Sheltering through media: Dispositions and wartime uses-and-gratifications

During the initial outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, we examined whether stable dispositions and interpersonal concerns shape gratifications sought from media and whether media consumption intensity mediates these links. A national panel of Israeli adults (N = 500) completed an online survey during the third week of the conflict. We modeled integrative, emotive, diversion, and cognitive motives as outcomes, with trait anxiety, state anxiety, and concern for others as predictors and media consumption intensity as a mediator using path analysis. Interpersonal concern emerged as the sole consistent predictor across all four gratification types, showing significant direct associations with integrative and emotive gratifications and significant indirect associations with all four types via consumption. Contrary to theoretical expectations, neither trait anxiety nor state anxiety was significantly associated with any gratification type in multivariate models. Indirect associations via consumption were observed exclusively for concerns. The findings indicate that sociotropic concerns about the safety of family, friends, and community, rather than dispositional or transient anxiety, are the central correlates of wartime media use and the gratifications it affords. We discuss the implications for crisis communication, addressing identity, emotion, distraction, and information needs, and outline propositions regarding public alert adherence and social cohesion. Robustness analyses that controlled for religiosity and war justification reproduced the same substantive pattern, with interpersonal concern remaining a significant predictor of media consumption intensity and the concern-based indirect effects remaining significant across all four gratification outcomes.