Audience engagement in outrage factors embedded in COVID-19 news: A content analysis of South Korean news articles and reader comments

The risk perception of lay people is believed to be guided by qualitative characteristics of risk they perceive. Outrage factors refer to perceived characteristics of risk that arouse emotional responses and thereby influence risk perception. Conducting a content analysis of coronavirus disease 2019 online news coverage, we identified outrage factors embedded in news stories to determine how those factors are associated with audience engagement, measured by counting news consumer comments and clicks on emotional expressions on each news story. As a result, the average outrage score for a news story was significantly associated with the number of clicks on emotional expressions and comments. When it comes to individual outrage factors, a news story covering a case of violation against social distancing or other governmental guidelines was found to be accompanied by more comments and more emotional expressions, indicating the strongest power of moral nature. The outrage factor of voluntariness, human origin, accident history and controllability were also associated with one or both types of the audience responses. The news stories of business owners who involuntarily shut down their businesses or those comparing the current pandemic to Middle East respiratory syndrome that broke out in 2015 in the nation showed a similar pattern of audience engagement. Furthermore, liberal media were more likely to convey outrage factors than media with a less liberal orientation, which was manifested in the outrage score for each story. We discuss the potential of outrage factors as a new content-based factor for audience engagement in online risk communication.