Enjoyment Is Breaking News: How We Became Less Informed and More Divided (and How to Fix It)
Title: Enjoyment Is Breaking News: How We Became Less Informed and More Divided (and How to Fix It)
Author: Jennifer Hoewe
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Date: September 2026
About the Book: This book dives into the dramatic changes in the ways news is delivered and consumed. While news consumers used to look to the news just to learn and become informed, we now expect enjoyment as well. Hoewe explains how and why this shift toward news enjoyment occurred, why we don’t always select the best sources of news, how we respond to the news sources we do select and how that information impacts our political knowledge and decisions. The book offers solutions for how to improve news creation and news use moving forward, including how news consumers can escape their enjoyment-fueled consumption cycles and how news and social media companies can play a role in curbing the automatic amplification of enjoyable news. The book explains how we can all do better when it comes to the information we seek and share.
About the Author: Jennifer Hoewe is an associate professor of communication and courtesy professor of political science. She studies how and why people consume media content, how they cognitively process media content and the effects that media content has on them, particularly in political contexts.