Predicting the Lifespan of News Articles: The Role of Message Features and Social Influence

• In Event: News Goes Digital

Abstract

This study examined how message features and social influence affect the persistence of audience news selection within the context of the diffusion of New York Times (NYT) health news articles. Using population-level time-series behavioral data of audience exposure to NYT articles and associated article content and context data, the study found that content positivity and emotional evocativeness increased the length of time for which news stories attract selection. Audience selection of articles was also more likely to persist when the articles stayed longer on the “most-viewed” list, demonstrating social influence-driven cumulative advantage effects. The results further revealed a synergistic interaction effect between social influence and emotional evocativeness on the lifespan of news articles: While social influence exerted strong cumulative-advantage effects, articles conveying highly emotionally evocative content produced even stronger social-influence effects than those staying on the “most-viewed” list for the same amount of time but delivering less emotionally evocative content.

Author

• Hyun Suk Kim, The Ohio State University