Does Carrying News Increase Engagement with Non-News Content on Social Media Platforms?

Abstract

The rapid growth of online news aggregators has intensified the debate over whether they should compensate news publishers for redistributing news content. Regulators worldwide are working to develop policies that balance the interests of both parties. However, there is limited understanding of the impact of carrying news on news aggregators, especially on their non-news content. Our research fills this gap by examining the impact of news on non-news user engagement and content generation on Facebook. We utilize a natural experiment—the Facebook Australia news shutdown in 2021—and apply a difference-in-differences approach to quantify these effects. We find that, in the short run, both user engagement and content generation of non-news content on Facebook decreased after the news shutdown. Moreover, the effects were more pronounced for non-news posts with negative sentiment and higher popularity, as well as for non-news accounts that are more socially active, experienced, and verified. These results highlight the positive spillover effects of news on non-news content, and provide timely and relevant insights for regulators, news publishers, social media platforms that carry news, and content creators on social media platforms.

Keywords: News Publishers, News Aggregators, Social Media, User Engagement, User Generated Content, Difference-in-Differences