The Issue Takes it All? A Qualitative Study on Factors Influencing the Shift from Incidental News Exposure to News Engagement on Social Network Sites (SNS)

• In Event: What’s on Your Mind? Political Discussion and News Exposure on Facebook

Abstract

Social network sites (SNS) like Facebook have become an integral part of accessing news. However, as most users come across news on Facebook while they are doing other things (incidental news exposure), they will not necessarily engage with the content they encounter. Although there already is some evidence on the role of single factors that can inform news engagement decisions on Facebook, integrated findings—considering the highly personalized information environment—are still missing. Addressing this, the following study adopts a qualitative approach and relies on self-confrontation interviews with Facebook users (N = 16). Results of the observations/interviews show that engagement decisions are mostly determined by users’ perception of the news content and whether they are (already) interested in the issue of the linked article. Yet, in some situations, this “Matthew effect” can be overshadowed by users’ perceptions of the recommending friend, leaving at least some room for social influence.

Author

• Anna Sophie Kuempel, LMU Munich