News grazers, television news, political knowledge, and engagement

This study examines the modern-day television "news grazer" in American politics. We define news grazers as those individuals who watch television news with remote control in hand and switch to another channel when an uninteresting topic comes up. Using survey data from the Pew Research Center, we find that news grazers differ significantly from nongrazers in news-gathering habits, political knowledge, and behavior. These effects remain significant even when controlling for other factors associated with news-grazing frequency, such as age and gender. The implications for the present and future of democratic political engagement are discussed.