What is Popular Gets More Popular? Exploring Over-Time Dynamics in Article Readership Using Real-World Log Data.

IF 2.8 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION Journalism Studies Pub Date : 2024-10-14 eCollection Date: 2024-01-01 DOI:10.1080/1461670X.2024.2411334

Damian Trilling, Roeland Dubèl, Rupert Kiddle, Anne C Kroon, Zilin Lin, Mónika Simon, Susan Vermeer, Kasper Welbers, Mark Boukes

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Online news can be shared and promoted via social media, mobile push messages, newsletters, "most read" boxes, or the like. This can result in feedback loops, in which views attract even more views. Using full click logs for five regional newspapers in the Netherlands, spanning $N_{views} =$ 12,108,263 views of $N_{articles} =$ 17,982 articles for each minute over the course of 13 weeks, we shed light on potential feedback loops. While article placement and promotion decisions indeed increase their views, we find these effects to be short-lived, contradicting the feedback-loop hypothesis. Exceptions in line with the feedback-loop hypothesis mostly concern social media: If an article is spread via social media, it is not only clicked more, but also clicked on for a longer period of time.