Rotterdam has a large number of ‘news avoiders’. These are often people who have ‘dropped out’, on low incomes and low educated. They are distrustful of journalism, often because they do not feel represented. Media scholar Nigel van Schaik spoke to dozens of these Rotterdam residents about their motivations and wrote an essay on the subject on Rotterdam journalism platform Vers Beton: 'People in Rotterdam haven’t ‘dropped out’, but have good reasons for avoiding the news'.
According to Van Schaik, you can’t blame these news-avoiders for tuning out, as they often have enough on their minds with their city lives. This group also consumes news in a different way, through conversations at work, in the school playground or whilst volunteering, and via social media.
Gradually, Van Schaik realised that many people distrust the news because they do not belong to the target audience of the major news media in the Netherlands. For example, people from migrant backgrounds are constantly made to feel that the news is not made for, with or about them.
In his essay, Van Schaik has a clear message for editorial teams: look beyond the end of your nose. By this he means that there is an audience of millions just waiting to be reached. The people he interviewed have not necessarily turned their backs on the news and politics. It is not that they are uninvolved or uninterested, but they realise that they are not being addressed and do not feel represented.
Van Schaik carried out his research in collaboration with Dr Isabel Awad (also ESHCC). They are part of the Erasmus Initiative ‘Vital Cities and Citizens’, a research initiative at Erasmus University Rotterdam that aims to create more inclusive, equitable, resilient, smart and sustainable cities.
Read the full essay on Vers Beton (in Dutch, payed (free login via SURFconext))
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