Quality News Content in Twitter and News Reading Interest

Abstract

This research is to examine the relationship between the quality of news content on Twitter and the news reading interest of its users. After Twitter was introduced in 2006, certain changes can be detected in people's behavior especially in Malaysia in gathering information. Unlike before, the public had no choice in consuming news from traditional media such as newspapers and television. This research seeks to identify the relationship between using Twitter as a news source and news reading interest. Moreover, this research also seeks to identify the relationship between information quality and news reading interest. In addition, the theory that is being applied on this research is the Uses & Gratification (U&G) theory.Quantitative methods were applied in this study and about 120 volunteer respondents are required to answer the questionnaire given. Based on the findings, researchers found that there is a relationship between social media and news reading interest since it is available to access by multiple devices such as smartphones or tablets. In addition, users are increasingly using Twitter as a medium of never-ending updates about current news, which is leading to an increase in their news reading interest.