Understanding Audience Engagement with Mainstream and Alternative News Posts on Facebook. Issue 5 (28th May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hiaeshutter-Rice, Dan; Weeks, Brian
• Is Part Of: Digital journalism. Volume 9:Issue 5(2021)
• Page Start: 519
• Page End: 548
• Publication Date: 2021-05-28
• Subjects: Facebook -- news -- news sharing -- news engagement -- polarization; Online journalism -- Periodicals; 070.40285
• DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2021.1924068
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2167-0811

Abstract

Abstract: Facebook is an integral part of the American news environment. Substantial numbers of users now seek or encounter news on the platform and news organizations depend on the site to build audiences and drive traffic to their websites. At the same time, Facebook has also become a space for people to engage alternative sources of news and political information, including highly partisan and ideological sources. Yet we know relatively little about the types of news sources Americans engage with most frequently on the platform. In this study, we evaluate the scope of news and information sources on Facebook, including engagement with these sources. We analyse nearly 12 million Facebook posts from 416 news organizations between 2012 and 2017. We find that the sources that receive the most user engagement are often the most ideologically extreme. We also find that alternative outlets that are politically conservative frequently get more engagement, which may provide them an outsized presence on users' newsfeeds.