News sharing in social media: The effect of gratifications and prior experience

Chei Sian Lee*, Long Ma

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

966 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recent events indicate that sharing news in social media has become a phenomenon of increasing social, economic and political importance because individuals can now participate in news production and diffusion in large global virtual communities. Yet, knowledge about factors influencing news sharing in social media remains limited. Drawing from the uses and gratifications (U&G) and social cognitive theories (SCT), this study explored the influences of information seeking, socializing, entertainment, status seeking and prior social media sharing experience on news sharing intention. A survey was designed and administered to 203 students in a large local university. Results from structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that respondents who were driven by gratifications of information seeking, socializing, and status seeking were more likely to share news in social media platforms. Prior experience with social media was also a significant determinant of news sharing intention. Implications and directions for future work are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)331-339
Number of pages9
JournalComputers in Human Behavior
Volume28
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2012
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • General Psychology

Keywords

  • Experience
  • Gratifications
  • Motivations
  • News sharing
  • Social media

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