eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

Objective of the Study:

As media convergence has affected the news industry and resulted in challenging conditions for newspapers to gain profits, many newspapers and media houses are among other things, reaching towards the possibilities of social media. By being active on social media, newspapers are trying to increase their web traffic, and advertisement income. The objective of this study was to gain an understanding of what aspects have an impact on the attractiveness of a news post in social media.

Methodology and Theoretical Framework:

The theoretical framework was composed of media convergence as the operational environment in the industry, and in that context the intersection of social media and newsworthiness formulated the research area. This study was conducted as a case study for Kauppalehti, and both qualitative and quantitative methods were combined in the research. The qualitative methods were used for content analysis of social media posts, and some quantitative methods were utilized when analyzing the coded research data.

Findings and Conclusions:

The main findings were that different social media channels are suitable for different kind of content and that the social media posts that are customized for the purpose often receive better engagement. Furthermore it was found that the articles that were the most popular in social media were not the same that were the most popular in the website of the newspaper.