Allies, Antagonists, and Apathetic: A Synthesis and Path Forward for News Audience Research

“There is a lot of interest in understanding how people feel about and interact with news media right now, since trust in news is low. The conventional wisdom is that people have really strong feelings about journalism—they either really hate it or really value it.”

Associate Professor Jake Nelson and his coauthor, Dr. Seth Lewis of the University of Oregon, recently published an article titled “Allies, Antagonists, and Apathetic: A Synthesis and Path Forward for News Audience Research.” The article attempts to push back on this polarized narrative and instead argues that most news consumers simply don’t care one way or the other.  

The article reviews existing research on news audiences and argues that journalism studies tend to focus too narrowly on highly engaged groups. Dr. Nelson and Dr. Lewis identify these two dominant ways scholars conceptualize audiences: allies, who are interested in collaborating with and supporting journalism, and antagonists, who are hostile, distrustful, and prone to attacking journalists. While both groups are real and important, the article argues that they represent only small portions of the public. 

The authors’ key contribution is highlighting the “apathetic audience,” which Dr. Nelson describes as “Not as straightforward a segment of the public to investigate as those who stake out clearer, more passionate positions when it comes to journalism—either heavily invested in news and news consumption or actively disdainful of journalists and journalism.”  

Dr. Nelson comments, “Our hope is that this article pushes scholars and journalists to think more about what we believe to be the larger segment of people who just don't have much of a relationship with the news.” 

Read more about their insights here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2025.2601794