What Motivates The Online News Browser? News Item Selection In A Social Information Seeking Scenario

Introduction. We investigated how online news consumers select content in an explicitly social scenario using uses and gratification theory (UGT).Method. Participants (n=30) browsed an online news Website and selected three items. In a post-task interview, participants rated articles on interest, intellectual curiosity, and likelihood to share, and articulated their motivations for choosing each item.Analysis. The article (n=90) was the unit of analysis. Structured content analysis of the interview data involved classifying motivations according to UGT's categories of surveillance, social utility, personal identity, entertainment, and habit. We quantitatively examined interest, intellectual curiosity and willingness to share ratings.Results. Participants employed different strategies in selecting content. The prospect of making conversation influenced many participants to select content with broad appeal, and some made use of social features of the news Website to accomplish this. Surveillance and social utility motivations dominated selections; entertainment was a minor consideration. However, more personal considerations such as interest, a desire to keep up to date with world events, and alignment with point of view played an important role in selecting content.Conclusions. When seeking information to share with others, personal interest and curiosity play an important role in selection, but a wide range of situational factors and goals also come into play. Participants articulated nuanced considerations of how information could be used to forge connections with others, construct social interactions, and make an impression on others. Information seeking as a means of satisfying social needs is an area ripe for exploration in information behaviour research.