Abstract
Social news sites allow their users to submit and vote on online news stories, thereby bypassing the authority and power of traditional newspaper editors. In this paper we explore what motivates users of social news sites, such as Reddit, to participate in this collaborative editorial process. We present a tiered framework of motivational factors for participating on social news sites, based on a comprehensive literature review, drawn from fields like social media research, sociology, (social) psychology, and behavioral economics. We then validate this framework through a survey deployed on Reddit and use the results of this survey to focus the motivational framework for the social news domain. We find that the recreational value of the information posted to Reddit, along with the powerful possibilities for customization appear to be the most powerful incentives for using Reddit. Perhaps surprisingly, the social aspect of social news sites is not a motivating factor for the majority of Reddit users. Influencing the placement and reception of news stories in their niche communities of interest is what draws people to sites such as Reddit.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the iConference 2014 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Place of Publication | IDEALS |
| Publisher | iSchools |
| Publication date | 1 Mar 2014 |
| Pages | 329-344 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | iConference 2014: Breaking Down Walls: Culture - Context - Computing - Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin, Germany Duration: 4 Mar 2014 → 7 Mar 2014 |
Conference
| Conference | iConference 2014 |
|---|---|
| Location | Humboldt University Berlin |
| Country/Territory | Germany |
| City | Berlin |
| Period | 04/03/2014 → 07/03/2014 |
Keywords
- Social news
- User motivation
- Collaborative editorial process
- Recreational value
- Niche communities
- Customizable content
- Behavioral economics
- Social media research
- Survey validation
- Reddit participation