Logo image
Back
Personality and online news commenting behaviours: uncovering the characteristics of those below the line
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Personality and online news commenting behaviours: uncovering the characteristics of those below the line

Renee Barnes, Doug P Mahar, Wendell Cockshaw and Ides Wong
Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, Vol.169(1), pp.117-130
2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X18798695
url
https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X18798695View
Published Version

Abstract

audience Big 5 citizen journalism commenting participatory journalism personality
Commenting on the news is one of the most common forms of participation in news use and one of the most prevalent forms of citizen engagement online. However, very little research has focused on the characteristics of those who contribute to news websites and how this influences their commenting behaviour. Drawing on the Big Five Inventory of personality traits, this exploratory study examines how personality impacts upon the frequency of commenting and motivations for commenting on news websites. Overall, we find that less agreeable and more open to new experiences individuals commented more. Those individuals who demonstrate high levels of neuroticism were more likely to comment on stories which impacted them emotionally. Those who were disagreeable were more likely to comment on a story when they disagreed with the journalist. Those with lower levels of conscientiousness were more likely to comment if they disagreed with other commenters. Finally, disorganised and disagreeable individuals were more likely to comment to see the reaction of other commenters.

Details

Metrics

2 File views/ downloads
281 Record Views
14 Times Cited - Web of Science

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web Of Science research areas
Communication
Logo image