Given that media practitioners extensively use emotional news to attract user attention on social media, this study examines the economic value of social media news engagement and emotional news and further investigates how social media news engagement mediates the relationship between emotional news on social media and paying intent. An analysis of survey data from Taiwan reveals that the exchange value of digital news depends on content-interaction engagement and the presence of heartwarming news content. In contrast, funny news that attracts attention decreases news paying intent. This study identified the economic value of content-interaction engagement. However, it revealed that exposure engagement did not increase the money that respondents were willing to pay. While content-interaction engagement is more difficult to achieve than exposure engagement, the economic value of the former is more than that of the latter. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings will be discussed.
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