provisionally accepted
Lucrecia Mena-Meléndez Lucrecia Mena-Meléndez 1Brandon Crawford Brandon Crawford 1Danny Valdez Danny Valdez 1Kathryn J. LaRoche Kathryn J. LaRoche 2Ronna C. Turner Ronna C. Turner 3Kristen Jozkowski Kristen Jozkowski 1*
  • 1 Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States
  • 2 Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States
  • 3 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The news is an efficient way to share information and plays an important role in shaping and reflecting cultural values and norms. However, research examining news consumption and abortion attitudes is limited. In this exploratory study, we analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of 886 US adults to assess whether self-reported frequency of news consumption-by news format (e.g., television, radio, newspaper, social media), news leaning (i.e., liberal, neutral, conservative), and total sum (i.e., total amount of consumption across leanings)-predicted abortion attitudes and complexity in attitudes. We conducted Poisson and negative binomial regression analyses controlling for demographic variables. We found that gender, political affiliation, Bible literalism, educational attainment, and abortion identity were significant predictors. While we did not observe a relationship between news format and abortion attitudes, we did find that the associations between news leaning and the total sum of news consumed varied across abortion identity. Our findings suggest that attitudes toward abortion may be differentially influenced by partisan news across abortion identity. After Dobbs v. Jackson, there is a need for advocates to tailor strategies to different sub-groups, promote media literacy, and encourage the use of diverse and balanced news sources to foster more informed views on abortion.

    Keywords: Abortion, attitudes, news consumption, news partisanship, Survey

    Received: 23 Apr 2024; Accepted: 14 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mena-Meléndez, Crawford, Valdez, LaRoche, Turner and Jozkowski. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kristen Jozkowski, Indiana University, Bloomington, 47405, Indiana, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.