Comments, Shares, or Likes: What Makes News Posts Engaging in Different Ways

In a digital media environment where content distribution is shaped by technology companies’ algorithms and user behaviors, news organizations try to post content that can prompt user engagement in forms such as comments, shares, and likes or reactions. This study employs a content analysis of 1,600 messages and analyses of engagement metrics for 157,962 messages to examine to what extent and how Facebook messages of US and Israeli news organizations differ in the engagement modes they generate: commenting versus sharing versus liking/reacting. Drawing on the participation paradigm in audience research, news value theory, and literature on engagement enhancers, the study shows that certain content characteristics are associated with each of the examined engagement modes in more than one country while other content characteristics are associated with particular modes, but not with all of them. It offers a nuanced understanding of user interaction with news-related content and helps think about content units as more engaging or less engaging than others, or as engaging in different ways.