Abstract

The contemporary high-choice media environment, characterized by information abundance, makes it increasingly difficult for media outlets to capture audience attention. This concern is particularly pressing for social media, and more specifically for Facebook. Because user engagement is a crucial input factor for the algorithm, fears have risen that journalistic content on digital news media and especially on social media is becoming softer to help adjust to news consumer’s interests. A content analysis was conducted on four consecutive weeks of all news items published online by five market-leading Belgian media outlets (N = 10,579) in order to analyse whether the news supply is adapted to “what the metrics say” and, subsequently, to what extent that metric data is used to promote a “softer” supply of news on Facebook. To measure audience engagement, we used unique metrics provided by the news organizations themselves. The results show that audience metrics support and enhance news softening on the Facebook pages of mainstream media outlets.

摘要

以信息丰富为特征的当代高选择媒体环境使得媒体越来越难以吸引观众的注意力。这种担忧对于社交媒体尤其紧迫，尤其是对于 Facebook。由于用户参与度是算法的关键输入因素，人们担心数字新闻媒体，尤其是社交媒体上的新闻内容变得更软，以帮助适应新闻消费者的兴趣。对 5 家市场领先的比利时媒体（N = 10,579），以便分析新闻供应是否适应“指标所说的内容”，以及随后在多大程度上使用指标数据来促进 Facebook 上“更软”的新闻供应。为了衡量观众的参与度，我们使用了新闻机构自己提供的独特指标。结果表明，受众指标支持并增强了主流媒体 Facebook 页面上的新闻软化。