Other Bad Things: Linking the News Finds Me Perception to Dissatisfaction with Democracy and Right-Wing Authoritarianism

Prior work has found that the news finds me (NFM) perception is negatively associated with political interest and political knowledge. While these studies provide evidence that the NFM perception has potentially negative implications for the functional enactment of democracy, relatively little is known regarding the extent to which disengagement from active news consumption might be related to perceptions of democracy itself. The present study, a survey-based endeavor employing a sample of 1,048 Americans, found that the news finds me perception was positively associated with both democratic dissatisfaction and right-wing authoritarianism. Further analyses suggested that political interest, political knowledge, and political identity moderate the relationship between the NFM perception and right-wing authoritarianism.