Graduation Year

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Degree Granting Department

Business Administration

Major Professor

Dezhi Yin, Ph.D.

Co-Major Professor

Sunil Mithas, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Logan Steele, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Eun Sook Kim, Ph.D.

Keywords

Emotional Arousal, Hyperbole, News Reading, Social Media Platforms

Abstract

News posts are popular among social media users. Since news reading is critical for both social media platforms and news providers, the use of attention-grabbing tactics, such as hyperbole and expressed emotional arousal, is commonplace to increase news readership. However, there is scant empirical evidence to explain the impact of attention-grabbing tactics on social media users’ reading intentions and behavior in social media. Therefore, I first explore how and why the use of hyperbolic statements in news headlines influences users’ interest and intention to read the news. Drawing on expectation violation theory, I propose competing hypotheses. I conducted three experiments to examine the impact of hyperbole and test the competing mechanisms. The findings from this research challenge the prevailing notion that the use of attention-grabbing tactics, such as hyperbole, is effective in piquing reader interest and influencing news readership. This research contributes to the online news consumption literature by revealing the unintended consequences of deploying hyperbole in headlines and highlighting the nuanced role of expectation violation in this emerging phenomenon. Next, I explore the role of expressed emotional arousal in news reading on social media. Expressions of emotions are common in news posts on social media. News providers embed emotional expressions to grab users’ attention and entice them to read the full article. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence to support this practice. I develop a theoretical model using emotions as social information theory to explain how, when, and why the arousal of emotions expressed in headlines influences news article reading in social media. Through three experiments, I provide converging evidence that the use of expressed arousal backfires and reduces news reading. I also reveal a context-dependent boundary condition (i.e., information gap) and explore underlying mechanisms. The findings of this research speak to the growing literature on emotional expressions in social media and challenge the assumption that expressed arousal is beneficial in increasing news readership in social media. In summary, this dissertation provides converging evidence that attention-grabbing tactics such as hyperbole and expressed emotional arousal have an unintended impact on news reading on social media. Through this dissertation, I contribute to the growing literature on news consumption on social media and challenge the commonly held assumption that attention-grabbing tactics are useful in increasing news readership on social media.

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