Who shares news on mobile messaging applications, why and in what ways? A cross-national analysis

Abstract

Recently, in many countries, the use of mobile messaging applications for news has risen while the use of Facebook for news has declined. The purpose of this study is to identify who shares news on messaging applications, why and in what ways. Findings from a survey and focus groups in the US, the UK, Germany, and Brazil show that (a) the main motivation for news users to share news in these spaces is context collapse; their aversion to news sharing on an open network like Facebook, (b) the anytime/anywhere mobile affordance facilitates their need for private news sharing, (c) news stories chosen for sharing usually revolve around niche interests or breaking news events and not politics and current affairs, (d) news sharers are likely to be young, and to trust in news found on social media in the Western countries of our sample, while they tend to be older and partisan in Brazil where 38% of the population shares news on mobile messaging apps during an average week.

Social Media Natives’ Invisible Online Spaces: Proposing the Concept of Digital Gemeinschaft 2.0

“…Furthermore, Slaje and its counterparts are constructed as closed spaces of few constant individuals, where exclusion is imperative, countering Habermas' principle of publicity. Earlier research suggesting that people may discuss and share news with those they are closest to, in closed groups online for privacy purposes (Kalogeropoulos, 2021;Papacharissi, 2010), is in other words supported. The reasons given by the social media natives for not utilizing online spaces for public sphere discussions illuminate their familiarity with economic rationales underlying these online spaces.…”

“…Social media are particularly embedded in young people’s social life (Boyd, 2008; Moe & Bjørgan, 2021). Easily reached through the smartphone, social media have become prominent to their day-to-day connection with others (e.g., Chambers, 2013; Vorderer et al, 2017), often to sustain their “offline” relationships (Kalogeropoulos, 2021; Lenhart & Madden, 2007). While age is not a stand-alone explanation for social media use (Lu & Hampton, 2017), familiarity with technology is partly shaped by a person’s generational status (Fang et al, 2019) and previous media experiences (LaRose et al, 2001).…”

Chat Apps and Cascade Logic: A Multi-Platform Perspective on India, Mexico, and the United States

“…Chat apps are focal points for political talk and assume an important role in the exchange of opinions, and the sharing of news (Kalogeropoulos, 2021). Rossini and colleagues (2021) find that discussions about politics on WhatsApp can correlate with the sharing of false information, but also that “those who actively participate in political discussions (.…”

On the becoming of an academic home for research into the intersection of mobile devices and news

“…There is indeed the need to keep these issues in mind with framing research in the context of mobile news. For example, one can ask how news publishers use mobile chat applications for sourcing (Belair-Gagnon et al, 2018).One can ask about the impact of mobile media on journalistic practices (Dodds, 2019), as well as how mobile media is used for news sharing by the public (Duffy, 2021;Kalogeropoulos, 2021). There are also studies focusing on publishers' approaches to platforms (Boczek & Koppers, 2020) and how they personalize news with mobile-based push notifications (Wheatley & Ferrer-Conill, 2021).…”