THE MOTIVATIONS OF AMERICAN PUBLIC ATTENTION TO THE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

Abstract

The Russian-Ukraine war presents a significant event to understand the American public's attention to international crises that the US is not directly involved in them. Drawing on Use and Gratification Theory as a theoretical framework, I conducted a survey combined with an experimental condition to explore several internal and external motivations that influenced American public attention to the media coverage of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Data collected in an online survey of 453 college students revealed a positive direct influence of social interaction, political interest, and worry on their media consumption related to that war. In addition, partisanship and identification with Russia showed a negative influence on the attention given to the war news in Ukraine. However, personal connection, view on Russia, beliefs about democracy in Ukraine, and identification with Ukraine showed no relationship with media use related to the war.

About the differences in the condition between the peer concern message and the peer non-concern message, participants who received the peer concern message about the implications of the Russian-Ukrainian war reported a higher level of worry and a desire for social interaction linked to the war. The analysis reveals that peer concern-inducing message influence the worry and social interaction associated with the implications of the Russian-Ukrainian war. However, this is not the case with their need to consume more media related to the war. Overall, this dissertation contributes to our understanding of the motivations behind media consumption during the Russo-Ukrainian war. Finally, we discuss some implications of our findings, the limitations of this research, and directions for future research.