From passive to active: How does algorithm awareness affect users’ news seeking behavior on digital platforms

IF 8.3 2区管理学 Q1 INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE

Telematics and Informatics Pub Date : 2025-05-24 DOI:10.1016/j.tele.2025.102291

An Hu , Min Ou

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Algorithms are increasingly pervasive in digital platforms, often operating unnoticed by users. Despite this, there is limited understanding of the extent to which users recognize and understand algorithms and how this awareness influences their platform behavior. This study draws on Social Cognitive Theory and Uses & Gratifications Theory to investigate users’ active information behavior, focusing on their cognitive processes in perceiving and interacting with algorithms. Using survey data from 1,158 users of an algorithm-driven news platform, we found that information- and opinion-driven motivations predict active news seeking behavior, while entertainment motivation negatively influences it. Intriguingly, algorithm awareness mediates the relationships between social, opinion, and entertainment motivations and active news seeking, but not for information-motivated users, who seek news actively regardless of their algorithmic understanding. Platform transparency further moderates the relationship between awareness and active news seeking. This study offers both theoretical and practical insights for researchers and practitioners aiming to achieve sustainable human-algorithm interaction.

查看原文本刊更多论文

从被动到主动：算法意识如何影响用户在数字平台上的新闻搜索行为

算法在数字平台上越来越普遍，往往不被用户注意。尽管如此，人们对用户识别和理解算法的程度以及这种意识如何影响他们的平台行为的理解有限。本研究借鉴了社会认知理论和应用。满足理论研究用户的主动信息行为，关注他们感知算法和与算法交互的认知过程。通过对一个算法驱动的新闻平台的1158名用户的调查数据，我们发现信息和观点驱动的动机可以预测积极的新闻寻求行为，而娱乐动机则会对其产生负面影响。有趣的是，算法意识调节了社交、观点和娱乐动机与积极新闻搜索之间的关系，但对信息驱动型用户却没有作用，这些用户不管对算法的理解如何，都积极地寻找新闻。平台透明度进一步调节了意识和主动新闻搜索之间的关系。该研究为旨在实现可持续的人-算法交互的研究人员和实践者提供了理论和实践见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Telematics and Informatics INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE-

CiteScore

17.00

自引率

4.70%

发文量

104

审稿时长

24 days

期刊介绍： Telematics and Informatics is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes cutting-edge theoretical and methodological research exploring the social, economic, geographic, political, and cultural impacts of digital technologies. It covers various application areas, such as smart cities, sensors, information fusion, digital society, IoT, cyber-physical technologies, privacy, knowledge management, distributed work, emergency response, mobile communications, health informatics, social media's psychosocial effects, ICT for sustainable development, blockchain, e-commerce, and e-government.