ABSTRACT

Guided by the Uses and Gratifications approach and the concept of affordances, this study sought to understand the phenomenon of news consumption on an emerging messaging platform—Telegram, wherein users consume concise pieces of news spontaneously through mobile devices or web interfaces. Based on in-depth interviews with 29 interviewees, this study identified user motivations underpinning news consumption on Telegram and platform affordances that facilitate such behavior. This study identified (1) socialization, (2) information, and (3) increasing demand for efficiency as key motivations. We also found that news consumption is facilitated by Telegram’s affordances like customizability, increasing accessibility, aesthetics, and simultaneity of activities. The findings advanced extant literature on user motivations for news consumption on new technologies and research on affordances. More importantly, this research integrates an affordance-based framework when studying motivations underlying user behaviors on new technologies.

摘要

在“使用和满足”方法以及收费概念的指导下，本研究旨在了解新兴消息平台Telegram上的新闻消费现象，在该平台中，用户通过移动设备或Web界面自发消费简明新闻。在对29位受访者进行的深入访谈的基础上，本研究确定了用户动机，这些动机是Telegram上新闻消费的基础和促进此类行为的平台收费。这项研究确定（1）社会化，（2）信息和（3）不断增长的对效率的需求是主要动机。我们还发现，电报有助于新闻消费的可定制性，可访问性，美观性和活动的同时性等功能。这些发现提供了有关现有用户对新技术进行新闻消费以及对可负担性进行研究的动机的文献。更重要的是，这项研究在研究基于新技术的用户行为的动机时，整合了一个基于能力的框架。