Why read online news? the structural relationships among motivations, behaviors, and consumption in South Korea

Abstract

Using cross-sectional data (N = 811) implemented by the Korea Information Society Development Institute, this study investigated the effects of online users’ motivations (information-seeking, entertainment, and social utility) for reading online news on their online news usage and consumption in South Korea. Consistent with our predictions, the motivations were associated with in-depth reading. Our findings also indicated that in-depth reading mediated the association between the motivations for using and the actual use of online news, whereas interactions and source-checking did not mediate the relationship. The implications of the study and recommendations for future research directions are also discussed.

Keywords:

• uses and gratifications (U&G)
• online news
• motivation
• actual consumption
• structural equation modeling (SEM)
• bootstrapping

View correction statement:

Corrigendum

Notes

This article was originally published with errors. This version has been corrected. Please see Corrigendum (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2012.736695).

The correlation coefficient value between time of use and page views is over 0.9, which means the two levels are almost identical.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kyung Han You

Kyung Han You is a Visiting Fellow in the Graduate School of Arts and Science at Harvard University, and an ABD in the College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University.

Seoyeon Allison Lee

Seoyeon Allison Lee is a UI/UX Researcher at LG Electronic Inc., and a Master in the College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University.

Jeong Kyu Lee

Jeong Kyu Lee PhD is a postdoctoral research associate at The ClearWay Minnesota.

Hyunjin Kang

Hyunjin Kang is an ABD in the College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University.