Seeking news via the pager: An expectancy‐value study

This study examines the use of the pager as a newly emerged mass medium for seeking news, focusing on the effects of expectancy?value judgments of the use of the pager in general and on the use of pagers as a news medium in particular on level of exposure to news. Results from a survey using a proportionate stratified random sample of 883 respondents indicate that the pager was the second major source (after TV) to learn about breaking news events. Further, seeking information and instrumentality were significant predictors for pager use for news, whereas other expected values such as novelty, seeking fun and credibility were not. Finally, seeking news via the pager appears to displace viewing of TV news.