1. Introduction
Digital media in general and social media in specific are integral components of the modern marketing and communication environment (Luck et al., 2020). Social network sites (SNS) garnered an international user base as soon as it was introduced; by the beginning of 2021, they had accumulated 4.33 billion users (55% of the world population). Understandably, social media is identified as the most pertinent source of information (Nguyen & Phung, 2023). The advertising market was rapidly dominated by social networking sites (SNS) due to their numerous advantages over traditional media such as newspapers and television (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). The year 2017 marked a significant turning point in this correlation: worldwide digital advertising expenditures amounted to 208.82 billion U.S. dollars annually, exceeding the 178.48 billion U.S. dollars spent on television advertising (Nguyen & Phung, 2023). From the retail standpoint, social media has shown to be an efficient instrument for retail network operations and marketing, which further enhances customer satisfaction (Ramanathan et al., 2017; Zhong & Yan, 2022).
Nevertheless, despite these positive aspects, digital media have faced a multitude of obstacles, such as skepticism regarding privacy and security, addiction, misinformation, and false news, all of which erode their credibility (Dhiman, 2023). The matter of social media credibility erosion is a multifaceted concern due to the extensive range of parties engaged in the procedure (Salaverría & León, 2022). It is acknowledged that fake news on social media has become a serious concern for the retail sector (Bermes, 2021), as they are the materials for customers’ information acquisition process (Marinova & Anduiza, 2020; Zha et al., 2015). Thus, scholars have put forth strategies for promoting news and social media literacy in response to the growing dependence of young people on these platforms, which affects their perspectives and attitudes (Cho et al., 2022; Swart, 2023). However, an increasing proportion of social media users hold the belief that they can obtain information without actively pursuing it through alternative channels; this trend has been dubbed the "News-finds-me perception" (NFMP) (Zúñiga et al., 2020). Additionally, Diehl and Lee (2022) provided evidence that both social media reliance and the NFMP influence the likelihood that social media users perceive false news as credible. The varied effects of the NFMP have resulted in a variety of applications and repercussions from various perspectives, which necessitate additional scholarly investigation.
From the theoretical approach, research on the topic of News-finds-me perception, although just being defined by Zúñiga et al. (2017), has recently attracted the attention of researchers, with eight publications in the first eight months of 2023, according to the Scopus database. However, previous studies have delved into explaining and extending the concept’s knowledge (Song et al., 2020; Strauß et al., 2021; Zúñiga et al., 2017; Zúñiga et al., 2018; Zúñiga & Cheng, 2021), applying it in various media and information context (Chadwick et al., 2021; Zúñiga et al., 2022; Haim et al., 2021; Lee et al., 2023a, Lee et al., 2023b; Toff & Nielsen, 2018), and also identifying its negative effects in the digital media environment (Apuke & Omar, 2021; Cham et al., 2023; Diehl & Lee, 2022; Lin et al., 2023; Park, 2022; Park & Kaye, 2020; Sümer et al., 2021; Wei et al., 2023; Zúñiga & Diehl, 2019). Unsurprisingly, previous studies have recommended that scholars incorporate the notion into various conventional communication and marketing theories in order to acquire a more comprehensive understanding of its multifaceted effects (Goyanes et al., 2023). Despite the topic thriving in research, only one review article by Zúñiga and Cheng (2021) attempts to synthesize the topic's knowledge in order to suggest a future agenda. In less than two years, 14 new articles have been published on the research topic. Consequently, academia will benefit from conducting a systematic review of the subject in order to propose a future research agenda and develop an overview of the research subject.
From a practical standpoint, retailers can gain competitive advantages by implementing successful marketing communication strategies based on efficient information acquisition and distribution (Ziliani & Bellini, 2004). Furthermore, social media platforms have been proven to improve communication in the retail industry, outperforming any previous traditional channels and marketing methods (Mahoney et al., 2014). From the mentioned approach, NFMP is a significant concept with its capability to influence social media users’ perception regarding the credibility of the source, mediums, and messages distributed on the platform (Diehl & Lee, 2022; Lee et al., 2023). Furthermore, credibility plays a significant role in the process of persuasion (Hovland et al., 1953). A distinction exists between the objectives of communication and marketing, with the former placing greater emphasis on information distribution effectiveness (Straus, 1996) and the latter on economic efficacy (Chun et al., 2013). There is consensus that the efficacy of media credibility will amplify the effectiveness of both approaches (Kaye & Johnson, 2017; Lafferty & Goldsmith, 1999). Additionally, Within the realm of marketing (IMC), the integration of digital channels is regarded as an absolute necessity (Luck et al., 2020). As a result, understanding the NFMP will provide marketing and communication professionals, in general, and retailers, in particular, with valuable insights into how to improve their persuasion effectiveness.
The research’s findings include an overview of 31 papers that reflect seven years of the concept research’s development. The study employs citation analyses to identify the top cited articles, authors, organizations, journals, and countries that contributed to the subject area. Furthermore, the result of the co-citation analysis is 12 papers, which are separated into three clusters to provide foundation knowledge for the development of the subject. The most significant aspect of this research is to examine the primary themes of the research subject area, which is performed through co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling analyses. According to the findings, seven major themes of the research subject have been identified, which the current study will discuss in order to suggest future research directions.
The research's contribution is apparent; it seeks to provide a general analysis of the NFMP research matter, with the goal of suggesting implications for future research approaches. From a theoretical standpoint, the current study provides researchers with the foundational knowledge they need to understand the concept of NFMP in order to further implement it into their multiplatform, cross-media research, as well as incorporate the concept into different marketing and communication theories to gain a deeper understanding of the topic. From a practical sense, the study suggests that social media and NFMP are important components of Integrated Marketing Communication strategies that can be used to increase retailer persuasion. However, from the long-term perspective, media literacy should be integrated to mitigate the negative effects of the NFMP to ensure consumer data quality and participation habits, which is an important part of the co-creation activities (Le et al., 2022).
To achieve the research objectives, this study is separated into seven sections:
(1) The Introduction provides an overview of the NFMP research and identifies the research gap that motivated this study.
(2) The second section is the Literature Review that provides the foundation knowledge of NFMP and affirmsits relationship to marketing and communication research.
(3) The Method section aims to provide knowledge regarding the bibliometric analysis technique, along with the database preference, as well as the data refining and analysis processes.
(4) The Results section will present the findings of the citation, co-citation, keyword co-occurrence, and bibliographic coupling analyses.
(5) The research’s fifth section is meant for Discussion, based on the results, to provide theoretical and practical implications.
(6) The Conclusion section summarizes the research findings and implications while reflecting the research objectives.
(7) The last section will examine the study limitations, which serve as stepping stones for future research to resolve.
2. Literature Review
2.1. The Current Status of the Media Environment and Information Distribution
In the current era, individuals who consume media have a multitude of options for locating and gaining access to news. In addition to relying on reputable sources, they can also utilize search engines and social media platforms (Edgerly et al., 2018). Social media enables its users to exercise freedom of expression by democratizing the process of content creation, thereby converting them into "prosumers" (Picone, 2017). Therefore, the lack of trust in traditional media outlets that are perceived as biased is an unsurprising motivation for social media usage (Kaye & Johnson, 2017). Furthermore, social media platforms demonstrate a diverse range of formats to accommodate the numerous needs of their users: Twitter functions as a medium for consuming News, Facebook facilitates the dissemination of general content, YouTube is a repository for videos, TikTok is utilized for the creation of brief videos, and Twitch is devoted to gaming (Kaye & Johnson, 2017; Sixto-García & Losada-Fernández, 2023). Soon enough, social media have become the preeminent source of pertinent information on a global scale (Nguyen & Phung, 2023).
The aforementioned conditions compelled media organizations to modify their strategy from exclusively overseeing information via their own channels to distribute it across various platforms and channels (Nielsen & Ganter, 2018). From the media users’ perspective, it is acknowledged emerging trends among media users, including ambient News (Hermida, 2010) or incidental news exposure via social media (Fletcher & Nielsen, 2018). It is undeniable that the social platforms with the capabilities of always online undoubtedly expose them to the lives of others, without their consent (Levordashka & Utz, 2016). The emergence of ambient journalism is a result of these circumstances; it pertains to the ability of social media users to obtain news from unofficial and official sources via the digital environment (Hermida, 2010). At one point, a novel news consumption pattern emerged, namely the News-finds-me perception.
2.2. “News-Finds-Me” Perception and Information Distribution
The current media circumstance in which individuals are perpetually and automatically aware of the lives of others, coupled with the influence of incidental News (Fletcher & Nielsen, 2018; Hermida, 2010), has resulted in a transition of focus from conventional news outlets to social media news sources. In this transition, individuals have become significantly more dependent on information disseminated by their peers (Boczkowski et al., 2018).
In the new environment, the concept of "News-finds-me" perception arises, which refers to the conviction held by media consumers that current information is readily accessible through the Internet and their social networks and peers; they do not need to seek it out proactively (Zúñiga et al., 2017).
NFMP is a significant factor in the context of information distribution through multiple platforms. After becoming deeply ingrained in the minds of media consumers, this perception diminishes their inclination to utilize conventional media platforms for news consumption (Park & Kaye, 2020) and instead increases their dependence on social media, which further reinforces this perception (Zúñiga et al., 2020). Conversely, an overemphasis on social networks results in the utilization of their algorithms to reinforce similar points of view rather than to promote information diversity (Zúñiga et al., 2018). In addition, NFMP causes users to vacillate when exposed to new topics and causes them to passively observe the discussions of others (Oeldorf-Hirsch & Srinivasan, 2021), and provoke news avoidance (Goyanes et al., 2023). The result is a decline in social understanding and knowledge (Zúñiga et al., 2020).
Prior research frequently applied the scale developed by Zúñiga et al. (2017) to assess the concept of NFMP. Nevertheless, Zúñiga and Cheng (2021) assert that the previous scale solely captured three facets of self-seeking news awareness: the inclination to be well-informed, the peers’ reliance, and the absence of a specific intention to seek news. Consequently, the study above additionally posits the fourth dimension, namely the dependence of social media forms on algorithms.
2.3. NFMP And Social Media in Retail Marketing
Retail is an important sector of the economy that has experienced rapid growth in recent years. It has reached 28,847 billion U.S. Dollars in 2023, is expected to reach 31,311 US Dollars in 2024, and is projected to reach 42,759 billion U.S. Dollars in 2028. The industry's rapid expansion can be attributable to the adoption of new technologies such as omnichannel shopping, marketing, and communication (Phung et al., 2023).
According to Mulhern (1997), retail marketing encompasses a wide range of practices, including shop location selection, retail service development, pricing setting, and coordination of communication activities across several mediums. The effectiveness of retail marketing was primarily reliant on a customer-driven approach based on marketing intelligence (Lee & Trim, 2006). Unsurprisingly, from the standpoint of retailers, the process of gathering, using, and disseminating information from customers and suppliers is essential to their success (Marius, 2008).
With the technology development, digital mediums are now considered to be vital and necessary by the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) approach, which stresses the usage of multichannel communication (Luck et al., 2020). Among the mediums, social media is recognized as an increasingly employed online communication tool (Bianchi & Andrews, 2018; Samoggia et al., 2019; Yasa et al., 2021). With the capability of providing marketing analytics, social media might contribute to business financial and market performance (Garg et al., 2020). As a result, social media has been acknowledged as a more effective tool for retail communication than any other (Mahoney et al., 2014).
In the field of retail marketing and communication, it is imperative to persuade clients to trust the information they receive from companies using the platform. Three main aspects that are the focus of academics studying media credibility in persuasion are the source, the message, and the medium credibility (Golan, 2010). However, previous research has demonstrated the customers' confusion between the three mentioned dimensions of media credibility in assessment (Newhagen & Nass, 1989). Assuming, therefore, that the boundaries between dimensions are hazy and that their credibility can be transferred between levels (Schweiger, 2000), it is imperative to enhance all of these attributes.
As stated before, NFMP plays a crucial role in the credibility paradigm in the persuasion process. Diehl and Lee (2022) illustrated the NFMP has a beneficial effect on customers' perceived credibility of the source, message, and mediums, which, in turn, influences their dependency on social media (Boczkowski et al., 2018), which further reinforces the NFMP perception (Zúñiga et al., 2020). The mentioned influence loops will strengthen the NFMP, as well as social media's perceived credibility and dependency altogether. The mentioned factors will ultimately make the platform more persuasive in providing information to customers in retail settings.
3. Methodology
3.1. Bibliometrics Analysis
According to Mayr and Scharnhorst (2015), the method is a statistical assessment of the current state of research on a specific subject that involves quantitative analysis of papers on that topic. To conduct a thorough examination of the current academic publications database on the topic of "News-finds-me" perception, the present study uses VosViewer 1.6.15 to construct and develop bibliometric frameworks, identifying clusters that represent the current themes of the research data. The mentioned method is considered reliable and effective in previous research (Mascarenhas et al., 2018; Phung & Nguyen, 2023), with explicit and peer-reviewed analysis software (van Eck & Waltman, 2010). Therefore, the study can ensure its results’ reliability and credibility, providing opportunities for future research.
3.2. The Database of Relevant Papers
According to Abramo et al. (2011), the information employed to investigate the database is considered the most crucial in a systematic review and bibliometric analysis. Consequently, the investigation employs the Scopus database, which comprises scholarly articles originating from 1966. Additionally, Scopus has approximately 20% greater coverage than Web of Science (WoS) to mitigate the absence of research prior to 1966 (Falagas et al., 2008). Notwithstanding the lack thereof, a previous examination identified a robust correlation between the two databases concerning the number of citations and publications (Archambault et al., 2009). In the Social Science discipline, it is projected that overlaps between two databases are 34%, Scopus exclusive materials are 64%, and Web of Science exclusive papers are just 2% (Mongeon & Paul-Hus, 2016). Also, in 2018, Scopus was more extensively used for bibliographic coupling than WoS (Zhu & Liu, 2020). In light of the potential for document duplication and the need to ensure database completeness when integrating data from various sources, the authors have opted to utilize Scopus as the principal database for this investigation.
The study searches the Scopus database for papers that contain the terms “News finds me,” “News-finds-me,” or “NFMP” in their title, abstract, or keywords. Additionally, the author did not exclude any subject area to ensure the dataset's completeness. As a result, works on unrelated topics may be included (i.e., NFMP might be an acronym for other concepts in other subject areas). Thus, before analyzing the datasets, the papers will be manually investigated to eliminate unrelated documents.
The search yielded 46 documents, which were exported in comma-separated value format (.CSV) for analysis. The procedures for gathering, refining, analyzing, and disclosing data adhere to the PRISMA guidelines (Haddaway et al., 2022), as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The Data Cleaning and Analysis Process Flowchart, Adapted from the PRISMA 2020 Guidelines
3.3. Data Filtering and Refining
A comprehensive scrutiny will be performed on the documents constituting the datasets to verify their compliance with the following criteria: initially, it is important to note that the selection process is limited to articles, conference proceedings, and book chapters. Subsequently, articles that do not pertain to the intended subject matter of the research shall be omitted. Finally, in order to verify the authenticity and accuracy of the final dataset, any duplicate documents will be removed. The dataset was narrowed down to 31 studies pertaining to the perception of "News-finds-me" after the filtration process was executed.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that the Scopus database is notorious for its incoherent citation form, which may undermine the accuracy of bibliographic coupling and co-citation analyses (van Eck & Waltman, 2020). As a consequence, the authors will refine the dataset with Openrefine prior to assessment. In addition to ensuring that citation styles are consistent across studies, the method will eradicate redundant references within a single study. Consequently, the methodology should guarantee the accuracy of the reference tally and analysis.
3.4. Methods And Software for Analysis
VOSviewer 1.6.15 is a program for mapping and illustrating academic publishing network data obtained from database files such as WoS, Scopus, Dimensions, and Pubmed (van Eck & Waltman, 2020). VOSviewer has been demonstrated to be a useful software for systematic review, employing the method of bibliometric analysis (van Eck & Waltman, 2010). As a result, the study uses the procedures outlined by van Eck and Waltman (2010), Waltman et al. (2010), and Perianes-Rodriguez et al. (2016) to process:
Citation Analysis: The methodology will ascertain and arrange the citation counts for various entities, including nations, organizations, journals, documents, and authors. Overall, the citation analyses conducted on the dataset have yielded a comprehensive summary of the most influential papers, authors, organizations, scientific journals, and countries.
Co-Citation Analysis: the technique will find documents that have been cited at least four times by papers in the dataset and link them based on how many times they have been mentioned jointly. Studies that are consistently referenced in conjunction with one another in other publications may establish a connection between them and provide a knowledge foundation for the documents that cite them (Small, 1973). The outcome of the analysis will provide researchers with essential knowledge that enables them to initiate their investigation into the selected subject matter.
Keywords’ Co-Occurrence Analysis focuses on quantifying and evaluating the relations between terms defined by the authors and those that are indexed (van Eck & Waltman, 2020). The study shall analyze terms that manifest in multiple papers exceeding two times and classify them into clusters based on the frequency of their co-occurrence. Subsequently, an analysis is conducted to evaluate the prevailing research trajectory in the field under consideration, as practiced by Narong and Hallinger (2023) and Phung and Nguyen (2023).
Bibliographic Coupling Analysis: This method is regarded as the inverse of co-citation analysis (see Figure 2); it employs the shared references between two documents to assess their similarities (Zupic & Čater, 2015). The underlying assumption is that publications that reference the same research may be engaging in discourse regarding the same topic (Cavalcante et al., 2021). Consequently, a bibliographic coupling analysis is conducted to ascertain the principal themes pertaining to the selected area of study. To ensure that no study is omitted, the minimum citation criteria for the papers is established at zero.
Figure 2: Co-citation and Bibliographic Coupling Analyses
4. Results
4.1. The Overview of The Research Subject
In general, the data contained 31 papers spanning the years 2017 to 2023 (see Figure 3). The predominant research method for the subject is quantitative (26 studies - 83.88%), followed by qualitative (4 documents - 12.90%), and mixed-method (1 paper - 3.22%).
Figure 3: A Historical Overview of Documents and the Overall Number of Citations on the Research Topic
It all began with the study of Zúñiga et al. (2017), which defined the concept of NFMP. The expansion started slowly, with two publications published in 2018 and 2019. However, the topic area expansion rate has accelerated from 2020 to 2023, with five papers in 2020, six in 2021 and 2022, and eight in just eight months of 2023. This phenomenon illustrates the potential of the topic for researchers.
Additionally, a series of citation analyses have proceeded to define the most influential papers, researchers, organizations, scientific journals and countries, which are described as follows:
The Top Cited Documents. Stay in the first place with 264 citations is the study of Zúñiga et al. (2017). The study is regarded as the most important of this topic, as it is the first to coin the term “News-finds-me” perception. Toff and Nielsen (2018) is the second most cited study in the dataset, with 99 citations. The study explores the media users’ perceived folk theory on news exposure, including: “News finds me,” “the information is out there,” and “I don’t know what to believe;” the study illustrates the complicated effects of the mentioned Theory in combination on media users’ beliefs and attitudes. In the third place, Zúñiga and Diehl (2019) represent the NFMP application in political-media exposure research, with 78 citations. Another application of NFMP is its impact on health information exposure in crisis, represented by Chadwick et al. (2021) – 74 citations. The following two articles, both with 35 citations, are ranked fifth and represent two different approaches to NFMP research: the NFMP antecedents (Song et al., 2020) and their impact on news consumption (Park & Kaye, 2020).
The Top Cited Authors. In total, 85 authors contributed to the NFMP research. The most influential author in the dataset should be Homero Gil de Zúñiga, with 403 citations, coming from his position as the first author of 6 papers and co-author of 4 papers. The second and third places of the top cited authors belong to Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu (278 citations) and Bian Weeks (264 citations), who are the co-authors of Zúñiga et al. (2017). The fourth and fifth places are Benjamin Toff and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, as they are authors of Toff and Nielsen (2018), with 99 citations.
The Top Cited Organizations. According to the dataset, 81 organizations are contributing to the subject area. The University of Vienna is the most influential organization that contributed to the topic, with 356 citations of 4 papers, followed by Universidad Diego Portales with 264 citations of 1 paper. It should be emphasized that both the mentioned organizations are Homero Gil de Zúñiga’s. Additionally, the University of Michigan (Brian Weeks’ organization) and Universidad de La Laguna (Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu’s organization) are also cited 264 times in the study of Zúñiga et al. (2017). Finally, the University of Minnesota (Benjamin Toff’s organization) and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (Rasmus Kleis Nielsen’s organization) are cited 99 times in one study.
The Top Cited Journals. In general, 23 journals publish NFMP research, all of which are Q1 journals, with the 2022 cites core ranging from 5.7 to 11.6. The study will then rank the jounal based on their NFMP studies’ total number of citations. In the first place, the Journal of Computer-mediated Communication leads by 264 citations for only one study. Followed by the Journal of Communication with 101 citations for two studies. The Social Media and Society has published three papers on the subject of NFMP with a total citation of 90. Additionally, the Mass Communication and Society has also published three NFMP articles resulted in 89 citations. Finally, the New Media and Society received 78 citations for the study of Zúñiga et al. (2019).
The Top Cited Countries. Among 18 nations participating in the subject area, the United States has published 14 papers, which resulted in 543 citations. Followed by Austria (426 citations for six documents), Spain (320 citations for nine documents), Chile (316 citations for seven papers), and the United Kingdom (189 citations for three documents).
4.2. The Foundation Studies Exploring Through Co-Citation Analysis
The twelve most cited foundation studies are identified through co-citation analysis and categorized into three clusters (see Figure 4). The clusters represent the course of development of the subject area.
Figure 4: The Foundation Studies Derived from the Co-citation Analysis
Cluster 1 – Studies That Provide The Foundation For NFMP Research:The studies in this cluster represent a large body of knowledge that will be applied later in the development of the NFMP concept and its application. First, Carpini and Keeter (1996) present the importance of providing political knowledge to citizens. Furthermore, media knowledge has been produced through the multiplatform approach in the political context (Prior, 2009), the advent of Twitter and the ambient news concept (Hermida, 2010), and the use of Facebook as a substitute for traditional news sources (Müller et al., 2016). Therefore, Stromback et al. (2013) have linked the concepts in examining the relationship between political interest and news media consumption, employing longitudinal data, a method that is frequently used in many recent NFMP research.
Cluster 2 – Social Media News Use Impact: Research in this cluster demonstrates the diverse impacts of social media news use in general. Lee (2020) illustrates the NFMP developed from frequent social media news use negatively impacts users’ political knowledge; such influence can be moderated by traditional media usage. Unsurprisingly, social media news use, in general, has been proven to negatively influence political knowledge (Lee & Xenos, 2019) and provoke news avoidance (Skovsgaard & Andersen, 2020).
Cluster 3 – The Development of the NFMP Concept: Studies in this cluster represent the development of the NFMP concept. Kim et al. (2013) highlight the phenomena of incidental news exposure, in which social media users are exposed to news that they are not actively seeking. From the aforementioned notion, Zúñiga et al. (2017) propose the concept of NFMP and its detrimental impacts on political knowledge. Several subsequent research investigates the effects of NFMP on political knowledge, interest, and voting (Zúñiga & Diehl, 2019) or the complicated link between incidental news exposure, NFMP, and various news medium consumption (Park & Kaye, 2020).
A number of studies resulting from this analysis are also mentioned in the bibliographic coupling analysis. Because important studies, such as Zúñiga et al. (2017) or Zúñiga and Diehl (2019), can be cited by other publications while citing other genuine fundamental foundation studies.
4.3. The Co-Occurrence Analysis
The co-occurrence analysis result is three keywords’ clusters (see Figure 4 and Table 1). As a consequence, the following themes were proposed based on the meaning explanation of terms in each cluster. The first cluster, shown in red, investigates the NFMP in the context of "fake news" on "social networks," which is linked to a number of topics such as "news credibility," "fake news detection," "information sharing," and its effects in the "COVID-19" pandemic. The second cluster in green represents the impact of "news-finds-me perception" on "news sharing" and "news avoidance," which is then related to "news overload" on "social media." From the political information approach, the factor also affects "political interest," "political knowledge," and "political participation." The final cluster of keywords, shown in blue, focuses on the "economic and social effects" of NFMP, as "media use" for "news" has been demonstrated to affect consumers' NFMP, resulting in "misinformation" and other negative consequences.
Figure 5: The Result of the Co-occurrence Analysis
Table 1: The Detailed Keyword Clusters
The results of the co-occurrence analysis are consistent with the bibliographic coupling analysis, which will be mentioned in the next section.
4.4. The Subject’s Main Themes Resulted from the Bibliographic Coupling analysis
A bibliographic coupling analysis was used to group 30/31 studies into five clusters that represent the dataset's five key themes (see Figure 6 and Table 2). Among 31 studies, although Sihombing (2017) incidentally refers to NFMP as an important phenomenon, it is not an NFMP research. Therefore, the study is excluded from the analysis.
Figure 6: The Dataset’s Main Themes Derived from the Bibliographic Coupling Analysis
Table 2: The Result of Bibliographic Coupling Analysis, Represented in Topics with the Number of Research and Percentages.
The first group represents foundation knowledge of the “News-Finds-me” perception (NFMP): The cluster includes the most cited paper by Zúñiga et al. (2017), which proposed the concept of News-finds-me perception, along with Zúñiga et al. (2018)that binds the concept to the current media and political situations and Zúñiga et al. (2021), which reviews the Theory and its impacts. Furthermore, Song et al. (2020) test the NFMP multidimensional scale in the interaction with social media use and various political factors. Besides, the antecedents of NFMP have been examined in 18 countries worldwide (Strauß et al., 2021).
The second cluster demonstrates the extension of NFMP research to explore its antecedents and impacts or integrate it into another theory: This is a significant cluster with a number of sub-topics. In this regard, it is critical to acknowledge the study of Zúñiga et al. (2020) on exploring the diverse effects of NFMP in 10 different societies worldwide to investigate its association with age, social media use, political interest, political knowledge, and voting behavior. To be more specific, it is acknowledged that exposure to social media news (González-González et al., 2022) or constant exposure to user-contributed content (Jiang, 2023) positively influences the users’ NFMP. On the opposite side, users’ NFMP reduces their hard news interest (Segado-Boj & Said-Hung, 2022), and causes news avoidance (Goyanes et al., 2023) due to negative news exposure (Kazun, 2023). Also, this cluster includes several studies that tried to integrate NFMP into media credibility theory (Segado-Boj & Said-Hung, 2022), elaboration likelihood model (Sawalha & Karnowski, 2022), or uses and gratification theory (Segado-Boj et al., 2019, 2020).
The third topic shows the application of NFMP in diverse contexts, which are multiplatform contexts with traditional and social media news use (Lee, 2020), health information (Chadwick et al., 2021), algorithmic News (Zúñiga et al., 2022), web-browsing history (Haim et al., 2021), crisis communication (Lee et al., 2023b), political misinformation (Lee et al., 2023a) or exploring the combination effects of “News-finds-me,” “The information is out there” and “I don’t know what to believe” perceptions (Toff & Nielsen, 2018)
The fourth topic represents the close relationship between NFMP and fake News:It is recognized that NFMP positively impacts users' perceived fake news credibility (Cham et al., 2023; Diehl & Lee, 2022), which subsequently influences fake news-sharing behaviors (Apuke & Omar, 2021), in addition to other user-based factors such as status-seeing or trust in social media (Wei et al., 2023). Additionally, Sümer et al. (2021) introduced a novel approach to eye movement tracking to replace the traditional way of self-reported survey in their study.
The fifth topic studies look at the negative effects of the NFMP on a variety of factors, including political knowledge, interest and voting (Zúñiga & Diehl, 2019), traditional news media consumption (Park & Kaye, 2020), skipping the full news content to just only reading the snippet (Park, 2022), and reducing information seeking behaviors, which leads to decrease in knowledge (Lin et al., 2023).
5. Discussions and Implications
5.1. Theoretical Implications
This study is a thorough investigation into the impact of the News-finds-me perception in the digital marketing and communications setting. The dataset is refined in accordance with the PRISMA and OpenRefine criteria on the dataset generated from the Scopus database, yielding a subset of 31 publications pertaining to the subject matter from August 2017 to August 2023. Following this, the documents are subjected to a series of manual assessments and examinations with the purpose of producing an encompassing synopsis of the research domain and attaining comprehension of the forthcoming research agenda.
From the results of the subject overview and citation analyses, it is acknowledged that the quantity of scholarly articles addressing the subject has exhibited a progressive ascent over time: from two articles in 2017, 2018, and 2019 to six articles in 2021 and 2022, and finally eight articles in the first eight months of 2023 (equivalent to one paper per month), this data illustrates the trajectory and promise of the research topic. The utilization of the "News-finds-me" perception to clarify the complex behaviors of media consumers has been demonstrated in various theoretical frameworks, including the folk theories (Segado-Boj & Said-Hung, 2022; Toff & Nielsen, 2018), media repertoire (Chadwick et al., 2021), or Uses and Gratification theory (Segado-Boj et al., 2020). Therefore, it is proposed that the factor be incorporated into various theoretical frameworks in order to investigate its impacts within the intricate digital media environment (Goyanes et al., 2023).
From the results of the co-citation analysis, researchers can gain the necessary foundational understanding of the NFMP concept. These foundation studies include the citizen political knowledge (Carpini & Keeter, 1996), the multi-channel approach to political information (Müller et al., 2016; Prior, 2009), ambient News (Hermida, 2010), or incidental news exposure (Kim et al., 2013). Furthermore, the analysis furnishes insights that can inform subsequent investigations into the factor's application in various domains, including political interest (Stromback et al., 2013), news consumption (Lee, 2020), and avoidance (Skovsgaard & Andersen, 2020).
The results of the co-occurrence analysis reveal three primary themes that emerge from the studies that pertain to the research topic of NFMP. The initial theme illustrates the intricate connection between social media users and social media (Apuke & Omar, 2021), which carries the danger of misinformation (Cham et al., 2023), and also the media literacy developed to regulate the dissemination of false News (Wei et al., 2023). The second theme represents the NFMP effects on social media users’ political interest (Zúñiga & Diehl, 2019), and political knowledge (Lee et al., 2023a); the theme also demonstrates its influence in the news context, with the relationship with news sharing (Segado-Boj et al., 2019), or news overload (Goyanes et al., 2023), and consequently news avoidance (Kazun, 2023). The final subtopic pertains to the economic and social implications of NFMP in the context of social media. It is constituted of research concerning the obstacles that NFMP poses to the social learning process (Zúñiga et al., 2017; Jiang, 2023; Lee et al., 2023; Zúñiga et al., 2017).
The results of bibliographic coupling analysis validate the research themes that were identified through co-occurrence analysis. Additionally, they specify the subtopics that further investigations may explore to enhance the overall comprehension of NFMP. The noticeable research trend can be illustrated as follows:
First, from a general knowledge standpoint, prior research has established the definition of NFMP (Zúñiga et al., 2017), developed a correlation between the concept and the political and news consumption environment on social media (Zúñiga et al., 2018), as well as established a method for quantifying it (Song et al., 2020). There is consensus that the academic community would derive advantages from the expansion of NFMP assessment instruments or the integration of the concept across diverse social media platforms that possess distinct characteristics (Zúñiga & Cheng, 2021). Additional investigations could examine how this notion can be implemented in the context of information distribution on multiple platforms (Lee, 2020), websites (Haim et al., 2021), crisis communication (Lee et al., 2023b), and political information (Lee et al., 2023a).
Another research direction is to explore the effects of NFMP on different factors such as media users’ demographics and characteristics (Zúñiga et al., 2020), social media exposure (González-González et al., 2022; Jiang, 2023), hard news exposure (Segado-Boj & Said-Hung, 2022), negative information exposure (Kazun, 2023), and news avoidance (Goyanes et al., 2023). Consequently, it has the potential to be integrated with a range of theoretical frameworks, including Media Credibility (Segado-Boj & Said-Hung, 2022), Elaboration Likelihood model (Sawalha & Karnowski, 2022), Uses and Gratification theory (Segado-Boj et al., 2019, 2020) or media repertoire (Chadwick et al., 2021). Besides, while the majority of NFMP research focuses on communication, it is vital to acknowledge the possibilities of expanding the idea into the marketing research domain (Goyanes et al., 2023; Segado-Boj et al., 2019). From the retail marketing perspective, various foundation theories can be further proposed for NFMP integration, such as the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) proposed by Davis (1989), as the concept of NFMP is developed through social media usage. Besides, the Theory of planned behaviors (TPB), proposed by Ajzen (1991), is another option, as the NFMP has been shown to affect credibility, which is vital for influencing attitude in the TPB paradigm (Wang et al., 2022). Also, the Stimulus – Organism – Response (S-O-R model), proposed by Mehrabian and Russell (1974), could be a viable choice, as earlier research has shown that NFMP can be placed in the organism section in considering its characteristics to investigate its antecedents and consequences (Hochreiter et al., 2023). Additionally, the application of the concept to various geographic contexts will yield benefits (Strauß et al., 2021).
Furthermore, the diverse effects of the NFMP should be examined. Prior research has established that the NFMP influences media consumers to accept and disseminate false information (Apuke & Omar, 2021; Cham et al., 2023; Diehl & Lee, 2022). Considerable scholarly investigation has been devoted to analyzing the detrimental effects of NFMP on media users’ knowledge and interest, as well as the decline in information-seeking and information-consuming behaviors (Lin et al., 2023; Park, 2022; Park & Kaye, 2020). Further research could be enhanced by conducting a thorough analysis of the negative repercussions of NFMP in connection with various postulated factors, such as fact-checking, social media literacy, and misinformation detection, to gain a deeper understanding of the concept (Lee et al., 2023b; Goyanes et al., 2023).
5.2. Practical Implications
Previous research has demonstrated diverse impacts of NFMP in various contexts (Chadwick et al., 2021; Zúñiga et al., 2022; Haim et al., 2021; Lee et al., 2023a, 2023b; Toff & Nielsen, 2018), through which several practical implications can be provided as follows:
First, from the retail marketing perspective, it is crucial to recognize that social media is an important communication channel with consumers and stakeholders (Ziliani & Bellini, 2004). Prior research has shown that the NFMP has a positive effect on the perceived credibility of the media (Cham et al., 2023; Diehl & Lee, 2022), to the extent that users will believe whatever they receive on the platform (Wei et al., 2023), reduce the tendency to seek additional information (Zúñiga et al., 2017), accept to passive exposure to the algorithm provided messages (Zúñiga et al., 2022), and increase the likelihood of disseminating false information (Apuke & Omar, 2021; Cham et al., 2023; Diehl & Lee, 2022). Such impacts should be considered when selecting media platforms to persuade customers.
Besides, previous research has demonstrated that one medium characteristic might be transferred to its extensions on other channels (Kaye & Johnson, 2020). Indeed, the multiplatform user identity linkage exemplifies an organizational strategy that connects various organizational identities across channels in order to create the illusion that they are a singular entity (Li et al., 2019). Such a strategy has been integrated by traditional mediums as well (Vogan, 2018). In the IMC environment, various mediums will be integrated to achieve the consistency of the communication messages (Luck et al., 2020). Marketing experts should consider the integration of social and traditional media to fully capitalize on the credibility of traditional mediums, as well as the NFMP from social media platforms.
Furthermore, it is imperative to understand the antecedents of NFMP, as they have the potential to either reinforce or undermine the perception. Previous studies have illustrated the distinctive characteristics of the perception regarding media algorithms and the dependence on peers for news (Zúñiga et al., 2021). Consequently, the perception will be influenced by the frequency of social media news (González-González et al., 2022) and user-contributed content exposure (Jiang, 2023). Communication and marketing specialists should exercise prudence when utilizing the mentioned information in their communication campaigns.
However, it is acknowledged that retail marketing and communications planning will benefit from accurate marketing intelligence to build long-term relationships with customers (Garg et al., 2020). From this approach, the NFMP has been found to induce news avoidance (Goyanes et al., 2023); reduce information-seeking interest (Lin, 2023; Segado-Boj & Said-Hung, 2022), and participation behaviors (Zúñiga & Diehl, 2019); as well as turning customers into passive receivers in discussion (Oeldorf-Hirsch & Srinivasan, 2021). The mentioned factors could potentially impair the ability for information validation, raise the risk of incorrect information acceptance and dissemination, as well as decrease customer participation activities. Such impacts might dampen the brand co-creation efforts in the long term (He et al., 2021). Therefore, it is critical to provide youthful users with social literacy support (Cho et al., 2022; Swart, 2023). Moreover, authentic and traditional platforms might be used as official sources for the curation and regulation of misinformation (Nguyen & Phung, 2023).
Lastly, it is critical to acknowledge that the Covid-19 pandemic has altered the perception of media outlets. Official and traditional channels are now regarded as more credible than social media, which has led to an increased utilization of these platforms for informational purposes (Casero-Ripollés, 2020; Nguyen & Phung, 2023). Therefore, social media employment for marketing and information distribution should be cautious and aware of this recent trend, as the platform’s persuasion power might be dampened in the post-Covid-19.
6. Conclusion
The primary objective of the current study is to synthesize the progress made over the past six years regarding NFMP with the intention of offering practical and theoretical implications for the fields of retail marketing and communications research.
From a theoretical perspective, numerous prospective avenues for research have been unveiled and recommended for additional investigation. Therefore, the NFMP concept should be applied to a variety of marketing and communication theories and contexts in order to investigate its diverse effects. Additionally, it is critical to incorporate the NFMP into various marketing domains, with a particular emphasis on the retail marketing sector. The NFMP possesses the capability to augment the persuasiveness of various components, including the source (retailers and endorsers), messages (advertising and promotion information), and mediums (the information distribution platforms).
From a practical standpoint, the NFMP signifies a propensity to abstain from information-seeking and an incremental increase in reliance on peer-generated content and social media algorithms (Zúñiga et al., 2022). The mentioned characteristics have an impact on the degree of reliance that consumers have on social media (Zúñiga et al., 2020). Such effects should be taken into account by marketing and communication experts when deciding which communication tools to utilize, as social media platforms will demonstrate their value in terms of information distribution and persuading consumers. However, as social media credibility erosion is now in effect (Casero-Ripollés, 2020; Nguyen & Phung, 2023), further practices ought to be implemented with prudence.
7. Limitations
As with any other research, this study has several limitations. A significant limitation of this research is its exclusive dependence on the Scopus database. Additional research should be undertaken to reevaluate the reliability of this investigation, including the utilization of supplementary databases such as Web of Science and Google Scholar. Furthermore, it is recommended that future investigations explore additional potential keyword combinations that may have evaded detection in the current search. These endeavors will contribute to the expansion of knowledge within the scholarly community. Additionally, it is not feasible to undertake an analysis of the subject's evolution in terms of the increase in citations, as the search was performed exclusively once. Conducting a comparative analysis between the analysis of the newly acquired database and that of the present study may yield further insights regarding the research topic's potential for future inquiries.