Within the past years, a seemingly novel, mostly online-based, (news) media kind started to gain prominence in public discourse: alternative (news) media. While we know that the content of right-wing alternative media is associated with the rise of right-wing populists, islamophobia, and political polarization (Holt, 2019), little is known about the audience of right-wing news media.

Previous studies find that alternative news use is connected to low levels of trust in and a tendency to avoid traditional news media (Newman & Kalogeropulos, 2018; Tsfati & Cappella, 2003). The ongoing debate concerning fragmentation of audiences suggests tendencies of news use polarization and stresses the need to focus on political fringes when studying fragmentation dynamics (Mahrt, 2020). Our research question therefore is: How are the news media repertoires of users of right-wing alternative news websites characterized and do we detect fragmentation tendencies studying the users' overall news diets? The presumption is that alternative news media consumption could lead to recipients turning away from traditional news sources.

We address the RQ via audience overlap networks (Webster & Ksiazek, 2012) using the Reuters Digital News Survey (RDNS) 2020. The RDNS surveys the usage of specific news brands, including offline and online as well as traditional and alternative news sources. We employ a cross-national design, including Austria, Germany, Sweden, Norway. The analyses will extend our understanding of alternative news audiences and their media consumption behaviour. We will be able to detect the presence or absence of fragmentation tendencies, and thus possibly polarization of alternative news audiences.