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Why do people access news with mobile devices? Exploring the role of suitability perception and motives on mobile news use

  • Hongjin Shim
  • , Kyung Han You
  • , Jeong Kyu Lee
  • , Eun Go*
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • Korea Information Society Development Institute
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • University of Wollongong

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

Abstract

Using self-reported survey data (N = 281), the present study explores the structural relationships among mobile users' perceptions of the suitability of two types of mobile news (political feature news and entertainment news), users' motivations for mobile news usage, and their behavioral patterns. Our findings show that two types of perceived suitability for mobile news, particularly for political feature news, are strongly associated with all dimensions of motivations for mobile news usage. Furthermore, as predicted, our findings show that the information-seeking motive is the very factor that determines mobile news usage. The results also reveal that the accessibility motive mediates the relationship between the perceived suitability of obtaining news via a mobile device and users' mobile news behavior. However, contrary to our expectation, the social utility motive does not mediate the relationship between users' perceptions of the suitability of mobile devices for this purpose and their mobile news usage. Finally, the informationseeking and accessibility motives each have an indirect effect on the association between perceived suitability and mobile news usage. The implications of the study and recommendations for future research are also discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)108-117
Number of pages10
JournalTelematics and Informatics
Volume32
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015.02

Keywords

  • Mobile news
  • Motivations
  • Perceived suitability
  • Smart phone
  • Social networking service
  • Structural equation modeling

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