The effect of online news attributes on its use and attachment levels: a theoretical and empirical investigation

This paper develops and tests a theoretical model of the online news adoption/use process, based on expectancy-value and innovation-diffusion theories, to examine the predictive power of nine common features of online news in its potential development. Using data from a national survey of online news uses in Australia, the study finds that while some online attributes such as its immediacy and content-richness features have a strong impact on the way online news is adopted, used and integrated into daily life, its unique attributes such as customisation and interactivity still have a limited effect. Also, despite that online news attributes tend to be integrated together in online news packages and thus can be unintentionally used without motivation, there is strong evidence to suggest that each of the nine online news features is substantially used because it is consciously appreciated and evaluated.