The mediating role of social recommendation in the relationship between concern over expression and social media news participation: a comparative study of six Asian societies

ABSTRACT

Although social media afford users the possibility of sharing and discussing news, some users may have much concern over how others view these expressive behaviors. The recommendation features of social media indeed offer cues about others’ opinions and possible references to engage with news. We investigate the mediating role of reliance on two social recommendation features, i.e. social filtering and popularity indicators, for news selection in the relationship between concern over online expression and social media news participation in six Asian societies (Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia), using representative online survey data. Compared with Western countries, Asian societies share a more collectivistic culture and show a greater acceptance towards reticent behaviors than expressive ones. The results show a positive indirect effect of concern over expression on news participation through the reliance on social filtering across all the samples. Similarly, a positive indirect effect through the reliance on popularity indicators is observed for five of the six samples. The significant indirect effects indicate that users with much concern over expression have a greater reliance on social recommendation features, which in turn facilitates their news participation. Implications of the findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• social media
• news participation
• social recommendation
• social filtering
• popularity indicators
• expression
• Asia

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford for access to the Digital News Report data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We treated face-to-face news discussion as a distinct construct from social media news participation, based on the results of factor analysis (Appendix I) and the suggestion of Gibson and Cantijoch (2013).

2 According to the Factbook of Central Intelligence Agency (2016), the Malaysian population consists of Bumiputera (Malays and indigenous people, 62%), Chinese (20.6%), and Indian (5.7%). Singaporean population is comprised of Chinese (74.3%), Malay (13.4%), and Indian (9%); its ethnic composition is comparatively more homogeneous than Malaysia’s. For the four remaining societies, their largest ethnic group accounts for more than 90% of the population.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Macau K. F. Mak

Macau K. F. Mak is a Ph.D. student at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research interests include political communication, new media, and media effects.

Michael Chan

Michael Chan is an Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on individuals’ uses of digital technologies and subsequent political, social, and psychological outcomes.

Francis L. F. Lee

Francis L. F. Lee is Professor and Director of the School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has published widely on journalism, public opinion, political communication, and media and social movements.

Hsuan-Ting Chen

Hsuan-Ting Chen is an Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Com munication, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include new media technologies, media effects, and media psychology.