Emotionally Charged: Exploring the Role of Emotion in Online News Information Seeking and Processing

摘要

This study examines how news stories framed in terms of discrete emotions (anger, fear, hope) influence online news message processing and information seeking. Results revealed that participants who read the approach emotion stories (anger and especially hope) spent more time on the story page than those who read the avoidant emotion (fear) story. These two emotional frames also differentially affected the information that people selected post-exposure in emotion-consistent ways. Overall, the findings deepen our understanding of the role that the emotional framing of news stories plays in determining how consumers respond to and selectively engage with online news content.