How Loyalty Works: Why Do People Continue Their Relationship with Journalism?

Abstract

While loyalty has become increasingly relevant for journalism, it has rarely been examined as a single phenomenon and even less from an audience perspective. The empirical knowledge surrounding loyalty has centred on its role in trust, news choice, and the sustainability of the profession. Nonetheless, we still do not know how a relationship with journalism unfolds and becomes meaningful for news users. This research aims to advance an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of loyalty with journalism. To this end, we conducted 35 semi-structured in-depth interviews with regular news users (18–65 years old). By exploring the language, feelings, emotions, and stories that people use to describe their relationship with journalism, this article offers a holistic and comprehensive examination of what loyalty means as part of audiences’ everyday news consumption. In doing so, we aim to expand journalism’s vocabulary about loyalty, adding width and depth to our understanding of the potential benefits and implications that loyalty entails for the profession.