Predicting Social News Use: The Effect of Gratifications, Social Presence, and Information Control Affordances

Abstract

Social media applications such as Facebook allow its users to engage in news content from three dimensions: news consumption, news participation, and news production. Borrowing from literature on uses and gratifications theory, social presence theory, as well as the concept of self-presentation and information control, the study investigates how individual and media factors influence news-related activities on social media. A national survey was designed and administered to young Singaporean adults through means of stratified cluster sampling. Results from multiple regression analyses revealed that respondents who were driven by gratifications of information-seeking were more likely to engage in news consumption whereas respondents who were driven by gratifications of status-seeking and socialising were more like to engage in news participation and production. In addition, participants who experienced a greater sense of social presence were more likely to engage in all forms of news activities on social media and those who perceive a greater sense of information control were found to participate in news consumption and production. Implications and directions for future work are discussed.