My news, your news, and our news: Self-presentational motivations and three levels of issue relevance in news sharing on social media

Abstract

Research on news sharing has focused on the societal relevance of news as the core value of traditional journalism or the informational characteristics of viral news on social media. In contrast, this study reinterprets news-sharing behaviors as interpersonal communication of news sharers presenting themselves to their personal networks beyond the distribution of societally important information. Through analyzing survey responses from 463 news sharers and the actual news they shared on social media, results suggest that news sharers consider their relationship with their audience and the personal and audience relevance of news to present their ideal selves and please their audience. By expanding the traditional emphasis on the societal relevance and informational characteristics of news, this study develops a theoretical framework to understand news sharing as interpersonal communication. It also provides future directions to conceptualize issue relevance at different levels and capture changed news-sharing behaviors in the era of networked individualism.