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Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
We live in an age of relentless information. The news pings, scrolls and streams into every corner of daily life and for many of us, it has simply become too much.
This book explores the growing phenomenon of news saturation: why ordinary people, including regular news users, increasingly tune out, switch off and step back. Drawing on cross-disciplinary research, it reveals how information overload, doomscrolling and news fatigue are reshaping our relationship with media and democracy.
This is essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of what news means - and doesn't mean - in a digitally saturated world.
“Can you have too much of a good thing? The answer provided by Moe and Ytre-Arne’s interviewees in a landmark qualitative study of selective news avoidance is a resounding “yes”, grounded in those moments when news feels too intrusive, too trivial, too distressing, too uncertain, or too distant, also to those who are generally interested in and engaged with public affairs.”- Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Professor of Communication, University of Copenhagen
“Too Much News challenges the notion that people disengage from news out of apathy, instead offering a vivid account of how individuals make sense of an increasingly saturated media environment” - Mariek Vanden Abeele, Professor at the research group for Media, Innovation and Contemporary Technologies, Department of Communication Sciences, Ghent University
Hallvard Moe is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Bergen.
Brita Ytre-Arne is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Bergen.
Chapter 1: Introduction: There Is Such a Thing as Too Much News
Chapter 2: Too Intrusive: News in the Attention Economy
Chapter 3: Too Trivial: News in Celebrity Culture
Chapter 4: Too Distressing: News in the Permacrisis
Chapter 5: Too Uncertain: News in Conditions of Doubt
Chapter 6: Too Distant: News in Everyday Life
Chapter 7: Conclusion: Better News