The Effect on Audience Reactions of Audience Opinion Adoption from SNS

Like companies strategically using social networking services (SNS) competitively, TV broadcasters have tried to adopt audience opinion synchronously (AOS) using SNS in their broadcasting content. However, few studies have investigated the effect of AOS characteristics on audience reactions. This study used the theory of justice to empirically validate the effect of AOS adoption on such elements of justice perceptions, content quality, trust, satisfaction, and on such audience reactions as continuous viewing, purchase, word-of-mouth, and reciprocal participation. We conducted a laboratory experiment that used three types of virtual broadcasting content (a summary of majority opinion in SNS, a summary of majority opinion in SNS and its detailed comments, and, third, two majority and minority opinion summaries in SNS and their detailed comments). Data were collected from 294 participants and analyzed by PLS algorithms. As a result, we found that the depth and breadth of the AOS in broadcasting content could significantly enhance audience reaction . This study introduced into the research arena the issue of the strategic usage of SNS by TV broadcasters and used the theory of justice, which represents the public role of TV broadcasters to gather the public opinions. Also, we conducted a methodologically rigorous approach to validate the effect of this SNS usage. We expect that the results of this study will have practical implications for companies trying to use SNS strategically to enrich their services.