M. Goyanes, Rebecca Scheffauer, Homero Gil de Zúñiga
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引用次数: 5
Abstract
ABSTRACT News organizations require sustainable business models with reliable revenue streams to perform their intended function in liberal democracies. Since the digital transition, however, many citizens have considerably shown high reluctance to pay for digital content, consequently jeopardizing journalists’ watchdog role and substantially eroding media independence. Based on a two-wave panel survey from the United States, this study seeks to investigate the antecedents of readers’ paying behavior for news, focusing on the role of social media news use and media skepticism. Findings reveal that users’ frequency of social media news use is associated with future paying behavior, while higher levels of media skepticism significantly inhibit readers’ payment. The analyses also show that while those reporting low media skepticism are initially more inclined to pay for news, high levels of social media news use function to largely overcome this gap. The study argues that the role of social media in delivering news should be redefined in light of the new paid content strategies implemented by news organizations.
期刊介绍:
Mass Communication and Society" mission is to publish articles from a wide variety of perspectives and approaches that advance mass communication theory, especially at the societal or macrosocial level. It draws heavily from many other disciplines, including sociology, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, law, and history. Methodologically, journal articles employ qualitative and quantitative methods, survey research, ethnography, laboratory experiments, historical methods, and legal analysis.