Motivations for economic news consumption and sharing on Facebook

Abstract

Social media are becoming increasingly useful for consumers to get the latest news of current affairs and events personalized to their needs. A growing number of people are preferring to read and share news of various topics beyond those of their friends, family and communities via new media platforms. This research takes a step forward from previous studies by examining media usage motives for online economic news consumption and sharing on Facebook from the theoretical perspective of uses and gratifications. With behavioral typologies of information seeking, socializing, status seeking, prior experience, sharing and convenience, a survey of 170 people in South Korea was conducted to assess their economic news uses on Facebook. A statistical technique of structural equation modeling was used to test the model and evaluate relations among the predictive factors. The results suggest that convenience needs drive users to seek information, socialize and improve their status by sharing quality economic news on the social media site.