Drivers of News Sharing

How Context, Content, and User Features Shape Sharing Decisions on Facebook

Bibliographic Data

ID22010648
AuthorsDamian Trilling (0000-0002-2586-0352, University of Bergen), Erik Knudsen (0000-0002-7046-9424, University of Bergen, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume13
Issue4
Pages723-744
Publication date2025-04-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDigital Journalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2167-0811 • E-ISSN: 2167-082X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21670811.2023.2255224
OpenAlexW4386957458
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited51

What makes people share political news on Facebook? Prior studies have identified how different features predict audiences’ likelihood to share news on social media – the so-called shareworthiness of news. However, we still know very little about the relative contributions of these different features for predicting why people decide to share news. We extend the literature by using an experimental design that can compare the relative importance of several key features that contribute to shaping citizens’ sharing decisions: a conjoint experimental design. We use an identical layout to Facebook and a probability sample of Norwegian citizens. We find that particularly content characteristics are important, and that popularity cues and message congruence is conditional on some user characteristics such as age

Advertising · Business · Internet privacy · Norwegian · Political science · Politics · Popularity · Social media · User-generated content · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Media Studies and Communication · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access