Title
Content or context: Which matters more in information processing on microblogging sites
Abstract
With a framework based on the heuristic-systematic model of information processing, this study examined the effects of both content and contextual factors on the popularity of microblogging posts. The popularity of posts was operationalized as the re-tweeting times and number of comments received by posts, which are users' behavioral outcomes after processing information. The data of the study were 10,000 posts randomly drawn from a popular microblogging site in China. Content factors were found to outperform contextual ones in accounting for the variance in post popularity, which suggests that systematic strategy dominates users' information processing in comparison with heuristic strategy. Our findings implied that re-tweeting and commenting are distinct types of microblogging behaviors. Re-tweeting aims to disseminate information in which the source credibility (e.g., users' authoritativeness) and posts' informativeness play important roles, whereas commenting emphasizes social interaction and conversation in which users' experience and posts' topics are more important.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.031
Computers in Human Behavior
Keywords
Field
DocType
Microblogging,Heuristic–systematic model,Information processing,Post popularity
Social relation,Social psychology,World Wide Web,Source credibility,Information processing,Social media,Conversation,Microblogging,Popularity,Psychology,Dissemination,Operationalization
Journal
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
31,
0747-5632
17
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.70
29
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Lun Zhang1352.25
Tai-Quan Peng2747.82
Ya-Peng Zhang3181.07
Xiao-Hong Wang4170.70
Jonathan J. H. Zhu517710.58