MOTIVATIONS BEHIND INSTANT NEWS SHARING: A USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY PERSPECTIVE

Authors

  • Wan Hashridz Rizal Wan Abu Bakar Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
  • Abdul Rauf Ridzuan Faculty of Communication and Media Studies Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Cawangan Melaka Kampus Alor Gajah, KM 26 Jalan Lendu, 78000 Alor Gajah, Melaka, Malaysia
  • Mohd Sufiean Hassan Faculty of Communication and Media Studies Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Cawangan Melaka Kampus Alor Gajah, KM 26 Jalan Lendu, 78000 Alor Gajah, Melaka, Malaysia
  • Fahmi Zaidi Abd Razak Faculty of Management and Informatics, Sultan Ahmad Shah Pahang Islamic University (UnIPSAS), KM 8 Jalan Gambang, 25150 Kuantan, Pahang Darul Makmur, Malaysia

Keywords:

Instant news sharing, Uses and Gratifications Theory, social media, misinformation, Malaysia

Abstract

This study applies Uses and Gratifications Theory to identify the psychological motives that drive Malaysians to share news instantly on social media. A cross-sectional survey of 370 Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users was conducted and analysed with multiple regression. Results show that Pass Time (B = .232, p < .001), Information Sharing (B = .136, p = .090) and Socialization (B = .241, p < .001) significantly predict instant news sharing, jointly explaining 15.2 % of variance, whereas Information Seeking and Entertainment are negatively or non-significantly related. The findings indicate that idle moments and social bonding, rather than civic-oriented information needs, fuel rapid forwarding. For policymakers, the study suggests embedding friction-free verification cues and gamified accuracy badges into existing sharing flows to exploit the same gratifications that currently reward speed. Future research should incorporate additional psychological variables and adopt probability sampling to enhance explanatory power and generalisability.

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Published

2025-12-24

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2025): JURNAL 'ULWAN

Section

Articles

License

The content of Jurnal Ulwan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY NC ND 4.0). Authors transfer the ownership of their articles' copyright and publication right to Jurnal Ulwan. Permission is granted to Penerbit Universiti Melaka to publish the submitted articles. The authors also permit any third party to freely share the article as long as the original authors and citation information are properly cited.

How to Cite

Wan Abu Bakar, W. H. R., Ridzuan, A. R., Hassan, M. S., & Abd Razak, F. Z. (2025). MOTIVATIONS BEHIND INSTANT NEWS SHARING: A USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY PERSPECTIVE. Jurnal ’Ulwan, 10(2), 97-107. https://ejournal.unimel.edu.my/index.php/JULWAN/article/view/2081