Abstract
Social networking sites (SNS) are increasingly used to disseminate and consume news stories, perhaps at the expense of traditional mass media sources. This manuscript explores how receiving news from social media “friends” may be changing how individuals prefer to consume and interpret news. Data gathered from 508 participants showed that “keeping in touch,” “reading posts,” and “browsing” were top gratifications from SNS. With these possible gratifications a user who posts news stories through social media will provide an interpretive view on the news for their online “friends”. Online practices are discussed how they fit within Uses and Gratifications Theory. Results showed news posted by “friends” online is positively correlated with a user’spersonal social media usage and knowledge of news events. Hierarchical regression analysis used several controls withpersonality factors, social media use, and news consumption. All variables together explain 33% of the variance in news consumption. These results provide insight into how and why users are consuming more news information online.
Highlights
Social networking sites (SNS) are increasingly used to disseminate and consume news stories, perhaps at the expense of traditional mass media sources
These top three gratifications are in relation to the agency-based gratification known as bandwagon where individuals on social media look for specific posts, photos, videos, etc. to become informed on what’s popular with their friends within their “social circles.”
We do not know whether users are provided with accurate news information from social media where news audiences rely on research done by journalists
Summary
Social networking sites (SNS) are increasingly used to disseminate and consume news stories, perhaps at the expense of traditional mass media sources. Participants were asked “I believe my social media friends make me more knowledgeable.” This item could be answered on a 7-point Likert-type scale where they answer 1 as “Strongly Disagree” to 7 as “Strongly Agree.” The statement was created to test the frequency of participants’ news consumption since research states one’s online friends are more likely to get a user’s attention to read an online news story and will increase friends’ credibility (Xu, 2013).This can produce more persuasion with news content in terms of attitude and behavioral outcomes (758).
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