A study of repetitive news display and news consumption in Korea

Abstract

The shift to online news consumption has weakened the direct relationship between readers and news publishers. News publishers now depend on the number of clicks and comments on their news to increase their revenues. Repetitive news display or news abusing is used extensively by Korean news publishers to draw consumers' attention to their content. This study examines the factors causing news abusing in Korea. We analyze the factors that affect both news abusing frequency and intensity, and examine how they vary in both intra-media and inter-media contexts. We empirically test the relationship between the number of clicks (comments on the news posted) and the abusing frequency of the news article (abusing intensity of the news article). Finally, we try to identify the differences in the relationships between the effects of news abusing and the number of clicks and comments based on news abusing patterns and news article types.