Is audience engagement worth the buzz? The value of audience engagement,comment reading,and content for online news brands

Abstract

Online audience engagement, such as rating or sharing news, commenting or creating content, can enhance users’ loyalty toward online news brands. Yet recently, uncertainties have been discussed within journalism research and practice concerning the handling of online comment sections and potential negative influences – caused through comment reading – on news brands. From a brand management perspective, audience engagement and comment reading can affect a brand’s equity. This study investigates the value of audience engagement and comment reading for the customer-based brand equity of online news outlets. An online survey with n = 313 users of the digital native cohort revealed that comment reading is neither directly beneficial nor harmful for online news brands. However, for brands providing hard news comment reading seems more likely to have negative than positive relations with CBBE than for brands with other content. Sharing and liking news are associated with a stronger perceived brand quality, loyalty, and associations. User-generated content creation including commenting does not enhance customer-based brand equity. Overall, serious content proved to be a stronger driver of news brand value than any form of audience engagement.

Keywords

Brand value interactivity news online brands online journalism UGC user comments

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aaker

(1991) Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name. New York: Free Press.

Almgren

Olsson

(2015) Lets get them involved. to some extent: Analyzing online news participation. Social Media + Society 1(2): 1–11.

Barnes

(2014) Have you seen the news? Uncovering the fan-like behaviours of the news audience. Media International Australia 150: 130–136.

Bergström

Wadbring

(2015) Beneficial yet crappy: Journalists and audiences on obstacles and opportunities in reader comments. European Journal of Communication 30(2): 137–151.

BFS (2016) Bildungsstand der Wohnbevölkerung nach Altersgruppen 2015. Available at: http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/20/05/blank/key/gleichstellung_und/bildungsstand.html

Brake

(2014) Are we all online content creators now? Web 2.0 and digital divides. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 19(3): 591–609.

Bundesamt für Statistik (2015) Informationsgesellschaft – Gesamtindikatoren: Haushalte und Bevölkerung – Kommunikation und Information. Available at: http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/16/04/key/approche_globale.indicator.30111.301.html?open=1,2#2

Busemann

Gscheidle

(2011) Web 2.0: Aktive Mitwirkung verbleibt auf niedrigem Niveau. Media Perspektiven 7–8: 360–369.

Canter

(2013) The misconception of online comment threads. Journalism Practice 7(5): 604–619.

10.

Chung

Nah

(2009) The effects of interactive news presentation on perceived user satisfaction of online community newspapers. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 14(4): 855–874.

11.

Chung

Yoo

(2008) Audience motivations for using interactive features: Distinguishing use of different types of interactivity on an online newspaper. Mass Communication and Society 11(4): 375–397.

12.

Curran

(2005) What democracy requires of the media. In: Overholser

(ed.) The Press. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 120–140.

13.

Domingo

Quandt

Heinonen

et al . (2009) Participatory journalism practices in the media and beyond: An international comparative study of initiatives in online newspapers. In: Franklin

(ed.) The Future of Newspapers. New York: Routledge, pp. 203–218.

14.

Engesser

(2013) Die Qualität des partizipativen Journalismus im Web: Bausteine für ein integratives theoretisches Konzept und eine explanative empirische Analyse. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

15.

fög – Forschungsinstitut Öffentlichkeit (2015) Jahrbuch 2015 Qualität der Medien: Hauptbefunde. Available at: http://www.foeg.uzh.ch/jahrbuch.html

16.

Green

Jenkins

(2011) Spreadable media: How audiences create value and meaning in a networked economy. In: Nightingale

(ed.) The Handbook of Media Audiences. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 109–127.

17.

Grijalva Verdugo

Izaguirre Fierro

(2014) Media consumption patterns and communicative competence of university students. Global Media Journal: Canadian Edition 7(2): 23–39.

18.

Groot Kormelink

Costera Meijer

(2014) Tailor-made news. Journalism Studies 15(5): 632–641.

19.

Habann

Nienstedt

H-W

Reinelt

(2008) Success factors in brand extension in the newspaper industry: An empirical analysis. In: Ots

(ed.) Media Brands and Branding. Jönköping: Jönköping International Business School, pp. 29–51.

20.

Hansen

(2011) Newspaper improves reader satisfaction by refocusing on local issues. Newspaper Research Journal 32(1): 98–106.

21.

Hargittai

Walejko

(2008) The participation divide: Content creation and sharing in the digital age. Information, Communication & Society 11(2): 239–256.

22.

Hayes

(2005) Statistical Methods for Communication Science (LEA’s Communication Series). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

23.

Jönsson

Örnebring

(2011) User-generated content and the news. Journalism Practice 5(2): 127–144.

24.

Kang

Lee

You

et al . (2013) Does online news reading and sharing shape perceptions of the Internet as a place for public deliberations? Mass Communication and Society 16(4): 533–556.

25.

Karlsson

Bergström

Clerwall

et al . (2015) Participatory journalism – The (r)evolution that wasn’t. Content and user behavior in Sweden 2007–2013. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 20(3): 295–311.

26.

Katz

Blumler

Gurevitch

(1974) Utilization of mass communication by the individual. In: Blumler

Katz

(eds) SAGE Annual Reviews of Communication Research: Vol. 3. The Uses of Mass Communications. Current Perspectives on Gratifications Research. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE, pp. 19–32.

27.

Kaye

Johnson

(2002) Online and in the know: Uses and gratifications of the web for political information. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 46(1): 54–71.

28.

Keller

(1993) Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. Journal of Marketing 57(1): 1–22.

29.

Kim

K-H

Meyer

(2005) Survey yields five factors of newspaper quality. Newspaper Research Journal 26(1): 6–15.

30.

Kirk

Chiagouris

Lala

et al . (2015) How do digital natives and digital immigrants respond differently to interactivity online: A model for predicting consumer attitudes and intentions to use digital information products. Journal of Advertising Research 55(1): 81–94.

31.

Krebs

Siegert

(2015). 20 years of research on media brands and media branding. In: Siegert

Förster

Chan-Olmsted

Ots

(eds) Handbook of Media Branding. Berlin: Springer, pp. 33–47.

32.

Ksiazek

Peer

Lessard

(2016) User engagement with online news: Conceptualizing interactivity and exploring the relationship between online news videos and user comments. New Media & Society 18(3): 502–520.

33.

Larsson

(2011) Interactive to me – Interactive to you? A study of use and appreciation of interactivity on Swedish newspaper websites. New Media & Society 13(7): 1180–1197.

34.

Latzer

Büchi

Just

(2015) Internet - Anwendungen und deren Nutzung in der Schweiz 2015. Themenbericht aus dem World Internet Project –Switzerland 2015. Available at: http://www.mediachange.ch/media/pdf/publications/Anwendungen_Nutzung_2015.pdf

35.

Leung

(2010) User-generated content on the internet: An examination of gratifications, civic engagement and psychological empowerment. New Media & Society 11(8): 1327–1347.

36.

Lischka

Messerli

(2015) Examining the benefits of audience integration: Does sharing of or commenting on online news enhance the loyalty of online readers? Digital Journalism 4 (5): 597–620.

37.

McDowell

(2015) Emerging industry issues and trends influencing the branding of media content. In: Siegert

Förster

Chan-Olmsted

et al (eds) Handbook of Media Branding. Berlin: Springer, pp. 145–156.

38.

Marchionni

(2013) Conversational journalism in practice: A case study of The Seattle Times’ 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting. Digital Journalism 1(2): 252–269.

39.

Marchionni

(2015) Online story commenting. Journalism Practice 9(2): 230–249.

40.

Mersey

Malthouse

Calder

(2010) Engagement with online media. Journal of Media Business Studies 7(2): 39–56.

41.

Nah

Yamamoto

Chung

et al . (2015) Modeling the adoption and use of citizen journalism by online newspapers. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 92(2): 399–420.

42.

Newman

Fletcher

Levy

DAL

et al . (2016) Reuters Institute digital news report 2016. Available at: http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/

43.

Örnebring

(2009) The consumer as producer – Of what? User-generated tabloid content in The Sun (UK) and Aftonbladet (Sweden). In: Franklin

(ed.) The Future of Newspapers. New York: Routledge, pp. 142–156.

44.

Ots

Karlsson

(2012) Out of control? How online papers are both shaping and being shaped by user generated content. Romanian Journal of Journalism & Communication/Revista Romana de Jurnalism si Comunicare 7(1): 51–58.

45.

Oyedeji

(2007) The relation between the customer-based brand equity of media outlets and their media channel Credibility: An exploratory study. International Journal on Media Management 9(3): 116–125.

46.

Oyedeji

(2010) The credible brand model: The effects of ideological congruency and customer-based brand equity on news credibility. American Behavioral Scientist 54(2): 83–99.

47.

Papacharissi

Rubin

(2000) Predictors of Internet use. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 44(2): 175–196.

48.

Pappu

Quester

Cooksey

(2005) Consumer-based brand equity: Improving the measurement – Empirical evidence. Journal of Product & Brand Management 14(3): 143–154.

49.

Prochazka

Weber

Schweiger

(2015). The influence of user comments on perceived journalistic quality. In: Future of journalism conference, Cardiff, September.

50.

Raeymaeckers

(2004) Newspaper editors in search of young readers: Content and layout strategies to win new readers. Journalism Studies 5(2): 221–232.

51.

Reich

(2011) User comments: The transformation of participatory space. In: Singer

Hermida

Domingo

et al (eds) Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newspapers. Chichester; West Sussex; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 96–117.

52.

Santana

(2014) Controlling the conversation. Journalism Studies 17(2): 141–158.

53.

Schönbach

(2004) A balance between imitation and contrast: What makes newspapers successful? A summary of internationally comparative research. Journal of Media Economics 17(3): 219–227.

54.

Schönbach

Lauf

(2002) Content or design? Factors influencing the circulation of American and German newspapers. Communications 27(1): 1–14.

55.

Siegert

Gerth

Rademacher

(2011) Brand identity-driven decision making by journalists and media managers: The MBAC model as a theoretical framework. International Journal on Media Management 13(1): 53–70.

56.

Springer

Engelmann

Pfaffinger

(2015) User comments: Motives and inhibitors to write and read. Information, Communication & Society 18(7): 1–18.

57.

Stroud

Scacco

Curry

(2015) The presence and use of interactive features on news websites. Digital Journalism 4: 339–358.

58.

Tenenboim

Cohen

(2015) What prompts users to click and comment: A longitudinal study of online news. Journalism 16(2): 198–217.

59.

Van Eimeren

(2013) ‘Always on’ – Smartphone, Tablet, & Co. als neue Taktgeber im Netz. Media Perspektiven 7–8: 386–390.

60.

Yoo

Donthu

(2001) Developing and validating a multidimensional consumer-based brand equity scale. Journal of Business Research 52(1): 1–14.

61.

Yoo

(2011) Modeling audience interactivity as the gratification-seeking process in online newspapers. Communication Theory 21(1): 67–89.

62.

Ziegele

Johnen

Bickler

et al . (2013) Männlich, rüstig kommentiert? Einflussfaktoren auf die Aktivität kommentieren-der Nutzer von Online-Nachrichtenseiten. Studies in Communication Media 2(1): 67–114.