News sharing as reciprocal exchanges in social cohesion maintenance

This paper examines digital news sharing between news consumers, often via social media, as a form of reciprocal exchange. Reciprocity is the informal exchange of goods and favors between people for mutual benefit and to maintain social cohesion. The study draws on seven focus groups of mobile news users of ages 18 to over 66 to explore the structure of news sharing and reciprocity, the values attached to shared news and the norms underpinning exchange behavior. Findings show that news reciprocity manifests in direct and indirect exchanges. The interviewees note that news sharing is neither haphazard nor casual. It involves strategic actions playing on implicit standards to optimize mutual offerings of news that are instrumentally and symbolically valuable. The data show that notions of reciprocity shape how often and in what form people share news with friends, for example, using chat apps to guarantee responses. Participants exchanged news items they felt would help the relationship prosper and thrive just as they avoided those that they thought would offend. Thus, the exchange of news becomes an element in the maintenance and development of social relationships.