Examining the implications of different news avoidance practices during elections in Greece and Brazil

Longitudinal research has documented an increase in news avoidance frequency in many countries. Following this line of research, a number of studies have examined the patterns and drivers of news avoidance practices. In doing so, scholars have used different measures of news avoidance, most prominently selective (or active) news avoidance and low/no levels of news use (regardless of whether it is intentional or not). However, we know much less about the impact of news avoidance in key democratic outcomes. This article makes a distinctive contribution by examining how low news use and selective news avoidance are correlated with normatively important outcomes for democracy (belief in misinformation, political participation, and trust in the election process). We do that by using two-wave pre- and post- election panel surveys representative of the population in Greece and Brazil during their 2023 and 2022 elections, respectively. We show that low news use correlates with higher belief in misinformation and lower levels of trust in elections. On the other hand, selective news avoiders of political news are less likely to participate in elections, but they are not more misinformed. Overall, our findings contribute with empirical evidence to existing debates about the normative expectations of news avoidance. We discuss the small overlap between the distinct set of implications between selective news avoidance and low news use, as well as their weak correlation.