Drawing on survey data collected during the 2023 escalation of the Israel–Hamas conflict, the study shows that young Austrians rely on legacy media and ordinary social media users to a similar extent and trust both more than social media personalities, such as influencers or celebrities. At the same time, the findings reveal a clear hostile media effect for legacy media, whereas ordinary users are perceived through a “friendly bias," with content seen as aligning with one's own views.
Periods of international conflict are characterized by intense media coverage and heightened emotional engagement, particularly among younger audiences. In the case of the Middle Eastern conflict, young people are exposed not only to professional journalistic reporting but also to a wide range of social media content produced by celebrities, influencers, and ordinary users. While public discourse often focuses on the growing influence of social media, research has rarely differentiated between these distinct types of digital sources, frequently treating them as a single category of "online news."
The study addresses this gap by systematically comparing legacy media, social media personalities, and ordinary users as sources of information about the Middle Eastern conflict. It focuses on three key aspects of news consumption: how frequently these sources are used, how much they are trusted, and how biased they are perceived to be with regard to Israel and Palestine. The study is based on data from a quota-based survey of 569 young adults aged 16 to 25 in Austria. It was conducted in December 2023, during a period of particularly intense media coverage of the conflict. Participants reported how often they used different source types for information, how much they trusted each of them, and how they perceived their partisan bias regarding the conflict. In addition, the survey captured respondents' own stance on the conflict, along with demographic variables and political ideology.
The results show that legacy media and ordinary users were used equally often as sources of information about the conflict. Social media personalities, by contrast, were consulted less frequently. This finding suggests that personal networks and peer-generated content play a central role in young people's news consumption during times of crisis, rivaling the importance of established journalistic outlets.
A similar pattern emerged for trust. Legacy media and ordinary users were trusted to a comparable degree, whereas social media personalities were viewed more skeptically. Across all three source types, higher trust was associated with more frequent use, underscoring the close relationship between credibility assessments and news consumption.
