Traditional and Online Media: Relationship between Media Preference, Credibility Perceptions , Predispositions, and European Identity

The present study investigates the relationship between people’s preference of either traditional or online media for news consumption, credibility evaluation of media and their sense of European identity. In order to do so, the study draws on the Social Identity Theory and the findings of social psychologists which situate European identity a concept that corresponds to an individuals’ subjective assignment to a collective and their affective and evaluative attachment to it. The analysis based on Eurobarometer survey data reveals that preferences of both online and traditional media for political news positively affects European identity. However, such an effect is dependent on people’s pre-existing attitudes towards the EU and if they perceive the media to be neutral and credible.