Kadian, Arjun

Steele, Logan

Yin, Dezhi (Denny)

English

AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)

Association for Information Systems AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) ICIS 2022 TREOs TREO Papers 12-12-2022 Examining the Impact of Information-Gap on News Reading in Social Media Arjun Kadian University of South Florida, arjunkadian@usf.edu Dezhi (Denny) Yin University of South Florida, dezhiyin@usf.edu Logan Steele University of South Florida, lmsteele@usf.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/treos_icis2022 Recommended Citation Kadian, Arjun; Yin, Dezhi (Denny); and Steele, Logan, "Examining the Impact of Information-Gap on News Reading in Social Media" (2022). ICIS 2022 TREOs. 72. https://aisel.aisnet.org/treos_icis2022/72 This material is brought to you by the TREO Papers at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been accepted for inclusion in ICIS 2022 TREOs by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contact elibrary@aisnet.org. TREO Technology, Research, Education, Opinion Presentation at TREO Talks in conjunction with the 43rd International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2022 TREO Talks are not peer-reviewed and not a formal part of the ICIS 2022 Proceedings All TREO Talks are available in the TREO Talks section of the AIS e-Library Examining the Impact of Information-Gap on News Reading in Social Media Arjun Kadian (arjunkadian@usf.edu); Dezhi Yin (dezhiyin@usf.edu); Logan Steele (lmsteele@usf.edu)   News reading on social media is an important activity for news providers. With increasing digitization news consumption has shifted from newspapers to digital platforms. Despite controversies, 53% of US adults follow news on social media platforms that generate the highest proportion of digital advertising revenues (Barthel 2019, Shearer and Mitchell 2021). Social media platforms act as information intermediaries and allow news providers to post news headlines on social media. News providers face a lot of competition on social media. To get users from social media platforms to their news websites they compete not only with other news providers but also with user activities on social media (e.g., chats, post reactions, online reviews). Therefore, many news providers create news headlines with information-gap, defined as the gap between what one knows and what one needs to know (Hardy III et al. 2019). This gap can generate curiosity and increase social media users’ propensity to read the full article on the news providers website. However, salience of information-gap can also increase inferences of manipulative intent and reduce news reading.  This research examines the dominant assumption held by practitioners and academics that information-gap always increases news reading (Loewenstein 1994, Golman et al. 2021). Our proposed theoretical model can provide a nuanced understanding of the competing mechanisms of curiosity and perceptions of manipulative intent that influence news reading on social media. Findings from this research speak to the emerging literature on news consumption on social media and will provide important implications for news providers who rely on untested strategies to increase news reading.  References Barthel M (2019) 5 key takeaways about the state of the news media in 2018. Pew Research Center (Accessed March 31, 2022), https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/23/key-takeaways-state-of-the-news-media-2018/. Golman R, Loewenstein G, Molnar A, Saccardo S (2021) The demand for, and avoidance of, information. Management Science 68(9):6454-6476. Hardy III JH, Day EA, Arthur Jr W (2019) Exploration-exploitation tradeoffs and information-knowledge gaps in self-regulated learning: Implications for learner-controlled training and development. Human Resource Management Review 29(2):196-217. Loewenstein G (1994) The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation. Psychological bulletin 116(1):75. Shearer E, Mitchell A (2021) News use across social media platforms in 2020. Pew Research Center (Accessed March 31, 2022), https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2021/01/12/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-in-2020/.  

Examining the Impact of Information-Gap on News Reading in Social Media

https://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1071&context=treos_icis2022

Examining the Impact of Information-Gap on News Reading in Social Media

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