ABSTRACT
This study investigates to what extent news content and the mediating effect of social networks influence news engagement on Facebook. The study identifies three key factors of news consumption on social media—news content attributes, social networks, and news engagement—to illustrate how much each variable explains perceived news engagement on Facebook. The relationships among the three factors are estimated with a mediation model. Results suggest that social networks may have a smaller influence in the distribution of news online than currently believed while simultaneously mediating the effect of news content on social media news engagement.
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Victoria Y. Chen
Victoria Y. Chen (Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication & Graduate Institute of Telecommunications, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan. Her research focuses on the digital audience, the impact of social media on news industry and news consumption behavior.