Diversifying Likes

Abstract

News sharing and commenting are arguably some of the most interesting aspects of how news is consumed and interacted with online. Finding answers to questions regarding who engages in these ways, what type of content gets engaged with, and why certain items are shared and commented upon but not others, are of the utmost importance for those who want to navigate the complex echo system of online news flows. The paper at hand addresses the latter two of the three posed questions—what gets shared or commented on, and why—in the context of the social networking site Facebook. Detailing the influences of Reactions, an expansion of the “Like” button, launched during the spring of 2016, the presented analysis finds that Reactions such as “Love”, “Haha”, “Wow”, “Sad” and “Angry” emerge as somewhat unpopular compared to the original “Like” functionality. Moreover, while more positive forms of Reactions appear to have a hampering effect on the willingness of news consumers on Facebook to engage by means of sharing and commenting, more negative varieties of Facebook Reactions appear to yield adverse influences.

KEYWORDS:

• active recipients
• news audience
• news users
• Norway
• quantitative methodology
• social media
• Sweden

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 See https://www.facebook.com/124292684247609/posts/1195874620422738.

2 See https://www.facebook.com/137059286994/posts/10154093622791995.

3 For Sweden: https://www.facebook.com/124292684247609/posts/1229263550417178, https://www.facebook.com/124292684247609/posts/1250192634990936. For Norway: https://www.facebook.com/137059286994/posts/10154278974796995, https://www.facebook.com/137059286994/posts/10154170042871995, https://www.facebook.com/137059286994/posts/10154296124891995.

4 See https://www.facebook.com/124292684247609/posts/1242588665751333, https://www.facebook.com/124292684247609/posts/1193691427307724, https://www.facebook.com/124292684247609/posts/1193801703963363, https://www.facebook.com/124292684247609/posts/1182473308429536.

5 See https://www.facebook.com/124292684247609/posts/1183411815002352.

6 See https://www.facebook.com/137059286994/posts/10154262031056995.

7 See https://www.facebook.com/124292684247609/posts/1186874241322776.

8 See https://www.facebook.com/137059286994/posts/10154157279391995.