NEWS AUDIENCES AND NEWS CONSUMPTION IN SINGAPORE: A CRITICAL REALIST STUDY

Abstract

This thesis is about news consumption and how it connects (or disconnects) actors from the society and the world. Using a qualitative research approach and focusing on Singapore, this study presents findings from thirty-five in-depth, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. Cast in a critical realist (CR) framework, this study aims to provide a distinctively new way of viewing the news audience. It aims to highlight the generative mechanisms underlying emergent phenomena, as well as the enablements and constraints pertaining to news consumption in diverse situations of social actors. The thesis argues for the importance of studying news audiences in context. It foregrounds the way audiences engage in internal conversations, which show their reflexivity as they consume news in a non-passive way. It is argued that the news audiences studied exhibit a ‘virtuous core’ (which is necessary but not sufficient for ‘being virtuous’), and one who is evaluative, relational and anticipatory in orientation.