Emotionality and Engagement With News Content in Social Media

• In Event: Media, Emotion, and Public

Abstract

We know that when users like, share, retweet, comment, or otherwise engage news content on social media, that content is more likely to subsequently show up on the news feeds of others in their social network, which suggests that the information people see in their social media feeds is biased in favor of previously engaged content. In this study, we test whether the presence of emotionality in social media news posts increases the likelihood that individuals will engage in these reaction behaviors. We analyze over 12 million Facebook posts from 446 news organizations between 2012 and 2017 for the presence of discrete emotions and engagement behaviors, including reactions, sharing, and commenting. We find that anger expressed in news posts is uniquely related to increases in commenting on and liking the post and that the influence of anger on social media news engagement has become significantly stronger in recent years.

Authors

• Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice, University of Michigan

• BRIAN E WEEKS, U of Michigan