From “information” to “knowing”: Exploring the role of social media in contemporary news consumption

•The paper adopts information overload and sense-making theoretical perspectives.•We identify key aspects of contemporary online news consumption.•We investigate the role of social media in news consumption.•We study the role of social media in news sense-making and information overload.•We provide implications for policy-makers and communications practitioners.

Using the conceptual lenses of information overload and sense making, this paper investigates the process of contemporary news consumption based on the qualitative content analysis of 112 interview transcripts from a diverse cross-section of US news consumers. We offer theoretical clarification of factors influencing news consumption and the role of social media in devising strategies for addressing information overload in order to facilitate news sense-making and the resulting civic knowledge formation. We provide news organizations with suggestions for appropriately designing offerings to compete in the era of new media and offer directions for future research in the domains of news, product, and brand information consumption.