ISOJ 2011

1. Is the Medium the Message?Is the Medium the Message?
Predicting Popularity of Top U.S. News SitesPredicting Popularity of Top U.S. News Sites
with Medium-Specific Featureswith Medium-Specific Features
Angela M. Lee
Annenberg School for Communication
University of Pennsylvania
amlee229@gmail.com
Twitter: angelamlee
12th
International Symposium on Online Journalism
Austin, TX
April 2, 2011

2.  McDonald’s wanted to improve sales of its shakes
 Most researchers: “Should the shakes be thicker? Sweeter? Colder?”
 Gerald Berstell: Focused on the customers
 Early morning
 Always alone
 Rarely bought anything besides shakes
 Never consumed the shakes in the store
 Who are they?
 “Milkshake mistakes?”: Focus only on the shakes itself; assume
breakfast means bacon & eggs to all, etc.
 Implications: 1. Who the consumers are affect how products are
produced & marketed. 2. It’s not only about the thing itself, but also
how and why consumers use it.
angelamlee
“Milkshake Mistakes” - Shirky

3.  “Despite the growth in web usage, the top news sites remain
stable and are mostly sites tied to legacy media outlets” (2011
State of the News Media Report).
 Importance of branding, source credibility, and
trustworthiness online (e.g., Abdulla et al., 2005; Meyer, 2009; Lin,
Salwen, Garrison & Driscoll, 2005).
Online news consumption: Known
Note: Simulated data

4.  But what accounts for this exponential differences, given all
top 10 sites offer news by comparably trustworthy sources?
Process gratifications, measured by 5 online news-specific features
Online news consumption: Unknown
Source: Nielsen

5. Online news: “A whole new experience?”Online news: “A whole new experience?”
 In the past, differences in news media predominantly equate
differences in mediated experiences regardless of genre
 Print newspapers: Textual and pictorial
 Radio news: Audio
 Television news: Moving pictures with audio
 How does the Internet change things?
 Same platform for all (e.g. newspapers, TV news stations, etc.)
to fight for audience attention
 Competition for news providers online is no longer only that of
content, but also consumption experiences (Seelig, 2008)
 New ways to consume news (i.e., much more choices)
 New ways to measure and study news consumption (Tewksbury,
2003)

6. ““Mediumizing” online news and the InternetMediumizing” online news and the Internet
 How is “online news” a news medium? What sets it apart from
other news media? What do we mean by the Internet as “new
media?”
 To answer both questions require a priori understanding of
medium-specific attributes
 Uses & Gratifications: Focuses on media uses by centering on
the relationship between media attributes and the functions
they serve to users
 Content gratifications (i.e., for entertainment or diversion purposes)
 Social gratifications (i.e., For conversational uses)
 Process gratifications (i.e., The actual mediated experience)

7. Updated U&G: 5 online news-specific processUpdated U&G: 5 online news-specific process
gratificationsgratifications
1. Interactivity
 Interaction and interplay between “producers &
consumers” (Chan-Olmsted & Ha, 2003)
 Audience-oriented: Choices of content available to the
users to interact with (Ha & James, 1998; Seelig, 2008)
 Source-oriented: Reciprocal communication between
users and media (Ha & James, 1998; Seelig, 2008)
 “Golden standard” or “key advantage” of the Internet
(Quinn, 2005; Ha & James, 1998)
1. Immediacy
 Timely updates on breaking news (Deuze, 2003)
 Real-time distribution of news (Quinn, 2005)
 Immediate correction of misinformation (Seelig, 2008)

8. 5 process gratifications - continued5 process gratifications - continued
3. Multimedia
 Amalgamation of texts, pictures, audio and video
(Quinn, 2005)
 Delivery of content in more engaging and creative
ways (Killebew, 2005; Sundar, 2000), which offers richer
process gratifications (Spyridou & Veglis, 2008; Huang,, 2007).
4. Information availability
 Use of hyperlinks to additional information (Ha &
James, 1998)
 Online news is about 4 times more likely to
incorporate information from other news outlets than
print newspapers (Maier, 2010)
 Offering of a plethora of information from rich and
diverse sources (Ferguson & Perse, 2000)

9. 5 process gratifications - continued5 process gratifications - continued
5. Usability
 Factors that contribute to navigability, user
productivity and performance (Wilberg, 2003; Nielsen, 1994;
Schneiderman, 2004)
 Ease through which average users navigate a news site
in order to locate additional information
 With more channel and content choices than ever
before, Internet users can forgo less user-friendly sites
without worrying about not getting comparable news
information from elsewhere.

10. HypothesesHypotheses
 The more a news site incorporate the 5 medium-specific
features, the more likely it will attract audiences.
 Among the top 10 news sites in 2009, all else being equal…
 H1: The top three sites will utilize the five online news
interface-specific features differently from that of the bottom
three sites
 H2: Use of the five online news interface-specific features
will positively predict popularity of these top news sites
 RQ1: Which of the five online news interface-specific
features is the best predictor of popularity?
 RQ2: How does each top news site use the five online news
interface-specific features?

11. MethodMethod
 Sample: Yahoo News (#1), MSNBC News (#2), AOL News
(#3), ABC News (#8), Washington Post (#9), USA Today
(#10)
 Data: Recorded at 11am everyday for the entire month of
June, 2010 using Automator (Mac) and Safari web browser
 IV: Interactivity, immediacy, multimedia, information
availability, usability
 See codebook for detailed list of all items included in each
feature (all items standardized and summed)
 DV: Nielsen’s measure of unique audience visits
 Statistical analysis: 1. Independent Sample T-Test (H1), 2.
Maximum likelihood regression using structural equation
modeling

12. ResultsResults
 Supportive of H1, the top three “top 10” news sites
consistently used more immediacy feature, t(166)=9.39**,
multimedia feature, t(166)= 2.31*, information availability
feature, and usability feature, t(166)=3.59**.
 Supportive of H2, use of the five online news interface-
specific features significantly predicts popularity among the
top sites (R2
= 0.97).
 RQ3: “Information availability” is the strongest predictor
(b=1.22*); followed by usability (b=-.77**), immediacy
(b=.46**), multimedia (b=.29**), and interactivity (b=.07*)
 Post-hoc: ABC’s abnormally large number of “popularity
stories” (i.e., most viewed, most commented, most emailed)
contributes to the negative slope in the usability variable
Note: *p<0.5; **p<0.005

13. RQ2: How do these top sites utilize the five onlineRQ2: How do these top sites utilize the five online
news-specific features?news-specific features?

14. Take-home lessons:Take-home lessons:
 More popular “top sites” are consistently more online news
interface-specific feature-heavy
 The five online news interface-specific features significantly
predict differences in popularity among the “top ten” news sites
 “Information availability” is the strongest predictor of
popularity among the “top ten” news sites:
 Special section with more extensive news coverage on select topics
 Special reports on select issues
 Number of total stories
 Number of alternative sources
 Hyperlinks to news stories from other sources
 Hyperlinks to relevant information from other sites

15. Future studiesFuture studies
 Repeat this study including mid-range “top 10” news stories
 Consider weighting individual items in each variable
 Track how evolution in usage of the 5 features predict
popularity over time
 Interview actual news consumers for more holistic
understanding of a potentially wider range of online news-
specific process gratifications not accounted for in this study

16. ConclusionConclusion
 Changes in Internet-use diffusion and online news media
landscape lead to ever-evolving online news consumption
patterns, and result in new opportunities for studying such
behaviors (Lin, Salwen, Garrison & Driscoll, 2005; Garrison, 2005)
 These changes call for empirical research to examine not
only causes but also effects of emerging consumption
patterns
 First we need to decipher how the Internet appeals to
consumers as a news medium so we can maximize its
medium-specific strengths to better match 21st
century
demands and desires
 Online news consumption studies should focus not only
on content but also medium.

17. ““Is the medium the message?”Is the medium the message?”
 The medium is not the whole message in online news
consumption, the whole picture includes credibility,
news quality, news brands, etc., but the medium tells an
important and compelling story that deserves, and
ought to be heard.

18. Thank you for your time and attentionThank you for your time and attention 
Angela M. LeeAngela M. Lee
amlee229@gmail.comamlee229@gmail.com