The value of a shared experience: Relationships between co-experience and identification with other audiences and audience engagement behaviors on social media

Abstract

With the popularity of social media, media organizations and scholars have turned their attention to audience engagement. Based on an analysis of survey data from audiences who consumed Korean content in Singapore (N = 934), this study examined how co-experiences of content with other audiences, identification with an audience group, and emotional engagement were associated with proactive, active, and reactive types of audience engagement behaviors on social media. The results show that different sub-constructs of co-experience and emotional engagement were connected with distinct types of audience engagement behaviors. In addition, the findings demonstrate the importance of identification with other audiences in all types of audience engagement behaviors. This study expands the boundary of the audience engagement literature by examining different types of engagement behaviors in consuming Korean content.