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Personalized news recommendations shape social media users’ information environment. However, whether news recommendation algorithms asymmetrically influence users’ news engagement remains largely unknown. Drawing on the three-level digital divide framework (access, use, and outcomes), we test a moderated mediation model in which social media usage motivations influence social capital via news engagement, conditional on using algorithmic news. Using two waves of survey data from South Korea ( N = 948), the results show that the indirect effects of motivations for social media use on social capital via news enagement are conditional on the level algorithmic news usage. News algorithms enable information- and socialization-oriented users to increase news engagement and develop social capital but fail to help highly entertainment-focused users increase news engagement, and thus, they do not develop social capital well. We discuss the possibility that news recommendation algorithms lead to a Matthew effect in which the poor become poorer and the rich become richer, exacerbating information inequality.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the knowledge gap hypothesis in the context of smartphone use for news to understand whether mobile news consumption could bridge or widen the knowledge gap between people of higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES).Design/methodology/approachThe authors examine how smartphone news consumption is associated with the knowledge gap hypothesis by analyzing a survey dataset from Hong Kong. This study focuses specifically on a moderated mediation model in which the indirect effect of mobile news consumption on political knowledge via discussion network heterogeneity is contingent on level of education.FindingsSmartphone use for news/information was positively associated with level of discussion network heterogeneity. The indirect effect of smartphone news use on political knowledge via discussion network heterogeneity was stronger for those with lower levels of education.Originality/valueThis study advances the understanding of the role of smartphone use in contributing to the functioning of deliberative democracy as this use enhances discussion network heterogeneity and general levels of political knowledge. Moreover, our study contributes to the literature on the knowledge gap by not only examining the relationship between smartphone use, discussion heterogeneity, and political knowledge but also taking into consideration individual levels of education.

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