News Influencers: The Role of Professional Expertise and Emotional Tone on Gen Z's News Consumption Intention

The purpose of this thesis was to conduct research on whether the presence or absence of the professional expertise of the news influencer, in the form possessing or not possessing a professional journalistic background, and the positive, negative or neutral emotional tone of the online news content, play a significant role in determining the news consumption intention for Gen Z. To measure this connection, a 2x3 between-subjects quasi factorial experimental research design was composed. By conducting this research, the potential effects of professional expertise and emotional tone on Gen Z's news consumption intention were unraveled. The aim was to use these results in order to gain a deeper understanding of Gen Z's digital news consumption and which factors would play an essential role in determining their intent to consume news. This thesis constructed the following research question to reveal the findings of the research: How does the professional expertise of the news influencer (professional vs. non-professional) and the emotional tone of the online news content (positive, neutral, or, negative) impact the news consumption intention of Gen Z? To answer the research question of this thesis, three main hypotheses were constructed. H1 (News influencers with a professional journalistic background will generate higher levels of news consumption intention compared to news influencers without a professional journalistic background), H2a (Emotional tone in news content will influence the level of news consumption intention), H2b (A negative emotional tone of news content created by news influencers will generate higher levels of news consumption intention compared to positive - and neutral news content), H2c (A positive emotional tone of news content created by news influencers will generate higher levels of news consumption intention compared to neutral news content), and H3 (The influence of a negative emotional tone of news content created by news influencers will generate higher levels of news consumption intention compared to positive - and neutral news content and this effect is greater when it concerns influencers with a professional background compared to a non-professional background). The hypotheses were tested by using a two-way ANOVA in SPSS. The results from the analysis indicated that H2a and H2c were accepted, and H1, H2b, and H3 were rejected. Thus, the findings of the research revealed that Gen Z's intention to consume news was not influenced by the professional expertise of the news influencer, but on the other hand, their news consumption intention was affected by the emotional tone of the news content. This was specifically the case when the headline of the news content was positively framed. This suggested that Gen Z had an overall preference for more positive content in order to positively influence their news consumption intention.