Online News Discussions

Abstract

This study examines personality traits and motivations in association with individuals' online news comment behavior. A survey of 517 participants indicated that those who were more agreeable and narcissistic were motivated for posting comments on online news. Motivations including informing, getting feedback, and exhibitionism predicted the frequency of posting on news comment sections, while social connection was a major predictor of commenting on the news shared in social media. Implications for using this online opinion-posting mechanism are discussed.

The Imagined Audience for and Perceived Quality of News Comments: Exploring the Perceptions of Commenters on News Sites and on Facebook

“…Of course, Wu and Atkin (2017) showed that news commenting on distinct platforms may be driven by distinct motives-for example, the motive of informing others or getting feedback on news organizations' websites and the motive of connecting with others (mostly friends or family) on Facebook. Because news commenters on news organizations' websites perceive other commenters as their audiences, they might use the comment sections for the purpose of discussion.…”

“…Wu and Atkin (2017) found that motivations of informing, exhibitionism, and obtaining feedback are significant predictors of the frequency of news commenting on news sites. Of note, only the motivation for social connection was found to be a significant predictor of the frequency of news commenting on social media, which suggests that motives for news commenting may vary across platforms.…”

“…Although news commenters function as important contributors for news organizations, there have not been many studies on the characteristics or perceptions of news commenters as they compare across platforms-that is, between a news organization's own website and its presence on Facebook, for example-except a few studies on motivations for news commenting (Springer et al, 2015;Wu & Atkin, 2017). Wu and Atkin (2017) found that motivations of informing, exhibitionism, and obtaining feedback are significant predictors of the frequency of news commenting on news sites.…”

“…Because of the growing popularity of leaving and reading comments online, these spaces for public discourse have become an important topic for communication research. Scholars have examined news comment sections to understand the impact of interactivity and other content features (Weber, 2014;Ziegele, Breiner, & Quiring, 2014), the quality of news comments (Coe et al, 2014;Rowe, 2015aRowe, , 2015bSantana, 2014), motivations for commenting (Springer, Engelmann, & Pfaffinger, 2015;Stroud et al, 2016), personal characteristics of news commenters (Wu & Atkin, 2017), and the influence of news comments on users' evaluation of news articles and social issues (Anderson, Brossard, Scheufele, Xenos, & Ladwig, 2014;Prochazka et al, 2016) and their future commenting behaviors (Rösner & Krämer, 2016). In addition, from the perspective of journalists, there have been a number of studies of how reporters and editors react to and negotiate the value of news comments (e.g., Loke, 2012;Nielsen, 2014;Robinson, 2010).…”

Developing UGC social brand engagement model: Insights from diverse consumers

“…Many studies suggested that celebrities generate content on social media and thus exert more social influence on fashion customers (Jin & Phua, 2014;Hanukov, 2015;Carroll, 2009;Keel & Nataraajan, 2012;Thomas & Johnson, 2017). Wu et al (2017) indicated that UGC emanating from celebrities on social media sites has more social influence in the context of fashion luxury brands as a unique social setting. Other studies suggested that content created by close friends is more trusted by SMUs than brand-related content, including celebrity-generated content (Chiou et al, 2014;Boerman & Kruikemeier, 2016;Liu et al, 2012).…”