Mobile Media & Communication 1–19 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/2050157914557692 mmc.sagepub.com News use of mobile media: A contingency model Esther Thorson University of Missouri, USA Heather Shoenberger University of Oregon, USA Tatsiana Karaliova University of Missouri, USA Eunjin (Anna) Kim University of Missouri, USA Roger Fidler Reynolds Journalism Institute, University of Missouri, USA Abstract A mobile contingency model is introduced and used to guide hypotheses about how the strength of people’s habits for using an incumbent medium (here, print newspapers), their degree of adoption of a newer medium (mobile devices), and their attitudes about the importance of professional news sources, influence their use of mobile devices for communication functions including entertainment, interpersonal communication, following news, financial transactions, and e-commerce. Secondary analysis of a 2012 U.S. national phone survey is employed. Older respondents use mobile devices less for all functions, including following news, tend to be loyal print subscribers, and highly agree that it is important for news to be produced by professional news sources. However, when the effect of age is controlled, higher levels of education, and to a lesser extent, income, still significantly predict agreement about the importance of professional news sources. The results demonstrate the crucial impact of news attitudes, and are largely supportive of the mobile contingency model. The most important practical implication Corresponding author: Esther Thorson, School of Journalism, University of Missouri, 179B Gannett Hall, Columbia, MO 65211- 1200, USA. Email: thorsone@missouri.edu 557692MMC 0 0 10.1177/2050157914557692Mobile Media & CommunicationMobile Media & CommunicationThorson research-article 2014 Special Section: News Consumption in an Age of Mobile Media