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Social media and the decline of U.S. newspapers: the role of learning in digital media transformation

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Social media and the decline of U.S. newspapers: the role of learning in digital media transformation

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Content Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE DECLINE OF U.S. NEWSPAPERS

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE DECLINE OF U.S. NEWSPAPERS: THE ROLE OF LEARNING
IN DIGITAL MEDIA TRANSFORMATION

by

Brett M. Decker

__________________________________________________________________________

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

August 2018

Copyright 2018 Brett M. Decker

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DEDICATION
This dissertation is dedicated to the Decker family. My parents, Sharon Rose Decker and
the late John Erie Decker, always put their children’s education first and made major sacrifices
so that we could go to the best schools while constantly moving around the world. They gave
much and demanded even more in return. My sister Sandra and brothers Jerry and Steve have
supported many a risky career move and change of place and offered healthy sibling rivalries to
keep me on my toes. All of you made everything possible and continue to inspire me every day.
Two orange tabbies acted as my muse cats. Chop Suey sadly died partway through this
degree, and then Van Winkle happily appeared on the scene at the right time afterwards. These
little tigers were always there beside me during live video class sessions and late nights writing.
There was a great group of buddies and intellectual sounding boards in the inaugural
cohort of USC Rossier’s Organizational Change and Leadership EdD program. Godspeed and
thanks for their friendship and support go out to Dr. Amber Ford, Dr. Lauren “Captain Sully”
Sullivan, Dr. Sue Gergely, Dr. David Holl, Dr. David Hawkins, Dr. Dina Mouris, Dr. Bobby
Caughey, Dr. Kyle Chavez, and Dr. Jason Lafferty. They are making education great again.
Pax!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication 2
List of Tables 5
List of Figures 6
Abstract 7
Chapter 1: Introduction 8
Introduction to the Problem of Practice 8
Organizational Context and Mission 10
Importance of the Project 10
Organizational Performance Goals 11
Related Literature 13
Importance of the Evaluation 14
Stakeholders 15
Stakeholders for the Study 15
Purpose of the Project and Questions 16
Methodological and Conceptual Framework 17
Definitions 19
Organization of the Dissertation 21
Chapter 2: Literature Review 22
General Literature Overview 22
Journalist Knowledge and Motivation Influences 24
Summary 39
Chapter 3: Methodology 41
Participating Stakeholders 42
Procedures for Recruitment 43
Data Collection and Instrumentation 44
Data Analysis 48
Ethics 50
Credibility and Trustworthiness 51
Chapter 4: Results and Findings 54
Participating Stakeholders 56
Interview Results 62
Survey Results 71
Synthesis of Findings 78
Document Analysis Results 85
Summary 89

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Chapter 5: Recommendations 91
Recommendations for Practice to Address KMO Influences 92
Integrated Implementation and Evaluation Plan 103
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Approach 120
Limitations 121
Future Research 123
Conclusion 124
References 126
Appendices 136
Appendix A: Survey Items 136
Appendix B: Interview Questions 140
Appendix C: Recruitment Script 142
Appendix D: Informed Consent/Information Sheet 143

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Organizational Goal 13
Table 2. Assumed Knowledge Influences and Knowledge Influence Assessments 29
Table 3. Assumed Motivation Influences and How They Were Assessed 35
Table 4. Organizational Influences and Assessment 39
Table 5. Interviews: Editor Sample Raw Numbers 58
Table 6. Interviews: Editor Sample 58
Table 7. Summary of Knowledge Findings 72
Table 8. Summary of Motivation Findings 74
Table 9. Summary of Organizational Findings 76
Table 10. Summary of Key Findings 78
Table 11. Summary of Social Media Preferences 87
Table 12. Summary of Knowledge Influences and Recommendations 94
Table 13. Summary of Motivation Influences and Recommendations 98
Table 14. Summary of Organization Influences and Recommendations 101
Table 15. Metrics and Methods for External and Internal Outcomes 106
Table 16. Critical Behaviors, Metrics, Methods, and Timing for Evaluation 107
Table 17. Required Drivers to Support Critical Behaviors 108
Table 18. Components of Learning for the Program 112
Table 19. Components to Measure Reactions to the Program 114
Table 20. Evaluation Tool (Sample) Immediately After Training 116
Table 21. Evaluation Tool (Sample) Completed 30 Days After Training 117
Table 22. Sample Weekly Dashboard Reporting on Social Media-Driven Traffic Progress 119
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Race of survey participants 60
Figure 2. Sex of survey participants 60
Figure 3. Age of survey participants 61
Figure 4. Journalism experience in years of survey participants 61

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ABSTRACT
Newspapers are facing an existential crisis. The growth and predominance of digital news
consumption, coupled with a dramatic decline in print readership and thus advertising revenue,
have led to a financial collapse of the industry. This study examines one newspaper to consider
how it utilized social media operations to try to generate an increase in readership for its news
content on the internet. The difference between the organization’s expected performance and
actual results was considered as a motivating principle to determine what was occurring to
prevent the newspaper from achieving its goals, and why. The framework through which
internal challenges were reviewed was the Clark and Estes (2008) model that looks at
knowledge, motivation, and organizational (KMO) influences at an institution to figure out how
shortfalls among these factors could be negatively impacting performance success. A mixed
methods approach to data collection was employed to gather qualitative data through interviews
with editors at the newspaper and quantitative data from surveys conducted with a broader
sample of journalists. This qualitative and quantitative data was considered in relation to data
about social media performance results that were provided in internal documents. In conjunction
with a review of literature on the topic and the lead researcher’s own experience, analysis of the
results was used to formulate recommendations to help improve performance of social media
operations at the newspaper, and an implementation plan to bring about change was designed
using scholarly research from the discipline of organizational change and leadership. This study
provides a way forward for developing research-based solutions for social media performance
problems at newspapers to help old media institutions compete in the digital age.
Keywords: newspapers, social media, media, Facebook, Twitter, social networking

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction to the Problem of Practice
The problem addressed in this project was declining readership in the newspaper
industry. Daily print circulation in the United States decreased 30% in three decades, from more
than 62 million in 1980 to 44.4 million in 2011 (Ahlers, 2006; Mitchell & Rosenstiel, 2012).
The annual decline continued into the second decade of the new century, including a 10% drop
in weekday print circulation in 2016 (Barthel, 2017). These trends left daily circulation at 35
million by the end of 2016. Print advertising revenue declined 50% in the five-year period
between 2008 and 2013, from $37.6 billion to $17.3 billion (Perry, 2014). In the two most recent
years for which records were available, 2015 and 2016, revenue declined another 8% and 10%
respectively (Barthel, 2017). These dynamics led to the average closure of fifteen newspapers
per year in that period. A major cause of this collapse was an inability to adapt to technological
changes in the industry related to the advent of the internet and a reactive investment in social
media vehicles that research did not definitively show would slow the decline (Kennedy, 2016;
Khorana & Renner, 2016).
The decline of newspaper print circulation resulted in an effort by newspapers to
compensate for readership losses by concentrating resources on new social media platforms. In a
2010 survey of 129 newsrooms across the country, 97% reported that they maintained a
Facebook page, and 96% had a Twitter page (Lysak, Cremedas, & Wolf, 2012). Among the
major outlets of news, national newspapers relied the most on social media, outpacing broadcast
television, cable television, radio and online-only publications in this form of audience
engagement. For example, in 2011, the Washington Post maintained 98 different Twitter feeds
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compared to 15 by ABC News; the New York Times had 81 Twitter feeds, while Fox News had 39
(Holcomb, Gross, & Mitchell, 2011). In later years, media outlets became less forthcoming
about what platforms they used and to what degree. This study addressed that lack of recent
information about social media usage by asking journalists who were active at the time this
project was conducted about their social media use.
Studies showed inconsistent performance by social media to drive internet traffic at news
organizations. Bastos and Zago (2013) examined over 2.8 million tweets with links to news
articles and found the method is inefficient for boosting readership compared to corporate
projections. Most links to news articles attached to tweets go unread (Gabielkov,
Ramachandran, Chaintreau, & Legout, 2016; Weinberg, 2016). A 2016 study by data analytics
firm Parse.ly found that Twitter only drove 1.5% of news traffic (Lichterman, 2016). In a study
of nine news organizations during 2009, online newspaper audiences continued to drop despite
an increase in personnel dedicated to distributing content via social media platforms (Armstrong
& Gao, 2010). Of the newspaper outlets studied, website readership declined to 69.1 million in
April 2010 from 70.3 million in June 2009. Online readership continued to decline in the
following decade, though at a slower rate than the print decline. In 2016, digital newspaper
circulation in the United States dropped 1% (Barthel, 2017). An analysis of the Facebook and
Twitter operations of the top 66 U.S. newspapers found no significant relationship between an
outlet’s website traffic and its followers on social media (Ju, Jeong, & Chyi, 2014). In 2011,
only 9% of articles read online were reached via Facebook or Twitter compared to 29% referred
from aggregation sites and 36% from readers going directly to an outlet’s website (Mitchell,
Rosenstiel, & Christian, 2012). By 2016, Facebook was responsible for 12% of news traffic,
which was 10 times higher than Twitter’s referrals, while all other social media platforms
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provided negligible clicks (Amann, 2017). In 2017, Google’s search engine provided twice as
many referrals as Facebook (Molla, 2017). That these practices were not working as hoped
posed a major problem for the businesses that continued to rely on them despite uneven results.
The conundrum facing newspaper executives and editors was whether uneven results were due to
inherent weaknesses with social media vehicles in general, or if the industry’s application of
them was poorly executed. Facebook, for example, was a consistent driver of readership, but
should it have been a bigger one?
Organizational Context and Mission
Newspaper X, headquartered in a large metropolitan area, was a nationally prominent
newspaper in the United States. A subsidiary of a diversified corporation, the paper was
published daily and covered general-interest topics ranging from news and political opinion to
sports and entertainment. The general mission of the conglomerate’s media products was to
inform readers and to be an innovative leader in the ongoing digital transformation of the news
business. Led by its flagship Newspaper X, the mission of the print product was to be a national
media leader by producing award-winning news and commentary that were delivered ahead of
the competition using the newest digital and social media platforms.
Importance of the Project
The problem of declining newspaper readership was important to solve for a variety of
reasons. On the most fundamental level, a declining audience presented an existential threat to
individual news outlets such as Newspaper X, and the industry as a whole. Advertising rates
were based on circulation, so fewer readers meant less could be charged for advertising space.
Newspapers relied on print advertising for 86% of revenue, but this income stream dropped 50%
between 2008 and 2013, and declined another 8% in 2015, and 10% in 2016 (Barthel, 2017; Ju et
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al., 2014; Perry, 2014). Audiences were growing online but did not make up for revenue
shortfalls because digital advertising rates were substantially lower than print (Weissmann,
2014). In 2012, newspapers lost $15 in print revenue for each dollar brought in through digital
ads (Mitchell, Jurkowitz, & Guskin, 2013).
Despite the unactualized economics of online platforms, there was no doubt that the
future was digital because that was where the target audience was. Studies by Pew Research
Center showed that internet usage by teenagers was nearly constant, that 91% of teenagers
accessed the internet on mobile devices, and 76% used social media to get information (Lenhart,
2015). Those platforms were where tomorrow’s audience could be found as those young people
represented the news readership of the future. Moreover, in 2016, 62% of U.S. adults in all age
groups reported using social media to get news (Fletcher, 2016). Figuring out how to get digital
right was important to solving the problem of readership decline, which was essential for
profitability and thus survival for Newspaper X. Failure to address the business implications of
changing readership dynamics would lead to the financial collapse of media companies.
Organizational Performance Goals
The imperative in the newspaper industry was to generate more digital revenue in a fewer
number of online ads to compensate for the ongoing decline of print advertising revenue. To
generate more revenue per advertisement, it was necessary to increase the number of readers
viewing each ad to increase the per-unit value of those ads. This project was related to that
general imperative in the industry by examining whether social media was being used to increase
the number of online readers, which would increase the value of individual digital ads. Pursuant
to this objective, the organizational goal being studied for this project was that content staff
would increase social media usage to increase traffic to Newspaper X’s website. A pilot project
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initiated by newspaper columnists was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of social media as a
platform to generate greater traffic. Results from this pilot project were used to measure if
progress was being made to attract more online readers. The original goal was that by August
2016, a new Facebook page featuring opinion and aggregated content would reach one million
followers within twelve months of its August 2015 launch. However, due to internal changes at
the company while this was being undertaken, the goal was changed to 25% growth in internet
traffic derived from all social media platforms combined, not just Facebook. This performance
goal was directly related to the organizational problems being addressed, which were declining
newspaper traffic and the inability, thus far, of social media to reverse the trend. The goal to
increase the social media presence that would generate increased internet traffic was derived
from the newspaper’s mission to be a digital leader in the industry.
This goal was set, in conjunction with management, by a team of Newspaper X content
staff that was undertaking a few pilot projects across multiple digital platforms to test the
effectiveness of social media tools to increase readership traffic online. A different outlet,
created from scratch by journalists known to this team, reached half a million Facebook
followers six months after launch without the benefit of an already existing national brand. The
benchmark of one million for the original goal was determined by doubling the target and the
deadline of that project. Progress was to be measured by weekly and monthly follower-
acquisition checks, with intermediate targets portioned out equally over twelve months, but
access to such regular data was not provided, with only annual results being shared. Both the
original and subsequent goals represented an organizational emphasis on the need for social
media to help improve digital traffic performance. The pilot project was used to check whether
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progress was being made towards the organizational goal of utilizing social media to gain more
digital traffic (as stated in Table 1).

Table 1
Organizational Goal
Organizational Mission
The mission of Newspaper X is to inform readers and to be an innovative leader in the
ongoing digital transformation of the news business.
Organizational Performance Goal
The goal of the organization is to increase digital readership for its news products.
Content staff Editors
Content staff will increase social
media usage to increase traffic to the
newspaper’s website.
Editors with supervisory responsibility will monitor
content staff performance and initiate change in
operations to increase web traffic.

Related Literature
Numerous studies showed that there was a correlation between increased online traffic
and greater digital revenue, and that the use of social media platforms could be utilized to drive
increased readership online in some circumstances. Schaffer (2013) set forth that a
comprehensive social media strategy was one of the most important components needed for a
business plan to succeed in the digital sphere. Macarthy (2016) explained that online marketing
depended on using social media vehicles to find and engage a growing audience. Clarke (2016)
showed the connection between larger online audience size and enhanced digital advertising
value. Klososky (2015) evaluated and compared the efficacy of different social media vehicles
to achieve different goals. Kawasaki and Fitzpatrick (2014) provided operational insight into
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how various social media platforms could be maximized once an individual vehicle had been
selected to pursue online performance growth. Schaefer (2014a, 2014b) detailed the history of
social media, the programmatic and psychological factors that made social media platforms
successful, and laid out how contemporary business challenges in the digital realm could be
overcome by effectively harnessing the power of social media to drive digital performance
pertaining to readership and revenue growth.
Importance of the Evaluation
It was important to evaluate the organization’s performance in relation to the goal of
attaining traffic growth using social media as a driver for a variety of reasons. Social media had
been shown to be one vehicle for driving digital audience growth in some circumstances, and a
growing digital audience was necessary for an outlet to be able to garner increased digital
advertising rates to drive revenue (Clarke, 2016). Increased digital revenue was needed to
compensate for the ongoing decline in print revenue at newspapers (Mitchell & Holcomb, 2016).
If Newspaper X did not find ways to generate more online traffic to spur more revenue, the
organization could go out of business. A growing body of evidence indicated that digital
disruption was necessary to increase the pace of online innovation so that new platforms could
outrun the decline of traditional practices (McQuivey, 2013). There was also a growing
phenomenon known as participatory culture that suggested social media may have been an
increasingly necessary component of news consumption because of its ability to tie users into a
story and thus make it more relevant to them (Jenkins, 2009). Utilizing social media platforms
was the main alternative for audience acquisition for newspaper webpages. Evaluating the
organization’s social media performance in relation to driving online traffic provided
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stakeholders with operational data pertaining to social media that they needed when making
decisions about which platforms to use to pursue digital performance success for the newspaper.
Stakeholders
There were four stakeholder groups inside the hierarchical structure of Newspaper X that
directly contributed to, and benefited from, the organization’s goals to increase readership. The
executive leadership, personified in this project by the executive editor, was responsible for the
overall success of the outlet and ensuring that the editors of each department were realizing their
group goals. The editorial page editor, who was in charge of opinion content, was responsible
not only for the staff that wrote and edited editorial material but also was responsible for the
success of online traffic to that content. The pilot project directors oversaw day-to-day
management of the year-long program to generate higher internet pageviews for opinion content
through the new social media efforts. Lastly, the content staff undertook the daily posting and
responsibility for generating digital attention to the material.
Stakeholders for the Study
Running a successful media outlet was like rowing a boat; it was necessary for all on
board to be rowing in the same direction for the organization to reach its intended destination. In
like manner, all stakeholders in Newspaper X needed to contribute their effort to the realization
of the overall organizational goal of achieving greater online readership through effective
utilization of social media platforms. Making headway in audience acquisition was a daily grind.
Therefore, the stakeholders of focus for this study were content staff that undertook the daily,
hands-on responsibility for generating attention for editorial material. Content staff was made up
of editors, reporters, and those involved in posting content online. The terms “journalists” and
“content staff” were used interchangeably for the purposes of this study. Interviews were
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conducted with the content editors to determine what practices were effective, what practices
were not, what relationship resource allocation had to performance, and what adaptation of
operations they recommended to alter performance results more positively. Additionally,
surveys were conducted with a broader pool of journalists to derive input on social media
attitudes and practices to gauge whether these reactions confirmed data collected from the
interviews. This allowed for an evaluation of the efficacy of social media to drive audience
growth to help Newspaper X achieve its readership growth targets.
Purpose of the Project and Questions
The purpose of this project was to examine the use of social media for generating more
online readership at Newspaper X, a prominent newspaper in the United States. A subsidiary
focus was to determine how institutional investment of personnel and financial resources on
social media could be justified by a corresponding increase in internet traffic. The key area for
review was intended to establish what could be done to maximize social media performance.
The type of dissertation undertaken was the evaluation model. By evaluating common social
media practices in the organization in relation to a pilot project more precisely focused on
achieving online traffic results, this dissertation identified what social media practices were not
working to generate traffic growth and determined what social media operations offered a
standard to be implemented organization-wide.
Given this focus, the questions that guided the study were the following:
1. Does Newspaper X’s content staff have the technical knowledge and motivation to
utilize social media platforms to increase traffic?
2. What is the interaction between organizational culture and context and stakeholder
knowledge and motivation?
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3. What are the recommendations for organizational practice in the areas of knowledge,
motivation, and organizational resources?
Methodological and Conceptual Framework
Undertaking an in-depth examination of the operations of a large enterprise such as a
national media empire required an organized plan. Like when constructing a building, it was
important to first lay a foundation and erect the framing for the walls and roof before piling on
the bricks that form the structure. The methodology chosen to guide this study was the
organizational analysis framework of Clark and Estes (2008). This process looked at
underperformance at an institution as being a problem to solve and focused on knowledge,
motivation, and organizational influences that inhibit success that need to be overcome for
individual employees and the company as a whole to reach their performance goals.
Performance problems facing Newspaper X’s social media operations were identified and
addressed by evaluating what was not being done to achieve the goals set by the newspaper’s
stakeholders. Assessment relied on a systematic, analytical method designed to clarify
organizational goals and evaluate what courses of actions needed to be pursued to reach the
preferred performance level within the organization. Central to this method was analysis of three
organizational factors that determined an institution’s relative success at achieving its goals:
knowledge, motivation, and organizational resources (Clark & Estes, 2008).
The purpose of the evaluation in this study was to determine what knowledge,
motivation, and organizational influences existed that were preventing the newspaper from
realizing its online traffic growth targets and identify how to better align these factors to achieve
goals (Clark & Estes, 2008). To do this, mixed method data gathering and analysis were
conducted to study Newspaper X’s assets in the areas of knowledge, motivation, and
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organizational resources. The newspaper’s assets were studied by using interviews and surveys
of content staff, related literature content analysis, document collection and review, and personal
knowledge of the lead researcher. Data from internal documents regarding social media growth
was acquired from the Newspaper X editorial page editor and through a subsidiary pilot project
established to study this problem. Research-based best practices were recommended and
evaluated in a comprehensive manner based on this data.
This method worked by setting forth a process to clarify goals, evaluating performance in
relation to attaining those goals, and identifying resources and solutions that were needed to
address shortcomings that were shown to exist in attitudes and practices that were not getting the
job done (Rueda, 2011). An important part of this methodology was to accumulate and examine
evidence to validate assumptions about the knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences
on performance before developing corrective measures or a plan to move forward. The order of
events was necessary to negate any likelihood that the wrong cure would be prescribed for an
organizational ailment. This was of particular importance in the newspaper business because an
ingrained old way of doing things may lead to assumptions about how operations should work
that were appropriate for traditional media success in the last century but which were completely
inadequate to the highly digitized and faster paced media environment that was spawned by the
technological revolution of this century’s information age. The steps forward included
identifying the social media performance goals of Newspaper X, confirming that these goals
were not being met, and evaluating the causes that existed between the organization’s
expectations and its lackluster results. This led to questions regarding whether the newspaper
was meeting its goals for using social media to generate online traffic for its content, and if not,
by how much was the outlet missing its goals, and why? Isolating causes for social media
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underperformance was based on an analysis of problems related to the requisite knowledge of
social media, motivation to implement social media operations, and organizational resources and
processes that were all necessary for success. Data was used to show what knowledge,
motivation, and organizational influences were validated as inhibitions to successful social media
performance. A mixed methods approach was employed utilizing interviews with newspaper
editors and surveys with a broader group of journalists to generate qualitative and quantitative
data, which was considered in relation to review of internal documents pertaining to social media
goals and operations.
The purpose of a conceptual framework was to provide a model of what existed that was
relevant to study for a research project, what was occurring with those factors that made them
relevant, and why this was occurring (Maxwell, 2013). The conceptual framework for this study
was based on three sources: existing research on the subject; research conducted as part of this
project; and knowledge based on the lead researcher’s own experience with social media
operations in the newspaper industry. Analysis of the data, along with insights from a literature
review and the lead researcher’s own experience as a journalist and newspaper executive,
illustrated what was happening with social media in the context of Newspaper X, and why.
These sources of insight led to recommendations to fix knowledge, motivation, and
organizational challenges and an implementation plan to bring about the organizational change
that was required for the newspaper to achieve its online readership growth goals using social
media platforms as distribution tools.
Definitions
Content Staff — Editors, reporters, and those involved in posting news content online.
The term “journalists” was used interchangeably with “content staff” during this project.
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Engagement — User habits that revealed practices important for determining the
popularity of online content. Common engagement rates that were useful to measure readership
trends were number of pageviews on different content items per visit, total time spent on site per
visit, and number of items shared with other readers when a user was on the site.
Facebook — An internet-based social networking site where users set up their own
profile pages and built a personalized community of followers with whom they shared personal
comments, information, photographs, videos, and links to articles, websites, and other
information. This platform had over one billion daily users and became one of the main modes
of communication in contemporary society.
Online/digital — Content that was accessed using the internet.
Pageviews/clicks — The number of individual internet users who read a news article
posted on a media outlet’s webpage. Each individual page or single item of content that was
seen counted as one pageview/click.
Social media — Forms of electronic communications such as social networking where
users created digital communities to share content and personal messages (“Social media,”
2017).
Traffic — An aggregated number of pageviews/clicks that helped determine readership
trends.
Twitter — An online social networking site where over 300 million daily users posted
messages and attached links to articles, websites, photographs, or videos with a group of
followers they built up. Messages, known as tweets, were limited to only 140 characters until
November 2017, when the length allowed was expanded to 280 characters.
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Organization of the Dissertation
This dissertation was organized into five chapters. This chapter focused on the major
concepts and terminology that were important in discussing the use of social media to drive
newspaper traffic online. An overview of Newspaper X’s mission, goals, and stakeholders was
provided, as was an introduction to the methodological framework, and a conceptual framework
that was used to study this issue. Chapter 2 provides a review of current literature surrounding
the scope of this study. Topics of competing social media platforms, engagement rates, different
digital operational practices, methods for attaining online audience growth, resource constraints,
and recommended interventions are addressed. Chapter 3 discusses the participants involved in
this study, what data was collected and how, and an overview regarding the manner in which the
data that was collected was analyzed. In Chapter 4, the data and results are assessed and
analyzed. Chapter 5 provides recommendations for social media practices to drive digital
audience growth, based on data and literature, as well as an implementation and evaluation plan
to push forward the solutions offered.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
The purpose of Chapter 2 is to outline the progression of social media literature leading
to the emergence of higher online readership for newspaper websites. The first section focuses
on an historical overview of factors influencing digital traffic for news outlets. The second
segment addresses the construct of social media content distribution methods relative to actual
readership acquisition. The chapter ends with an analysis of social media practices through the
lens of learning and motivation literature as evaluated through influences related to knowledge,
motivation, and organization.
General Literature Overview
Research indicates that getting social media right has increasing importance for news
outlets because it offers platforms that involve individuals in the news process, which could
make the news more relevant to them and thus increase their engagement levels. As Jenkins,
Ford, and Green (2013) explained, distribution of news and entertainment content was moving
away from being centrally controlled by media companies and moving towards a more diffuse
system whereby consumers were directly involved in spreading news, videogames, television
shows, movies, and even advertising campaigns through the many social media platforms that
were part of their normal, daily mode of communication with their peer groups. The motivating
factor for developing successful content in this environment was to maximize its “spreadability,”
which reflected whether content held enough interest among its target audience that they wanted
to spread it around. The aim of spreadable media was that it will go viral, with individuals
sharing it with their friends and followers via social media, which could lead to exponential
growth of the audience size for that post. In this dynamic, a consumer of content was
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transformed from a passive receiver into an active participant of the news process by their
engagement in dissemination (Batsell, 2015). This involvement increased the value of attracting
additional consumers because they now were not only a source for viewership but had been
transformed into a mechanism for increasing views and value beyond themselves. In such a
participatory culture, increasing value was based on increasing engagement (Jenkins, 2009). The
social benefit of such an enhanced participatory culture in a democracy was that it could break
down barriers of who received what information by putting a substantial amount of control over
distribution into the hands of the people themselves, which also empowered individuals by
giving them a role in saying what was relevant to their lives and creating demand for more of
that kind of content.
The paradigm shift from old media to new media was not without growing pains within
the newspaper industry. There were risks involved in transformation from a formerly top-down
model into a convergence culture whereby the flow of content moved across numerous platforms
and was dependent on the witting or unwitting collaboration of countless socially networked
individuals (Jenkins, 2006). Not least among these risks was the loss of control of content by the
producer once it was launched into the uncertain public sphere, and a diminishment of power
over what it made sense to produce in the future. If circulation depended on the participation of
the public, it was necessary to excite the public’s interest to a level that initiated their
involvement to share it with others. This could lead to decreased quality of content as efforts to
reach the largest audience possible could result in a temptation to appeal to the lowest common
denominator because the most popular items to share on social networks tended to be “snacks,”
or superficial morsels of humor or emotion that elicited an immediate response but made no
lasting impression on an audience (Jenkins et al., 2013). Sharing snacks involved little thought,
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24
built no connection with the outlet that produced them, and did not increase the chances that
viewers would return to the original source of the content even if it went viral. This migratory
nature of participatory culture was one of the main obstacles of newspapers’ efforts to use social
media to generate consistent digital traffic growth. An active, modern news consumer had
access to limitless information and countless sources of information on the internet and jumped
around many different sites looking for highly individualized content that entertained, informed,
or inspired based on one person’s unique tastes. It was impossible to provide everything for
everybody. Yet, for newspapers to succeed in a socially networked world, they needed to figure
out how to deliver content that was serious yet had popular appeal, and which could go viral but
also contributed to the development of a loyal repeat audience. In the modern, competitive
digital news environment, not only did news outlets need to catch lightning in a bottle, they
needed to do so every day, all day long.
Journalist Knowledge and Motivation Influences
Knowledge and Skills
The influences that needed to be evaluated involved a lack of knowledge and skill related
to social media that prevented Newspaper X from realizing its goal to be an industry leader in the
digital realm. At the time of the study, Newspaper X was a high-profile, daily circulation
newspaper in the United States, but its social-media platforms were not among the top twenty-
five nationally (Lafferty, 2014). This review of literature identified what knowledge and skills
were needed, how to evaluate what was needed, and how to provide it so that the newspaper
could realize stakeholder expectations.
Knowledge types. Research indicated that there were three types of knowledge that
were relevant to addressing knowledge-related problems of practice (Krathwohl, 2002). The first
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25
was declarative knowledge, which included factual knowledge, highly specific information such
as terminology and basic facts intrinsic to stakeholder understanding of a particular discipline;
and conceptual knowledge, which referred to a more complex grasp of principles, structures,
theories, and concepts and how they interrelate in a given sphere. Procedural knowledge was
based on skills, methods, techniques and steps necessary to comprehend how to get something
done. A fourth type, metacognitive knowledge, was the ability to assess one’s own strengths and
weaknesses and to use this self-awareness about one’s own cognition to plan strategies for
success (Baker, 2006). Metacognitive knowledge was necessary to enable one to comprehend
contextual factors that may be relevant to addressing organizational problems (Mayer, 2011).
All of these types of knowledge offered parts of what newspapers needed to know about social
media to succeed in a competitive business, and studies showed there commonly was a lack of
knowledge pertaining to best practices in using social media platforms (Skogerbo & Krumsvik,
2014; Van Dijck & Poell, 2013).
Stakeholder knowledge influences. The acquisition of new knowledge to reach
organizational goals was necessary when stakeholders did not understand how to do the tasks
necessary to realize expected performance (Clark & Estes, 2008). The stakeholders who were
integral to correcting performance problems related to newspaper social-media practices were
editors and reporters. Research showed that many of these journalists did not know how to use
social media and did not understand the relationship between effective social media practices and
increased online readership (Hong, 2012). For this analysis, the literature focused on declarative,
procedural, and metacognitive knowledge influences related to the editors and other journalists
responsible for news content creation and distribution.
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Declarative knowledge influences. There was a general lack of understanding and
agreement among journalists about basic facts regarding social networking and its utility for
news delivery (Hedman, 2013; Reich, 2013). Studies also showed a lack of felicity for the
mechanics of social media to drive traffic and the principles central to the content-distribution
efficacy of the platforms (Hermida, Fletcher, Korrell, & Logan, 2012). To develop and
implement effective social media initiatives, journalists needed to have a grasp of certain basic
factual knowledge about the medium such as what was meant by terms such as “likes,” “shares,”
“following” and “click-throughs” (Cozma & Chen, 2012; Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, &
Silvestre, 2011; Knight & Cook, 2013). Building upon that would be conceptual knowledge of
concepts central to Facebook practice such as what was meant by “engagement rate” and “click-
through” rate and how these were relevant (Hanna, Rohm, & Crittenden, 2011; Phillips, 2012).
Clark and Estes (2008) indicated that staff interviews could be an effective tool in determining
knowledge influences in an organization. To evaluate assumed factual knowledge influences
related to what they knew about various vehicles and how the concepts were being grasped in
practice, it was useful for reporters to be asked how often they used various social media
vehicles, how that fit with their other content distribution responsibilities, and what they thought
was and was not working.
Procedural knowledge influences. For successful implementation of factual knowledge
and concepts acquired regarding social media, it was necessary to develop mastery of procedural
knowledge. This would include methods employed to attract clicks or likes to content, and steps
that could be taken, when, and with what content that increase the chances of delivering higher
rates of traffic (Nielsen & Schroder, 2014). Effective procedures were important because a large
following on social media platforms such as Facebook was shown to lead to enhanced online
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27
readership (Angerer & Haupt, 2011). Literature showed that a key technique to drive traffic on
social media was to update the news constantly to make readers feel addicted to the content and
need to check a site constantly to feel adequately informed (Svensson, 2011). Essential to
undertaking this process effectively were steps related to how often and what times were the
most target-rich for posting content. Knight and Cook (2013) detailed how posting methods tied
to a sense of urgency and immediacy could enhance the relevance of news, and its value derived
from such timeliness. Denler, Wolters, and Benzon (2006) showed that a practical way to assess
learning was to measure how someone performed when provided guidance. Reporters should
have been assigned daily social media tasks to assess their knowledge level.
Metacognitive knowledge influences. A stakeholder responsible for performance,
whether that be the newspaper’s executive leadership or content editors and reporters, needed the
cognitive knowledge to realize what was not being done that needed to be done, determine why
it was not being done, and structure strategies to increase the behavior needed to solve the
problem (Lee & Ma, 2012). Research indicated that one reason for the ineffectiveness of social
media platforms to deliver regular high traffic to internet articles posted by publications was that
newspapers focused social media use on different issues than those that interested active social
media users (Bastos, 2014). This entailed metacognitive knowledge because social media
consumers preferred subjects such as sports and opinion which were covered less thoroughly on
social media than less popular subjects such as foreign policy and economics, but journalists did
not adapt their practices or launch new strategies based on self-assessment. Another problem
was that editors and reporters did not know what they did not know, particularly regarding the
relative utility of competing vehicles such as Facebook or Twitter (Bolton et al., 2013; Hedman,
2015; Hughes, Rowe, Batey, & Lee, 2011).
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28
Knowledge literature informed that learning was not enough if new information and skills
acquired did not transfer into behavior that brought about better job performance (Grossman &
Salas, 2011). This review of literature identified the knowledge and skills that were required for
Newspaper X to address performance gaps in relation to becoming a digital leader through social
media vehicles such as Facebook. Table 2 identifies the assumed knowledge influences and
assessment practices for determining their viability at the organization. These steps were merely
a beginning to addressing potential barriers to change. Clark and Estes (2008) warned that
organizations routinely prioritize learning over motivational factors when the two are in fact
equal causes of performance problems. Like many of their competitors, Newspaper X
management publicly declared the intention to be digital innovators and broached the topic of
ceasing print production in the foreseeable future but remained dependent on print advertising
revenue and did little to develop new digital platforms. At a certain point, continued failure to
address a pressing performance problem, and continuing to double down on failed practices of
the past, exposed motivational problems that inhibited the adaptation that was necessary to
succeed in a rapidly changing industry. Literature related to motivation problems was reviewed
for the following section.

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Table 2
Assumed Knowledge Influences and Knowledge Influence Assessments
Organizational Global Goal
Newspaper X will be the nation’s leader in social media-derived online news content.
Assumed Knowledge Influence Knowledge Influence Assessment
Declarative:
Reporters do not know the benefits of
effectively integrating social media posts
into content distribution.
Reporters asked how often they use various
social media vehicles and how that fits with
their other content-distribution
responsibilities.
Ask reporters what they think is working or
not working and for recommendations to
address performance issues.
Procedural:
Reporters do not know how to post content,
when and where to post it to maximize
traffic output.
Reporters tasked with implementing a daily
social media posting strategy based on model
provided by the project directors.
Metacognitive:
Reporters do not self-assess their own
performance and thus are unaware of how
and when to adapt their behavior to achieve
better performance.
Reporters are asked to assess the new social
media procedures and their successes and
failures as the posting model is being put into
practice.

Motivation
Motivational influences on organizational performance were an often-overlooked factor
in why team members did not attain goals (Mayer, 2011). As the literature on learning made
clear, just because somebody understood how to do something did not mean they were interested
in doing it, or actually would follow through and do it (Clark & Estes, 2008). In its essence,
motivation was important because it was what got an initiative started and kept it going in order
to attain desired results (Mayer, 2011). Three indicators related to motivational factors were
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30
active choice, persistence, and effort (Clark & Estes, 2008). The motivational process assisted in
handling challenges related to these indicators by instigating one to actually start something,
persisting until it was accomplished, and investing the requisite mental effort to meet
performance expectations (Yough & Anderman, 2006).
Breaking down performance determinations to the individual level, expectancy value
motivational theory posited that one’s level of motivation could be determined by the answers to
two basic questions: Can I do this? And, do I want to do this? (Eccles, 2006). Both of these
questions had relevance to how organizations operated and whether or not they persisted in
pursuing difficult tasks tied to their institutional goals. As such, both motivation-oriented
questions applied to Newspaper X’s goal to be a digital leader in the new media space: Did
Newspaper X editors and reporters know how to undertake social media tasks adequately to
realize company goals? Did content staff want to do social media tasks? Responses to these
queries centered on motivational issues tied to successful newspaper performance. To
understand and be oriented towards mastering the skills necessary to achieve performance goals,
professionals had to be interested in self-improvement (Yough & Anderman, 2006). This
applied to journalists at Newspaper X.
Research showed that contextual factors in the workplace could create hindrances to
motivation and thus be counter-productive influences in the pursuit of stakeholder priorities
(Clark & Estes, 2008). Motivational factors that negatively impact performance included unclear
goals, insufficient resources, erratic implementation and subsequent cancellation of new
innovative programs or technology, and constant layoffs (Rueda, 2011). These workplace
realities did not occur in a vacuum and had real consequences for employee morale and
motivation to do a job, especially a difficult job when one was uncertain if they would be
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31
employed by the company much longer. Mood and emotions had a direct correlation on
employee motivation (Bono, Foldes, Vinson, & Muros, 2007). These factors related to future
uncertainty did affect motivation at Newspaper X. One of the corporate goals of the newspaper
was to be an innovative digital leader in the industry. However, that goal was not sufficient to be
motivational because it was not attached to timelines or concrete targets and was too vague to be
challenging. The repercussion of ineffective goals that were not easy to comprehend was that
they gave the impression that the goals were not important enough to demand attention to make
them better (Yough & Anderman, 2006). This naturally led to a lack of interest in the goals,
which were perceived to have little value. Two constructs related to the value component that
could help encourage or discourage engagement were the perceived cost of an activity and its
utility (Eccles, 2006).
Utility value. Eccles (2006) advised that one of the constructs that determined whether
someone would attach enough value to fully engage in a task was based on the perceived value
of the task for attaining medium- or long-term goals. The crux of the matter with a sense of
utility value was how certain endeavors or initiatives related to an individual’s goals or plans
(Eccles, 2006). Eccles (2006) further explained that basic psychological needs played a role in
assigning utility value, and that the three human needs to feel that one is competent, reasonably
autonomous, and enjoys some social relatedness affected this disposition. This construct of
utility value was relevant to Newspaper X’s social media campaign in both general and specific
qualities. Research on the utility of some social media vehicles to drive traffic was inconsistent,
with a quantitative examination of over 2.8 million tweets showing no reliable trends between
distributing content through Twitter and successfully getting readers to click through to the
article from the link to an outlet’s homepage (Bastos & Zago, 2013). While some social media
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32
could be used to increase online pageviews which then increased advertising revenue, digital
advertising rates were lower than in print advertising to the extent that most increases in digital
did not have a significant impact on improving a newspaper’s financial bottom line (Thurman,
2013).
Editor value construct. Inconsistent implementation of social media programs naturally
returned inconsistent results (Ahmad, 2010). A more consistent effort needed to be put forth if
more consistent performance was to be attained to take advantage of the hundreds of millions of
active users on social media platforms (Lasorsa, Lewis, & Holton, 2012). Eccles (2006)
indicated that one of the factors that motivated learning was whether actions were perceived to
further one’s goals. To make progress, editors needed to see the value of social media initiatives,
with the value of social media distribution being at the core of content strategy (Filistrucchi,
Tucker, & George, 2012). To know what needed to be done, it was first necessary to get a sense
of where things currently stood. Clark and Estes (2008) recommended surveys to assess what
motivational influences may be hindering performance. To that end, a written survey should
have been provided to editors to gauge their attitudes regarding the utility of social media
operations in helping attain their organization’s goals.
Perceived cost. Research indicated that another construct that played a role in
determining relative value for engaging in a task was the perceived cost of doing it (Eccles,
2006). There were psychological elements related to this construct as well in that perception of
self-worth was affected by consequences of engagement if an activity failed or received negative
attention from peers. There was also the important question of opportunity cost: journalists
showed concern that some opportunities had to be passed up because of the time and resources it
took to engage in this activity (Gulyas, 2013). These factors were particularly pertinent to
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33
Newspaper X’s digital programs at the time in question because budgets had been slashed and
staff cut dramatically for years, leaving scarce personnel and budgetary resources for operations.
Some research showed that the payoff for heavy social media engagement was not equal in
relation to funds and journalist time dedicated to it (Palekar & Sedera, 2013). In this light, any
allocation to social media endeavors that were perceived to be unproven attracted pushback in
relation to the perceived cost of those initiatives relative to other important programs that were
under-resourced (Vela, Martinez, & Reyes, 2012).
Resistance to fully engage social media partly was derived from a lack of commitment to
digital transformation (Nagle & Pope, 2013; Nair, 2011). Studies showed that a determining
factor in maintaining a successful performance goal orientation was being motivated to put forth
the effort to execute strategies that were necessary to achieve organizational goals (Bouffard,
Boisvert, Vezeau, & Larouche, 1995). Newspaper X’s continued prioritization of print products,
as previously discussed above, reflected a hesitation at the editor level to fully engage in the goal
to be digital-first as set forth by executive management. To understand that the costs of social
media engagement were worth the effort and resources committed, editors needed to realize the
importance of online traffic goals and the need to undertake purposeful action to pursue them
instead of merely going through the motions with social media (Laddha, Rathi, & Mantri, 2015;
Vis, 2013). To increase an outlet’s audience, content needed to be available where one’s target
readers were spending time; specifically framing the content for the social media platform should
have been part of the content strategy (Laddha et al., 2015). Surveys could be used to assess to
what extent editors prioritized social media among all the operations under their purview (see
Table 2) The next step was to engender focus on mastery, individual improvement, learning, and
progress, which promoted positive motivation (Eccles, 2006). It was important for the project
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34
leader to work with editors to determine incremental success of social media operations and
establish goals to accelerate full strategy implementation.
Self-efficacy. One of the most important motivational dynamics in a workplace was the
belief that one could do a job well (Rueda, 2011). Clark and Estes (2008) posited that workers’
beliefs about themselves largely determined their potential for success at a task. Conversely, it
was more unlikely that one would attain one’s goals without confidence in one’s abilities to do
them well (Pajares, 2006). Bandura (1997) stated that mental effort in focusing on a challenge
and persistence to complete a task were both based on feelings of self-efficacy. Such perceptions
of confidence were a relevant factor in a newspaper industry rapidly transforming from print to
digital formats. With so little agreement about the value of social media, it made sense that there
would be some confidence factors in how to pursue digital tasks. However, journalists needed
self-efficacy to succeed in their pursuit of readership growth using the new media platforms. To
gauge self-efficacy, survey and interview questions were posed to editors at the newspaper and a
broader group of journalists about their confidence in being able to utilize social media platforms
to achieve their organization’s goals (see Table 3).
Research showed that motivation was not a static quality; it changed over time (Pintrich,
2003). This was a positive reality because it meant that steps could be taken to address a lack of
motivation to engender more positive engagement in necessary tasks. That was how journalists
needed to be motivated to embrace the digital imperative in the news business.

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Table 3
Assumed Motivation Influences and How They Were Assessed
Assumed Motivation
Influence How It Was Assessed
Utility value:
Journalists need to see the
value of social media to
increase digital traffic.
Written survey item: Is it important for you to inculcate a
social media distribution strategy into your content
distribution model? (not important at all – very important).
Interview item: Interview editors to establish sense of their
confidence level with social media platforms and their
commitment to using these vehicles as permanent and
inculcated fixture of distribution operations.
Self-efficacy:
Journalists should feel
confident in their ability to
use social media effectively in
their work.
Interview and survey items inquiring editors and a broader
group of journalists about their confidence in their social
media abilities to drive traffic online.

Organization
In addition to knowledge and motivation influences, there were organizational factors
that contributed to underperformance in the social media operations at newspapers. Clark and
Estes (2008) explained that even when a requisite level of knowledge and motivation existed at
an institution, performance problems may persist in preventing an organization from reaching its
goals due to a misalignment of resource allocation, internal processes, and friction related to
organizational culture in contrast to those goals. Such was the case in the newspaper industry.
On top of the knowledge and motivation factors previously discussed, persistent organizational
influences were a key component to persistent problems of practice in the rapidly changing
media industry.
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Resource allocation. A dearth of resources, both material and personnel, were at the
center of newspapers’ inability to reach their performance goals. Research indicated that
downsizing at struggling organizations needed to be undertaken with transparency, career
support, and a clear vision of the way forward to succeed with whatever resources remained after
the cuts were completed (Clark & Estes, 2008). This ideal was far from a reality in the
struggling newspaper industry as it reeled from three decades of continual staff and budget cuts
that were accompanied by no conjecture or estimates regarding when or if the drastic
contractions would subside. According to the American Society of News Editors (2015), job
losses in the newspaper industry cut 40% of the professionals working in the field between 2006
and 2014. Layoffs winnowed the number of working newspaper professionals by 10% industry-
wide in 2014 alone, and another 4% were cut in 2015. In 2016, the American Society of News
Editors stopped publicizing the number of workers in the industry (Pew Research Center, 2017).
There was a dramatic revenue loss at newspapers that brought about these deep staff cuts.
For example, advertising revenue at U.S. newspapers declined 50% between 2008 and 2013
(Perry, 2014). Total lost revenue from 2003 to 2013 amounted to $40 billion (Kaiser, 2014).
Such massive losses were funding killers for operations. The large loss of personnel and
material resources at newspapers came at a time when the industry could least afford
contractions that negatively impacted news production. The birth of the 24-hour news cycle that
resulted from the proliferation of the internet and cable news created consumer demand for more
news at all hours of the day. An increasing lack of resources simply made it nearly impossible to
meet organizational goals (Hillman, Tandberg, & Fryar, 2015). Declining resources made it
difficult to align operations with organizational goals set to satisfy increasing consumer
expectations.
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Work processes. Poor resource allocation complicated the necessary function of
developing work processes that could achieve organizational goals. Clark and Estes (2008)
detailed how work processes were internal operating structures that determined how
organizational material and personnel resources interfaced productively towards goals.
McQuivey (2013) posited that the only way to make up for resourcing problems afflicting old
economy businesses in a digital age was to dramatically reorient processes to focus primarily on
a model he referred to as digital disruption. This concept was based on directing all of an
organization’s materials, equipment, and people on radically prioritizing digital processes to
achieve digital goals over physical ones. In a rapidly changing business world that demanded
ever-higher sunk costs to underwrite increasingly expensive infrastructure, he explained, digital
platforms were the medium in which an organization could compete and beat the competitors
without having to engage in a risky financial arms race. This vision was especially applicable to
newspapers, where investment costs in paper, ink, production, and delivery methods for physical
print products entailed enormous sums of money that digital-only outlets did not have to fund.
Organizational culture. Grossman, Rodgers, and Moore (1988) instructed that for
innovation to take hold in an organization, the ideas necessary to bring about the desired change
must be inculcated into training the team in the relevant skills, getting buy-in throughout the
organization that the change was necessary, and making the pursuit of change an intrinsic part of
corporate culture. Clark and Estes (2008) bolstered this point of view by recommending that to
what extent processes were inculcated into an organizational culture could be assessed by
analyzing value streams which showed how different areas of an organization did or did not
work together and which processes they used. Analyzing value streams revealed whether all the
corporate ducks were lined up in the same direction, and if they were not, departments that
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needed to be probed further for why they were doing things differently were highlighted. Such
an internal review often showed that there was no unified culture or shared vision and way of
doing things within an institution. This was a state of affairs that needed to be rectified.
Organizational goals would not be met by the whole team working together if the whole team did
not agree with those goals or how to get there.
Research indicated that many newspapers lacked a uniform organizational culture. This
was particularly the case when the subject of social media was considered. For example, there
frequently was resistance among editors to change valuable editorial staff focus from writing
content to social media distribution activities (Hong, 2012). The contemporary reality of
diminished resources meant editors had to do more with less, and they were hesitant to undertake
more digital operations at the expense of traditional output. High turnover due to years of
constant layoffs had led to considerable staff burnout, making extra energy for change less
readily available (Reinardy, 2011). Perhaps most detrimental to establishing a digitally
disruptive culture, unlike with print and webpage content, specific performance goals and
operational policies for social media were nonexistent at most newspapers (Gulyas, 2013). The
negative impact of these key organizational cultural influencers not being aligned to
organizational goals undermined newspapers’ ability to realize the digital future by maximizing
social media performance.
Aligning organizational culture with organizational behavior was a core undertaking in
the pursuit of organizational goals (Clark & Estes, 2008). As the research related to
organizational influencers showed, the newspaper industry needed to better concentrate on
allocating resources and developing processes that were parallel to the vision of a digital future
that was central to the success in a changing mediascape.
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Table 4
Organizational Influences and Assessment
Assumed Organizational Influence Organizational Assessment
Resource allocation:
Budget cuts have hallowed out news
operations so adequate funds may not exist
for successful social media implementation.
Survey item inquires about whether social
media operations are funded adequately to
achieve goals.
Work processes:
Newspaper industry is changing rapidly with
some internal resistance to reorienting all
operations in the same direction towards
digital optimization.
Interview questions inquire about how social
media is incorporated into content operations
and if/how they could be more effective.
Organizational culture:
Uncertainty exists regarding whether
different newspaper departments are
fostering the same value streams that
prioritize social media applications.
Survey items ask about perceived value and
prioritization of social media as part of the
news operation. Interview question asks
about how social media is perceived within
the organization in relation to its mission.

Summary
This chapter laid out institutional factors that inhibited Newspaper X from reaching its
goals pertaining to social media, which was an increasingly important platform for newspapers to
reach readers and expand their audience. Clark and Estes (2008) advised that factors that helped
evaluate an organization’s goals and performance could be broken down into knowledge,
motivation, and organizational influencers, and such commonly was the case with social media
performance considerations at newspapers. As research indicated, editors and reporters in the
industry who were charged with developing social media platforms often lacked factual,
conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge related to the best practices of the digital
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40
vehicles with which they were working. This included: a consistent lack of understanding about
which social media platforms generated internet traffic to articles; how to integrate social media
posting into an overall content distribution model; how, when, and what to post; and how to
assess performance to know whether it was necessary to adapt operations.
Knowledge influencers were closely related to motivational and organizational
influencers. Motivational influences that undermined performance included journalists not being
convinced of the value of social media, editors being uncertain if they could deliver performance
to match ambitious goals set by management, and a tendency to justify poor performance on a
lack of ability on the part of journalists rather than on a social media strategy that did not align
with organizational goals. Organizational influences included diminishing financial resources in
newsrooms, high staff turnover due to layoffs, a reticence by editors to shift staff and budgetary
resources from content production to social media distribution methods, and a routine lack of
social media performance goals against which to measure performance.
Knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences thus far were discussed in terms of
general practices in the media industry as elucidated in research literature. Chapter 4 examines
data specifically related to Newspaper X to determine what, if any, of these typical organizational
influences in the industry also contributed to social media performance at Newspaper X. This
review was undertaken using qualitative analysis to study knowledge, practices and opinions of
editors and reporters tasked with using social media to generate audience engagement, as well as
a pilot project commenced to test new social media practices. Evaluating the nature and extent
of underperformance, in light of the literature, data, and interviews, introduced the elements
necessary for proposing a solution to problems of practice related to social media at Newspaper
X.
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CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether newspapers could utilize social media
platforms to generate online audience growth to compensate for declining readership of print
products. The organization being examined was Newspaper X. This chapter laid out the
research design and methods employed to investigate this subject. The research questions
investigated were:
1. Does Newspaper X’s content staff have the technical knowledge and motivation to
utilize social media platforms to increase traffic?
2. What is the interaction between organizational culture and context and stakeholder
knowledge and motivation?
3. What are the recommendations for organizational practice in the areas of knowledge,
motivation, and organizational resources?
To address these questions, interviews and surveys were conducted to collect data
pertaining to the knowledge, motivation, and organizational factors as they relate to the
achievement, or failure to achieve, performance goals related to using social media to gain more
digital traffic. This chapter will elucidate the process that was undertaken, and the
considerations taken into account, that were central to the methodology of this study. It will
begin with a description of the stakeholders of focus and what criteria were used for their
selection; what methods were used to collect the data and how they were connected to the
research questions; and how the data were analyzed. The chapter concludes by detailing the
steps taken related to ethical considerations in this study regarding the research methods as well
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as what was done to maintain the credibility and trustworthiness of the study and guarantee the
validity and reliability of the data. Limitations of the study were noted.
Participating Stakeholders
The stakeholders of focus to determine the knowledge, motivation, and organizational
influences that were involved in digital newspaper operations were newspaper editors with
specific experience in online operations and a broader pool of journalists whose expertise, or
lack of it, with digital platforms was not previously known. Together, all these journalists,
regardless of seniority or role, were referred to interchangeably as content staff for this project.
Of particular interest were journalists who had experience using or overseeing social media
platforms. The criteria and rationale used to determine stakeholders follows below.
Interview and Survey Sampling Criteria and Rationale
The problem of practice that was being examined was the content staff’s ineffective use
of social media platforms to drive traffic growth at Newspaper X’s website. To compensate for
declining print circulation and the subsequent drop in print advertising, management set
ambitious goals for digital audience acquisition utilizing vehicles such as Facebook and Twitter.
There was a difference between these goals and the performance that had been achieved. Given
this underperformance in this media environment, nonprobability sampling was used to discover
what was being done with social media by numerous news editors and content staff, the results
that were occurring from these digital activities, and the relationships linking the practices being
undertaken and the results.
In order to learn as much as possible about the circumstances in play in this digital media
context, purposeful sampling was employed to gain insight into prevailing knowledge, practices,
and attitudes and to understand the technological, business, and personnel situations that were in
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43
play. For this reason, an experienced sample was sought to make use of its insight and
competence (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The criteria to establish this purposeful sample for
interviews required that individuals had:
• Criterion 1 — At least ten years of experience as an editor of written content at a
news outlet with national reach.
• Criterion 2 — A minimum of five years in charge of digital production and
distribution of content at a news outlet with national reach.
• Criterion 3 — Responsibility for social media operations at a news outlet with
national reach.
To check the interview responses from experienced editors, the survey sample was wider.
The survey was distributed to a broad group of journalists without the above demographic and
experiential considerations taken into account in an effort to seek out insights from a broader
group and see how they conformed to the interview sample.
Procedures for Recruitment
Interviews and surveys were conducted with journalists to make sense of what was
occurring operationally in general in the industry and determine possible negative influences in
the knowledge base and how that affected performance. For interviews, snowball sampling
helped find additional editors who fit the criteria who were in the same professional circle as the
participants from who were initially involved and were already known to me (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). The sample size grew and evolved until feedback from multiple sources formed
into identifiable and recurring trends with no new insights being generated. The target size for
the interview pool was five to 15 editors. The final number of editors who were interviewed was
13. For surveys, a form was distributed to a broad group of journalists when gathered at a
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44
periodic corporate meeting called to make internal announcements. Forms were handed out to
staff members as they entered the room. The target size for the survey pool was between 50 and
100 respondents. In total, 75 surveys were distributed, and of those, 60 were returned in
completed form.
Data Collection and Instrumentation
This study employed multiple methods to collect qualitative data regarding social media
attitudes and practices at the newspaper. Using multiple data collection methods can be effective
when using one instrument as a check on another and to mitigate any risk of bias in any single
method by having the others as backup to verify the information trends (Maxwell, 2013). Data
was collected for this study using interviews and surveys to pursue understanding of the values,
attitudes, and feelings involved in news organizations’ social media operations and their
relationship to operational outcomes. When the information was made available, artifact
analysis was employed and performance data related to social media results were gathered to add
to the material that could corroborate or negate data from the interviews and surveys. The
research questions sought to address knowledge, motivation, and organizational factors related to
social media practices in the industry, and the instruments employed in this study were created to
investigate the skills, practices, beliefs, values, structures, and resources related to those factors.
Combined, these data-collection methods and instruments inductively built the information base
needed to address the issues of practice posed by the research questions (Merriam & Tisdell,
2016).
Interviews
The problem of practice that was examined was the ineffective use of social media
platforms by content staff to drive traffic growth on Newspaper X’s website. To compensate for
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45
declining print circulation and the subsequent drop in print advertising, management set
ambitious goals for digital audience acquisition utilizing vehicles such as Facebook and Twitter.
These goals were not achieved. Given this underperformance in this media environment,
nonprobability sampling was used to discover what was being done with social media at multiple
news organizations, the results that were occurring from these digital activities, and the
relationships linking the practices that were undertaken and the results.
In order to learn as much as possible about the circumstances in play in this digital media
context, purposeful sampling was employed to gain insight into prevailing knowledge, practices,
and attitudes and to understand the technological, business, and personnel situations that were in
play. For this reason, an experienced sample was sought to make use of its insight and
competence (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The criteria to establish this purposeful sample required
that individuals had at least ten years of experience as an editor of written content at a news
outlet with national reach, and a minimum of five years in charge of digital production and
distribution of content, including responsibility for social media operations. Weiss (1994)
advised that conducting interviews in the investigator’s office could be effective because it
eliminated hesitancy to discuss work problems at the participants’ workplace and avoided
personal commitments from interfering at their homes. For this reason, interviews were
conducted at either of the lead researcher’s two offices, which were located in Washington, D.C.
and suburban Virginia, thus offering convenience in two different parts of the metropolitan area
and providing two options to satisfy the security needs of a neutral location. All the interviews
were conducted in person except for five, which were undertaken using Skype or WhatsApp, or
done through digital written formats over email.
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46
Interviews were conducted with journalists to make sense of what was occurring
operationally in general in the industry and determine possible problems in the knowledge base
and how that affected performance. The target number of participants was between five and 15
interviewees. The target was met, with 13 being interviewed. Snowball sampling helped find
additional editors who fit the criteria who were in the same professional circle as the participants
from Newspaper X who were initially involved and were already known to the lead researcher
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The sample size grew and evolved until feedback from multiple
sources formed into identifiable and recurring trends with no new insights being generated
(Rubin & Rubin, 2012). The interviews were semi-structured, using a fixed question format
while allowing for an open response, to provide a tentative plan for discussion while allowing for
flexibility to follow the data where it led (Maxwell, 2013), with most participants being
interviewed once. Interviews lasted between 60 and 90 minutes and were conducted in the
spring and early summer of 2017. The interview phase of data collection took approximately
four months. Following an initial review of interview transcripts, follow-up interviews were
requested for clarification or to address inconsistencies in the data (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Follow-up only occurred in four instances, was conducted over the phone, and lasted less than 30
minutes. The types of queries concentrated on opinion and value questions, feeling questions,
and knowledge questions as described by Patton (2002) to get a sense not only of the factual
context related to the study but also the emotional and subjective, interpretative dimensions at
play. The 25 interview questions focused on the participants’ experience with, attitudes towards,
and values regarding the use of social media for news work (see Appendix B).
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Surveys
Surveys were a practical instrument to be utilized to collect data to reliably measure
constructs regarding opinions, attitudes, needs, behavior, and sensitive information (Fink, 2013).
The target number of survey participants was between 50 and 100 respondents taken from a
broad group of journalists at the newspaper. Before a company gathering while journalists were
waiting for corporate announcements to be made, 75 surveys forms were handed out, and 60
were returned completed. Snacks were provided in return for completed surveys. The captive
audience had a response rate of 80%. For this study, 20 survey questions with multiple choice
answers investigated constructs regarding social media practices at newspapers and the attitudes,
needs, opinions, and behavior of the journalists engaged with digital platforms in the newsroom.
Each item had direct bearing on the research questions’ orientation towards discussing
knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences related to these news distribution vehicles
and how they are efficiently or inefficiently utilized in the newsroom. (See Appendix A for the
survey instruments.) The sampling method was different than what was used to conduct
interviews, which was discussed above, in that the surveys were distributed to a larger group of
journalists with a wider variety of experience levels and not necessarily of managerial rank like
the editors who were interviewed. That said, all who were surveyed were professional
journalists with the experience to provide valuable insights into the survey items proffered.
Purposeful sampling was used to tap into information-rich cases in which more could be learned
from smaller samples because of the relevant, precise expertise of that sample (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016; Patton, 2002). The information-rich cases involved in this sample were journalists
working at a newspaper on a daily basis and who thus had deeper, more direct insights on the
research questions than a random sample could. The data was collected using a paper survey
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48
distributed to participants during a company meeting. Reliability was assessed using a test-retest
correlation to determine that scores were consistent over time when the instruments were used
for a second round (Creswell, 2008).
Document Analysis
McEwan and McEwan (2003) advised that document analysis was a useful backstop to
check the consistency of the data derived from qualitative and quantitative research and to gauge
the accuracy of the researcher’s assumptions and interpretation of the data. That it is how this
method was utilized for this study. An underlying assumption regarding the evaluation of social
media operations at Newspaper X was that the use of these digital platforms was not achieving
the organization’s goals for attaining online traffic growth. Review of internal documents laying
out social media performance related to the organizational goal was conducted and analyzed in
the context of the qualitative and quantitative research findings. The documents that were
reviewed were summaries of online traffic reports related to social media generation over a two-
year period from August 2015 to August 2017. The consistency of the multiple data collection
methods reinforced the soundness of the evidence from each individual research method.
Data Analysis
The analysis began with a review of my notes taken during the interviews to look for
emergent themes. This process continued when looking over survey data and listening to tape
recordings of the interviews. Reflection on interview responses was undertaken before and after
I transcribed them and compared the notes to the survey data. The reason for this practice was to
determine whether any further questions were required in follow-up interviews for the sake of
thoroughness, and to try to identify patterns across the data. Two follow-up questions were
added later to generate more data regarding metacognitive knowledge and perceptions of utility
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49
value. After the data collection was complete, the data was cleaned, coded, and organized in
reports to facilitate the review process. The data was analyzed in context of the research
questions to explain the phenomenon of social media practice as it related to newspaper
readership acquisition, with patterns, problems, ideas for further questions, and preliminary
conclusions recorded in memos to myself to formulate theories about the results on a rolling
basis.
The main phase of the data analysis went through each item in the interviews and surveys
and recorded the responses, looking for points of convergence and divergence among the data
sets along the way. Considering the differences in responses between the experienced group of
editors in the interviews and the broader group of journalists surveyed called attention to issues
related to priorities among different levels within the company, for example. Responses were
organized into categories based on whether the items were related to knowledge, motivation, or
organizational influences and the particular subset within each category. Each assumed
influence was analyzed independently to consider whether it could be validated or invalidated as
a negative factor. A tally was generated entailing the total responses to each knowledge,
motivation, and organizational influence in the surveys and interviews showing the response
rates in each case, which was used to determine what influences existed which prevent better
social media performance at the newspaper. Tables were made laying out the statistical results
revealed by the data and showing what influences were validated by which data collection
methods. The final analysis considered the qualitative and quantitative data together to confirm
what knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences could be validated by more than one
data collection method and different sample groups.
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Ethics
The study that was undertaken relied in part on qualitative research in the form of
interviews conducted with senior editors with digital experience. Informed consent from the
participants was a requirement to be part of this interview process, as recommended by Bogdan
and Biklen (2007). Consistent with guidelines set forth by Glesne (2011), subjects were
provided with an information sheet delineating their right not to answer any questions they
wished to avoid, to withdraw from the interview at any time without penalty, and to review a
transcription of their interview for accuracy and approval upon its completion. Participation was
voluntary and based on strict confidentiality for those being interviewed and the news outlet
where they were employed. Merriam and Tisdell (2016) emphasized the importance of
participants’ rights to privacy, particularly in regards to electronic data. Any identifiable
information obtained in connection with this study remained confidential. Per Rubin and Rubin
(2012), responses were coded with pseudonyms for the participants and their organization to
disguise their identities and that of their outlet. Consistent with Glesne’s (2011) advice for
maintaining data security, all information regarding personal involvement was maintained
separately for an indefinite period of time in an encrypted file available only to the researcher,
with no paper copies produced at any time. A backup copy on a flash drive was kept, along with
the legend, in a locked filing cabinet in the researcher’s personal office. Interviews were audio-
recorded unless permission was refused from a participant, which it was not in any case; separate
permission to record was sought from interviewees in advance, as laid out by Merriam and
Tisdell (2016). The audio recording was destroyed on completion of the transcription of its
contents. During part of the study, the principal investigator was an editor at the news
organization where the gap analysis was being conducted, but none of the editors involved in the
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51
study worked in the same department or were in the same institutional chain of command at the
time (though several had been subordinates before), thus avoiding potential conflicts related to
reporting relationships at work. Nonetheless, it was made clear that this research was unrelated
to the internal operations or relationships in the workplace and was being undertaken in the
context of an independent academic study only (Rubin & Rubin, 2012).
Credibility and Trustworthiness
Literature on research design instructed that an essential component of conducting
research ethically was guaranteeing the credibility and trustworthiness of the research methods
undertaken (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). To do this, it was necessary to incorporate procedures
into the research process which showed the process was valid and led to reliable conclusions.
Fink (2013) suggested pilot tests could be employed to gauge whether survey procedures
produced consistent results, which conferred credibility on the process, and such pilot tests were
used in this study. Merriam and Tisdell (2016) stated that one of the most effective ways to
show credibility was through triangulation, whereby multiple methods of data collection were
used to support one another. Consistent with such an approach, this study used on-site
observation and internal documents from the participating news outlet to cross check data
collected through interviews. Another strategy recommended by Merriam and Tisdell (2016)
that was undertaken was respondent validation, in which preliminary findings were provided to
some participants of the study to gather feedback whether the methods employed, and the data
received, seemed to be on the right track. This process supported similar feedback sought out
from colleagues through peer review. These steps enhanced credibility by illustrating multiple
connections between the methods employed, the conclusions offered, and the likeliness that the
relationship to the data was valid (Maxwell, 2013). The lead researcher’s connection to the
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52
newspaper being studied during part of this project allowed for some privileged access to data
and documentation relevant to social media operations and performance as well making it
possible to distribute a survey to a broad section of journalists before a company-wide gathering
called to make announcements about corporate policy changes to employee benefits. The
relationship with the organization changed during the course of the study, with the researcher no
longer being affiliated there by the conclusion of this project. Interviews with editors with
managerial experience over social media operations were conducted within the researcher’s peer
group of colleagues. At the time of the interviews, there were no reporting relationships between
the researcher and interviewees so no complications existed that could result if any of those
involved felt compelled to participate because of hierarchical considerations within the
organization.
Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña (2014) explained that the essential quality of making
research trustworthy was to show convincingly that the findings were justified by the data. They
offered that a way to increase trustworthiness was to describe in detail the steps taken for
sampling, designing the instruments, collecting and condensing the information, and how it was
analyzed, interpreted, and written up. For this reason, in the pertinent sections, this study offered
a thorough procedural account of the analysis, and the steps taken at each stage of the research,
that led to the findings. The first pitfall to be avoided was to make sure generalizations were not
made by sampling non-representative participants, which could be a frequent problem when the
researcher was studying a field in which he was employed and thus very familiar (Miles et al.,
2014). To counter this danger and engender the trustworthiness of the research, this study
randomly sampled people in the newsroom as a verification device to check the consistency of
the data by offering a confirmatory step that showed the congruency of the patterns being
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claimed. An additional effort was made to find contrasting cases that revealed negative,
extreme, or countervailing results that went against the prevailing data patterns, and the causes
for these divergences, and why they did not contradict the findings, were explained.
Examination of previous research was undertaken and compared to the findings in this study to
show congruent patterns between existing knowledge and the findings developed herein. These
steps were vital, according to Shenton (2003), to demonstrate that the findings emerged from the
data rather than from the researcher’s predispositions on the subject.

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CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND FINDINGS
The purpose of this study was to examine data to identify causes that led to
underperforming social media operations at Newspaper X in relation to the organization’s goal
for content staff to increase usage of social media to increase traffic to the newspaper’s website.
The timeliness of the project was magnified by the increasing decline of daily newspaper
circulation in the United States in the face of the rapid digitization of news content. Daily
newspaper circulation had declined for 28 years straight and was at the level it was in 1945,
when the nation had 185 million fewer people (Barthel, 2017). Given these broad trends that
posed an existential threat to the entire newspaper industry, the data collected in relation to
Newspaper X was of use to other print publications facing the twin dangers of diminishing
circulation and revenue. The digital future had arrived, so it was vital for the newspaper’s
survival that it be competitive in the digital area. Identifying what was holding back
performance was the first step to identifying recommendations for addressing operational
shortcomings.
The analysis focused on pertinent knowledge, motivation, and organizational influencers
that could contribute to a gap between desired social media performance and actual results that
did not meet organizational expectations. The first of the three research questions posed for this
examination focused on whether team members charged with using social media to generate
digital traffic growth had the necessary knowledge and motivation to get the job done. The
second question examined organizational context and how it related to knowledge and
motivation factors in relation to the imperative to maximize digital growth using social media
platforms. The third question was focused on condensing the findings and structuring the data
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related to knowledge, motivation, and organizational influencers in order to generate solutions
for underperformance. To evaluate influences impacting goals and performance, a mixed
methods approach was undertaken utilizing quantitative and qualitative data collection along
with internal document analysis of records related to social media performance and the
organization’s digital goals.
The three research questions that guided this analysis were:
1. Does Newspaper X’s content staff have the technical knowledge and motivation to
utilize social media platforms to increase traffic?
2. What is the interaction between organizational culture and context and stakeholder
knowledge and motivation?
3. What are the recommendations for organizational practice in the areas of knowledge,
motivation, and organizational resources?
The qualitative and the quantitative data validated that seven performance influences
related to knowledge, motivation, and organizational factors were negatively impacting
stakeholder performance in pursuit of the organizational goal for content staff to increase social
media usage to increase traffic to the newspaper’s website. Declarative knowledge was shown to
be an influence as content staff did not know the benefits of social media for content distribution.
Procedural knowledge was an inhibiting influence as journalists did not know the basics about
how, when, and where to post content to maximize traffic potential. Metacognitive knowledge
was an inhibiting influence as journalists stated that they did not self-assess their work and thus
could not track whether performance needed to be improved. Utility value and self-efficacy
were partially validated as negative motivation influences because there was disagreement
among the journalists interviewed and surveyed over whether social media had value to increase
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internet traffic and if they felt confident that they could use social media effectively to achieve
the organization’s goals. Resource allocation was validated as an organizational influence
because tightened budgets forced content staff to try to do more with fewer resources but did not
allow for training to acquire the skills necessary to meet the new demands. The lack of a
strategic plan also exposed work processes to be a negative organizational influence on the
stakeholders’ abilities to work towards realization of the newspaper’s goal to increase traffic
using social media.
Participating Stakeholders
The use of a mixed methods approach for data collection was undertaken to generate a
wealth of data pertaining to general attitudes and practices related to social media operations in
the newspaper business and specific issues pertaining to digital operations at Newspaper X. To
generate qualitative data, one-on-one interviews were conducted with senior journalists with
editing experience who have had extensive responsibility for generating digital content and
distributing it using social media vehicles. These in-depth conversations provided detailed
insight into digital operations and the challenges news leadership faced related to social media
operations. Interviews were conducted with editors who were familiar with the specific
performance characteristics of the media platforms at hand. To garner quantitative data, a survey
was distributed to a larger group of journalists with broader experience to gain general insights
on social media attitudes and practices in the newsroom.
Interview Sampling: Digital Editors
The interview sample covered a broad cross-section of journalists, as shown in Table 5
and Table 6. The sex representation of those who participated in the interviews was 53.8% (7)
male, 46.2% (6) female, and 0% (0) in the categories of “other” and “decline to respond.” The
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journalists who participated in the interview ranged in age from 30 to 65 years old. The mean
age was 44 years. The median age was 45 years. This age grouping was bimodal, meaning the
two ages that occurred most were 35 and 46. The total media experience of interview
participants ranged from 10 to 40 years. The mean years of total media experience was 18.9
years. The median years of total media experience was 16 years. The mode for total media
experience was 10 years. The relative newness of digital and social media operations in the
newspaper industry was reflected in the shorter range of the interviewees’ experience in these
areas, which was between 10 and 15 years. The mean of digital/social media experience among
those interviewed was 11.7 years. The median of digital/social media experience was 11 years.
The mode was 10 years, with that amount of experience occurring in six responses. The
pseudonyms which were used to mask the names of interview participants during coding were
names of the 1984 Detroit Tigers World Series championship team. These pseudonyms, and not
the actual names of the interview participants, are used in Table 5.

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Table 5
Interviews: Editor Sample Raw Numbers
Editor Sex Age
Media Experience
(years)
Digital/Social Media
Experience (years)
1. Sparky Anderson F 60 35 15
2. Lance Parrish M 47 22 13
3. Darrell Evans M 65 40 15
4. Lou Whitaker F 46 10 10
5. Alan Trammell F 30 10 10
6. Tom Brookens M 35 13 10
7. Kirk Gibson M 35 13 10
8. Chet Lemon M 32 10 10
9. Larry Herndon M 46 22 14
10. Dan Petry F 45 20 11
11. Jack Morris F 41 16 12
12. Milt Wilcox M 54 25 12
13. Aurelio Lopez F 37 10 10

Table 6
Interviews: Editor Sample
Editor Attribute Mean Median Mode
Age 44 45 35, 46
Total Media Experience 18.9 16 10
Digital/Social Media Experience 11.7 11 10

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Survey Sampling: Journalists
Sixty journalists from Newspaper X took surveys as part of the data collection process for
this study. A paper survey form was distributed to journalists while they were waiting for an
information session about employee benefits to start, with a snacks bag given to those who
retuned a completed survey. The response rate of this captive audience was 80%, as 75 surveys
were handed out and 60 returned in completed form. Four questions were posed regarding the
survey participants’ demographic identity and level of experience. Those were: How long have
you been a journalist? How old are you? What is your gender? What is your race? To the last
question, as shown in Figure 1, 86.7% (52) of the survey participants responded that they were
white, 5% (3) were Asian, 3.3% (2) were African-American, 3.3% (2) were Hispanic, and 1.7%
(1) self-identified as a Pacific islander. As shown in Figure 2, of the survey respondents, 60%
were male, 40% were female, and 0% (0) were “other.” As shown in Figure 3, among these
newspaper staff, 56.7% (34) were between the ages of 31 and 40, 18.3% (11) were 41 to 50 years
old, 16.7% (10) were 26 to 30 years old, 6.7% (4) were over 51 years old, and 0% (0) said they
were between 20 and 25 years old. Regarding length of experience in the profession, as shown
in Figure 4, 38.3% (23) of survey takers responded that they had been journalists between 11 to
15 years, 31.7% (19) said 6 to 10 years, 16.7% (10) said 16 to 20 years, 13.3% (8) said over 20
years, and 0% (0) said zero to 5 years. Notably among these responses, 73.4% (44 out of 60
survey takers) were 40 years old or younger, and 70% (42 out of 60) had 15 or fewer years of
experience in the field.

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Figure 1. Race of survey participants

Figure 2. Sex of survey participants

Race
White Asian Black Hispanic Pac. islands
Sex
Male Female Other
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Figure 3. Age of survey participants

Figure 4. Journalism experience in years of survey participants

Age (in years)
26-30 31-40 41-50 Over 51
Experience (years)
6 to 10 11 to 15 16 to 20 Over 21
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Interview Results
Thirteen interviews were conducted to delve into the Knowledge, Motivation, and
Organizational influences that are related to social media performance at Newspaper X. A better
understanding of these influences helped to analyze institutional problems and provide
recommendations in the next chapter.
Knowledge Findings
Research in the first two chapters discussed knowledge influences affecting social media
performance at Newspaper X. The assumed knowledge influences on social media performance
were:
1. Declarative: Lack of knowledge about the benefits of effectively integrating social
media posts into content distribution.
2. Procedural: Lack of knowledge about the methods of how to post content, when and
where to post it to maximize traffic output on different social media platforms.
3. Metacognitive: Lack of awareness of the need to self-assess their own performance.
Interviews with thirteen editors discussed these influences in detail. Their views on the
declarative, procedural, and metacognitive influences provided an overview of perceived
knowledge influences with a negative import and their causes.
Lack of knowledge of social media benefits [validated]. Interviewees were favorable
about the general benefits of integrating social media into their operations when asked broadly
what they thought about social media. Of the 13 interviewed, 9 out of 13 (69.2%) expressed
awareness about the benefits of social media, with effusive praise being used in many cases. For
example, Evans said social media as a distribution tool was “essential,” Anderson referred to it
as “absolutely essential,” Brookens called it “very valuable,” Gibson called its use as a
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distribution tool “a necessity today,” Lemon stated that it “may be the best means ever,” and
Wilcox characterized it as “critical.” Of the 4 out of 13 (30.8%) editors who expressed less
awareness and appreciation for integrating social media posts into content distribution, the views
ranged from Whitaker saying, “It depends, most of it is a waste of time,” to Petry’s experience
that, “Social media does not necessarily drive a ton of online clicks.” Herndon reflected that:
It’s a double-edged sword. Social media users are extremely fickle, they come to a story
or video, read or watch for a very short time, and then flit away back to their social media
stream, maybe to never be seen again. In terms of building a brand loyalty or getting new
customers to check you out, it is counterproductive.
When asked for more detailed conceptual knowledge about how specifically social media
was beneficial as a traffic driver for news content, the responses were unfavorable. When faced
with the question of what specific benefits social media provided, particularly regarding content
distribution, 7 out of 13 (53.8%) gave negative answers. Among the positive, Parrish stated that,
“Nearly all our biggest stories went viral on social media.” Wilcox said, “It is effective because
it allows us to reach a much wider audience than if we didn’t use it.” Morris said there is
basically no choice to use social media because “At this point, existence appears to be solely
online. It’s the easiest and cheapest way to prove you exist.” Though s/he equivocated on the
benefits as far as delivering “fantastic numbers.” Whitaker added a caveat that s/he thinks:
Social media is great for individual reporters to raise profiles and get new sources, but I
don’t think it has an effect on the media outlets themselves… The last national outlet
where I worked, the owners said that social media had no impact on the business.
Gibson furthered on the negative assessment by questioning the diminishing quality of the
content that was being promoted, explaining that, “It’s hurt more than helped. It’s created a
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constant thirst for news when sometimes there isn’t anything to report on. It’s created an
obsession with clickbait to get attention, which has devolved the quality of news.” The widely
varied responses to questions about conceptual knowledge validated this area as a negative
influence as it was shown to lack consistently positive results pertaining to assumed knowledge
in the subject area.
Lack of knowledge of how to post content on social media sites [validated]. There
was no consensus among the interviewees about the procedural knowledge needed regarding
how to effectively utilize social media. The editors were asked, “How exactly do you use social
media to increase traffic? Are there tricks of the trade that you use to help push traffic along?”
The 13 who were asked these questions about how to use social media provided 13 different
responses with no common threads to recommend standard practices for effective procedure.
Trammell, focusing on the content itself, said, “People in social media mode are more likely to
click on a more fun article than a serious, involved one. So I try to post more fun stuff.”
Brookens said, “I tag people in my tweets so they will notice them.” Gibson advised, “You can
use the tool Crowd Tangle to see what people on Facebook are already talking about and then
write up something on those stories yourself to ride the wave.” Lemon said:
First and foremost is a headline that, in less than 10 words, can emotionally connect with
the reader. We also prefer to use images intended to catch a reader’s attention and
emotionally connect with them. The actual content, while important, comes second.
Petry had the opposite view of Lemon, placing all the importance on the quality of the content,
explaining, “It doesn’t matter what tricks you use, I consider breaking news and exclusivity
important in terms of increasing traffic. If you’re doing breaking news, the readers will find it.
Break it, and they will come.” Morris said:
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The tricks are in the timing. Some times of day, like when people first get to the office in
the morning and are screwing around, after their lunch break, and after dinner at night
when they’re surfing the Net wasting time, these periods are busier. So post then when
audience interest is peaked.
Parrish said, “Our primary traffic vehicle is Reddit, which allows users to downvote and hide
low quality content. The system provides more useful feedback on the quality level of content,
which is what we’re after, quality over quantity.” The crux of the matter pertaining to procedural
knowledge was determining how many journalists not knowing the basics about content posting
presented a problem. On this question, 30.1% of editors reported that they did not know the
basic how, when, what, and where of posting. Given that this was a failing of the minority, and
that the majority did have a grasp of the necessary procedural knowledge, it could have been
construed that this was not a negative influence. However, for the purpose of this study, given
the vital importance of social media to attaining the organization’s goals to increase traffic, it
was determined that nearly one-third of the editors who were responsible for digital oversight not
having the requisite knowledge presented a problem. After all, if the editors who had managerial
and operational responsibility over digital operations did not know what they needed to know
about social media, it would not have been possible for them to guide journalists under them and
implement practices necessary to increase traffic using social media. A lack of such fundamental
knowledge at the editor level could have presented confusion regarding practices down the
ladder, compounding the problem. The takeaway from the vastly divergent responses was that
the knowledge influence regarding a procedural knowledge deficiency was validated.
Unaware of the need to self-assess their own social media performance [validated].
The editors that were interviewed were split down the middle when it came to self-assessing
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their performance and determining whether there was a need to adapt their practices to perform
better. They all were asked, “Can you describe an example where a social media initiative did
not turn out as planned, either more or less positively, in relation to generating readership
growth? And did you do anything differently afterwards?” Among the interviewees, six out of
13 (46.2%) responded that they self-assessed regularly and adapted their operations to try to
improve performance based on those self-assessments. Anderson said, “Twitter was an abject
failure to drive traffic. We haven’t dumped it, but we did deemphasize it.” Parrish said, “Paying
for Facebook views turned out to be a complete waste of money. The system is designed to
extract as much money as possible, not deliver value to end users, so we stopped doing it.”
Lemon stated, “We placed a tremendous amount of effort into paid outreach through Twitter,
only to find it didn’t produce. That was the end of that.” Trammell found that, “Email
newsletters are a waste of time. They generate a tiny amount of traffic, but they tend to get
marked as spam so people never see them. Had to stop doing that.” Morris said s/he self-
assessed but ignored the apparent need to adapt, admitting:
A tweet that no one retweets happens all the time. Might be a waste of time but hard to
stop once you get going no matter what the results are. Look, Twitter leads to basically
zero hits on your linked articles, but everybody is doing it so you do too. This industry
isn’t dying because it knows how to change directions on a dime.
Of the majority seven out of 13 (53.8%) editors who responded that they do not self-
assess their performance, the recurring theme was that there was a lack of time to do internal
reflection based on the shrinking size of the newsroom and increased responsibilities for those
left. “We don’t do any of this in my area,” said Evans about self-assessment. “I’m not aware of
anything,” said Brookens about changing behavior to improve performance based on self-
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assessment. The takeaway: A lack of metacognitive knowledge is a performance influence at
Newspaper X.
Motivation Findings
The assumed motivation influences related to effective social media performance at
Newspaper X were utility value and self-efficacy. Interview questions were posed to news
editors to validate the existence of these motivation influences. On both interview questions,
30.8% perceived that the relevant motivation influences existed.
Uncertainty about the utility value of social media [partially validated]. When asked
if they saw the value of social media, nine out of 13 (69.2%) of the editors responded that social
media had value to generate online traffic. Anderson said the value of social media is “to drive
readers to our sites where they have an opportunity to read an article and to click on a revenue-
generating advertisement.” Whitaker said social media “gets more people to read or watch us.”
“That’s where the eyeballs are,” said Parrish. Of the four out of 13 (30.8%) editors who did not
value social media as traffic driver, the consistent explanation was that they did not see
consistent traffic increases to match the ever-increasing social media output. Herndon
summarized this skeptical, minority view that:
Social media traffic tends to be one and done with the vast majority of new readers not
returning and most not even being aware of the news organization they are reading. Most
readers get to your content through news aggregators, not because of your social media
practices.
Despite this view, a large majority of Herndon’s colleagues did not agree that skepticism about
social media’s utility value was a motivational influence, but it was nonetheless partially
validated due to one-third of respondents identifying a motivational problem in this area.
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Lack of confidence in ability to use social media [partially validated]. When asked
how confident they were in their ability to use social media to generate traffic, nine out of 13
(69.2%) of the editors responded that they were confident in their ability to use social media.
“100% confident,” said Herndon. “Extremely confident,” said Lemon. “Very confident,” said
Wilcox. Gibson distinguished among platforms, saying, “On Facebook, very confident. It’s a
powerful tool. Twitter is a more finicky and limited medium, one I haven’t really mastered.”
Lopez said it was a money game: “Give me the cash for enough Facebook ads and I will build as
much traffic generation as you want. There is a science to it, but it costs you to do it right.”
Among the four out of 13 (30.8%) editors who had low self-efficacy about their social media
ability, Anderson said, “Doing is learning. We are learning.” Parrish admitted, “There are
experts who know the tricks to build a huge audience. I’m not one of them.” Overall, the editors
interviewed did not view lack of confidence in social media ability as a motivational influence
negatively impacting performance, but a large enough group of respondents signaled a problem
to partially validate this as a negative factor preventing the achievement of organizational goals.
Organizational Findings
The assumed organizational influences that were related to effective social media
performance at Newspaper X were resource allocation and work processes. Interview questions
were posed to news editors to validate that these organizational influences existed. On both
interview questions, more than 60% perceived that the relevant motivation influences existed.
Inadequate allocation of resources [validated]. When asked about the financial and
personnel resource allocation for social media operations at the newspaper, 10 out of 13 editors
(76.9%) responded that too many resources were being dedicated to these platforms. Herndon
said:
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I used to be a strong believer that working with social media would help build the future
economic model for journalism, but over time I have seen that the need to shape and
optimize content for social media takes more resources away from producing good
journalism that the higher readership provides. It is a lose-lose proposition.
Parrish said:
These kids just want to tweet all day. It doesn’t bring in any traffic, and meanwhile they
aren’t getting any actual journalism done. I doubt they could meet two article deadlines a
day if they had to. Social media is a huge opportunity cost given the competing demands
for resources.
Anderson struck a middle position, saying, “I probably allocate way too many resources to this
stuff, but we have to try something different. It’s not like print is going anywhere except down,
so we have to give this a go.” Among the three out of 13 (23.1%) editors who would like more
resources allocated for social media, Wilcox said:
In a perfect world, we’d have money for it all, lots of good reporting and funds and
people to find new and creative ways to distribute the content. But until that day comes, I
think I stretch the dollar farther being able to reach a wider audience with social media.
I’d like to be able to do much more of it.
A large majority of editors validated the assumption that resource allocation is an organizational
influence on performance.
The question was posed, “Does your organization provide training, mentoring, or other
assistance to provide team members with direction in social media?” Of the editors interviewed,
nine out of 13 (69.2%) said no, their organization does not provide social media training.
Whitaker said, “I’ve never had any training, nor have most reporters.” Lemon said he does not
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train staff because he uses automated digital tools to post to social media sites that do not need
human input. Anderson said, “We’re a small shop and collaborate informally.” Evans said,
“The usual rule of thumb is to hire interns or young people who typically are far more savvy
about the efficacy of social media and let them handle it.” Lopez answered, “With what staff?
With what money? We have been laying off people for a decade and are expected to do more
with less every day. There just isn’t any room for training in today’s budgetary environment.”
On the positive side, although in the minority on this question, Gibson said, “Yes, very
frequently,” and Herndon stated, “We have regular training and specialists within most teams
who can mentor team members.”
Lack of clarity about how social media fits into overall newspaper operations
[validated]. Editors were asked if their organization or departments had strategic plans laying
out how social media fits with the rest of the organization’s operations and goals. Of the 13
respondents, eight out of 13 (61.5%) said that there was no strategic plan, or that if one existed,
they did not know about it. As Herndon stated, “I have not seen such a plan, and I’m pretty high
up the food chain so would’ve if there were one.” Evans said, “We don’t have a plan, but we
should.” Petry stated, “I dunno. But that’s your answer: A secret plan is as useless as no plan, so
I guess ‘no.’” Of the five of 13 (38.5%) who said their area has a plan that lays out how social
media operations work with other initiatives and activities, Wilcox was the most sure about the
interconnectedness of the goals and strategy, saying, “Yes definitely, it is fully integrated into
operations and strategy.” That was a minority view among the editors, who mostly validated that
weak work processes were a negative organizational influence.
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Survey Results
Survey items were posed to validate or invalidate assumed influences on the
organizational goal for content staff to increase usage of social media to increase traffic to the
newspaper’s website. Three out of three of the assumed knowledge influences and both of the
organizational influences were validated by the survey results, while neither of the assumed
motivational influences were validated.
Knowledge Findings
Research in the first two chapters discussed knowledge influences on social media
performance at Newspaper X. The assumed knowledge influences on social media performance
were:
1. Declarative: Lack of knowledge about the benefits of effectively integrating social
media posts into content distribution.
2. Procedural: Lack of knowledge about the methods of how to post content, when and
where to post it to maximize traffic output on different social media platforms.
3. Metacognitive: Lack of awareness of the need to self-assess their own performance.
Survey results confirmed that there are knowledge influences inhibiting performance at
Newspaper X. Assessment of knowledge-related questions showed that journalists consistently
report that they do not have knowledge regarding the benefits of integrating social media posts
into content distribution, and do not have sufficient knowledge about how, when and where to
post content to maximize digital traffic on various social media platforms. Survey results also
showed that journalists did not consistently self-assess their own performance and were thus
unaware how and when to adapt their behavior to achieve better performance. In Table 7, a
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positive response counted participants who answered that they agreed or definitely agreed with
the survey item under review.

Table 7
Summary of Knowledge Findings
Survey
Question Item Text
Positive
Response (n)
Positive
response (%)
1 Social media is a useful reporting tool. (n=60) 16 26.7
2 Social media is effective at distributing news
content to readers. (n=60)
28 46.7
3 Social media helps build brand awareness.
(n=60)
34 56.7
4 Social media is a vital part of our news
operation. (n=60)
22 36.7
15 I regularly self-assess my own social media
performance to see where I could perform
better. (n=60)
9 15.0

Lack of knowledge of social media benefits [validated]. Four questions were posed to
generate responses regarding declarative knowledge pertaining to their knowledge about the
benefits of integrating social media posts into their work. The first three questions centered on
specific benefits that may result from efficacious use of social media, and the fourth question
was more general. On the final declarative question, 22 of 60 (36.7%) responded positively to
the basic statement that social media is a vital part of Newspaper X’s news operation. More were
unsure, 23 of 60 (38.3%) of the vitality of social media that answered affirmatively. On the more
specific questions, 16 of 60 journalists (26.7%) responded that social media is a useful reporting
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tool whereas 34 of 60 (56.7%) said it was not. When asked if social media is effective at
distributing news content to readers, 28 out of 60 (46.7%) said it was, 18 of 60 (30%) said they
were unsure, and 14 of 60 (23.3%) said it was not. The most positive response resulted from
asking journalists whether social media helps build brand awareness with the public. To this
statement, 34 out of 60 (56.7%) agreed, 17 of 60 (28.3%) were unsure, and nine of the 60 (15%)
said that it did not. On three of the four questions posed, less than 50% of the respondents said
they had knowledge of the potential benefits of social media, thus validating this as an influence.
Unaware of the need to self-assess their own social media performance [validated].
In response to the statement whether they regularly self-assess their own social media
performance to see where they could perform better, nine out of 60 (15%) said that they did, 25
out of 60 (41.7%) said that they were unsure, and 26 of 60 (43.3%) said they did not self-assess
their work. Combined, 85% (51 out of 60) either do not regularly self-assess their work or are
not sure if they do. This lack of metacognitive knowledge is an influence on performance.
Motivation Findings
Survey items that were posed in relation to motivation influences showed that journalists
were motivated to use social media to achieve better performance. There was, however, some
uncertainty about the value of the time spent on new media, and confidence about journalists’
effectiveness at using social media was inconsistent. In Table 8, a positive response counted
participants who answered that they agreed or definitely agreed with the survey item under
review.

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Table 8
Summary of Motivation Findings
Survey
Question Item Text
Positive
Responses (n)
Positive
Responses (%)
5 Social media is a waste of time. (n=60) 31 51.7
8 Management has made social media
operations a priority. (n=60)
43 71.7
13 It is important for me to use social media
to increase newspaper traffic. (n=60)
31 51.7
16 I am confident in my ability to use social
media in my work. (n=60)
30 50.0

Uncertainty about the utility value of social media [partially validated]. Two out of
three of the items related to determining value returned positive responses regarding the utility of
social media. In response to the statement that it was important to use social media to increase
newspaper traffic, 31 out of 60 (51.7%) agreed, 10 out of 60 (16.7%) were unsure, and 19 of 60
(31.7%) disagreed. The survey results show that there is an organizational emphasis on the value
of social media operations. When the statement was posed that management has made social
media operations a priority, 43 out of 60 (71.7%) agreed, 10 of 60 (16.7%) were unsure, and
seven of 60 (11.7%) disagreed. Throwing a wrench into the value equation was the response to
the statement that social media is a waste of time. Out of 60 respondents, 31 (51.7%) said social
media was a waste of time, 12 (20%) said they were unsure, and 17 (28.3%) said it was not.
Combined, 43 out of 60 (71.7%) said social media was a waste of time or they were not sure
whether social media was a waste of time. That was enough, combined with a significant
minority that was unsure, to validate a lack of appreciation for social media’s utility value as a
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relevant motivational influence despite the generally positive response to some value survey
items.
Lack of confidence in ability to use social media [partially validated]. Journalists at
Newspaper X gave a mixed response regarding their view of their self-efficacy when it comes to
using social media platforms effectively. In response to the statement that they are confident in
their ability to use social media in their work, 30 out of 60 (50%) said they were confident in
their social media ability, 12 of 60 (20%) said they were unsure, and 18 of 60 (30%) stated that
they lacked confidence in their use of social media in their work. The data on confidence levels
partially validated a problem, but this area could use further study to definitively validate
whether social media self-efficacy is a motivational influence on newspaper performance.
Organizational Findings
Survey items were designed to assess organizational influences related to the effective
use of social media at Newspaper X. The assumed organizational influences of focus were
resource allocation and work processes. The existence of these organizational influences was
validated in both instances. In Table 9, a positive response counted participants who answered
that they agreed or definitely agreed with the survey item under review.

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Table 9
Summary of Organizational Findings
Survey
Question Item Text
Positive
Responses (n)
Positive
Responses (%)
9 The goals for our social media operations are
clearly set forth in a strategic plan that lays
out how social media fits into the rest of the
organization’s activities. (n=60)
8 13.3
10 I have the necessary training to perform
assigned social media tasks. (n=60)
11 18.3
11 The allocation of financial resources for
social media operations is adequate. (n=60)
24 40
12 The allocation of personnel resources for
social media operations is adequate. (n=60)
15 25

Inadequate allocation of resources [validated]. Two survey items sought information
about the allocation of resources. In both cases, less than a majority answered that resources
were allocated adequately for social media. Additionally, in both instances, the reason given for
why resource allocation was inadequate was split between respondents who said too many
resources were allocated for social media and those who said there were not enough. In response
to the statement that the allocation of financial resources for social media operations was
adequate, 24 of 60 (40%) agreed. Of the 36 of 60 journalists (60%) who said financial resources
were inadequately allocated, 25 of 60 (41.7%) said too many financial resources were allocated
to social media, whereas 11 of 60 (18.3%) said too few funds were allocated to social media
operations at the newspaper. In response to the survey item that posed that the allocation of
personnel resources for social media operations was adequate, 15 of 60 (25%) agreed. Of the 45
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of 60 (75%) who disagreed, 40 out of 60 (66.7%) stated that too many personnel resources were
allocated to social media operations, while 5 of 60 (8.3%) said more personnel resources should
be allocated to social media. That resource allocation is an organizational influence was
validated by this data.
Lack of training on how to post content on social media sites [validated]. The
general lack of declarative knowledge among Newspaper X journalists pertaining to the benefits
of integrating social media into their work begged the question if this could be connected to a
lack of procedural knowledge regarding how to use social media to achieve the organization’s
desired results. Training contributes to knowledge influences, but training is itself an
organizational influence. In response to the question whether they had the necessary training to
perform assigned social media tasks, 39 out of 60 (65%) said they did not, nine of 60 (15%) were
not sure, and 11 of 60 (18.3%) said they did. Combined, 80% (48 out of 60) said they either
lacked the necessary training about how to post content on social media or were unsure. This
lack of training is an apparent organizational influence.
Lack of clarity about how social media fits into overall newspaper operations
[validated]. One survey item queried about how all the moving parts work together. When
asked whether the goals for social media operations were clearly set forth in a strategic plan that
laid out how social media fit into the rest of the newspaper’s activities, eight out of 60 (13.3%)
agreed. Of the other 52 out of 60 (86.7%) journalists at Newspaper X, 33 of 60 (55%) disagreed
that goals were clear or that a strategic plan set forth how operations worked together, while 19
of 60 (31.7%) were unsure. The lack of a strategic plan was validated as an organizational
influence by the consistency of these responses.
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Synthesis of Findings
Most of the assumed knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences that inhibited
effective social media performance at Newspaper X were validated by qualitative and
quantitative data derived from the interviews and surveys that were part of this study (see Table
10) The findings from the qualitative and quantitative data, and where they converged and
diverged, were synthesized on the following pages.

Table 10
Summary of Key Findings
K, M, O Barrier Survey Interview Validated
Declarative
Knowledge
Journalists may not know the benefits of
integrating social media posts into
content distribution.
28/60
(46.7%)
6/13
(46.2%)
Yes
Procedural
Knowledge
Journalists do not know how, when, and
where to post content to maximize
traffic using social media.
11/60
(18.3%)
4/13
(30.1%)
Yes
Metacognitive
Knowledge
Journalists do not self-assess their
performance to determine how they can
adapt their behavior for better results.
9/60
(15%)
6/13
(46.2%)
Yes
Motivation:
Utility Value
Journalists do not see the value of social
media to increase readership traffic.
31/60
[disagreed]
(51.7%)
9/13
[disagreed]
(69.2%)
Partial
Motivation: Self-
Efficacy
Journalists do not feel confident in their
ability to use social media effectively in
their work.
30/60
[disagree]
50%
9/13
[disagree]
(69.2%)
Partial
Organization:
Resource
Allocation
Journalists do not think adequate funds
exist for successful social media
implementation.
36/60
(60%)
10/13
(76.9%)
Yes
Organization:
Work Processes
Journalists do not know if there is a
strategic plan or goals for social media
operations.
33/60
(55%)
8/13
(61.5%)
Yes

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Validated Knowledge Influences
Declarative: lack of knowledge of benefits of social media. Conceptual knowledge
was the type of knowledge most commonly used at work (Clark & Estes, 2008). This was
because it encompassed all the theoretical and practical skills and information one acquired over
time to do a job which started out being consciously and purposely acquired but eventually
transitioned into being unconscious. This kind of knowledge can become an influence when
negative attitudes about specific operations or practices permeated the subconscious and
negatively impacted how someone undertook duties related to those operations and practices.
The existence of declarative knowledge influences impacting social media performance at
Newspaper X was validated through both interviews and surveys that sought insight into the
conceptual awareness about the benefits of integrating social media posts into content
distribution with the aim of generating increased digital traffic. The response rate to this item
showed a very close agreement regarding this influence between the 13 editors who were
interviewed and the 60 journalists who completed the survey. When asked if social media was
effective at distributing news content to readers, 28 out of 60 (46.7%) survey respondents said
that it was. The numbers were very similar in the interviews. When asked about the benefits of
social media as a traffic driver, six out of 13 (46.2%) editors said that they saw the benefits of
social media for content distribution. Qualitative and quantitative data both confirmed that a
majority of editors and other journalists at the newspaper were not aware of the content
distribution benefits of social media. Not knowing about the benefits of certain tools and
practices had a negative impact on how earnestly these were pursued. The respondents’ lack of
conceptual knowledge regarding the benefits of social validated this as a knowledge influence on
performance.
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Metacognitive: unaware of need to self-assess performance. Self-assessment of one’s
performance was an important practice for evaluating where one needed to adapt to achieve
better results. Metacognitive knowledge that results from such self-assessment allowed someone
to develop expertise over time and transfer that insight into solving problems and achieving goals
on the job (Rueda, 2011). Interviews and surveys conducted for this study showed that such
metacognitive knowledge was lacking at the organization being evaluated. When asked whether
they had changed their social media practices after reviewing past performance, six out of 13
(46.2%) editors who were interviewed stated that they had conducted such a self-assessment and
alter their work accordingly. The results were lower among those who took the survey. In
response to the statement, “I regularly self-assess my own social media performance to see
where I could perform better,” only nine out of 60 (15%) answered in the affirmative.
Organizational performance improvement on a corporate level was hindered by a lack of
introspection about performance that was necessary for improvement on the individual level.
The qualitative and quantitative findings of this study both validated that a lack of metacognitive
knowledge was a performance influence at Newspaper X.
Validated Motivation Influences
Utility value: uncertainty that social media delivers results. Rueda (2011) explained
that the more someone valued certain undertakings, the greater the likelihood was that they
would choose to do it and persist in the pursuit of doing it well. Qualitative and quantitative data
generated from this study showed that a majority of those who responded to items about
motivational influences at the newspaper appreciated the utility value of social media when
responding to some questions, but not to others. The attitude towards the utility value of social
media as a traffic driver was strongest among the editors who were interviewed. When asked
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about the value of social media, nine out of 13 (69.2%) stated that social media had value to
generate greater online readership and expressed high levels of motivation to take advantage of
that to improve digital performance. The survey results were more mixed. In response to the
survey item which stated that it was important to use social media to increase newspaper traffic
(#13), a majority of 31 out of 60 (51.7%) answered in the affirmative. In contradiction of this,
when responding to the statement that social media was a waste of time (#5), the same majority
of 31 out of 60 (51.7%) journalists agreed that it was. That a majority of those interviewed and
surveyed saw the utility value of social media in some items was promising. However, that a
sizable minority of journalists did not see social media as meaningful, with many stating that
social media was a waste of time and resources, suggested there was room for improvement in
this area. Such uncertainty partially validated a lack of utility as a motivational influence
inhibiting better performance.
Self-efficacy: lack of confidence in social media abilities. How highly one viewed
one’s own competence at specific activities was a determining factor in one’s likelihood of
success when undertaking them (Rueda, 2011). Interview and survey items returned mixed
results from respondents for this examination. Editors who were interviewed had a higher sense
of social media self-efficacy than the larger pool of journalists who took the survey. When asked
about their confidence regarding their ability to utilize social media as an effective traffic driver,
nine out of 13 (69.2%) of those interviewed expressed high levels of confidence. In response to
the statement, “I am confident in my ability to use social media in my work,” 30 out of 60 (50%)
of those surveyed expressed confidence in their social media skills, while 18 of 60 (30%) lacked
such confidence. Despite a positive response from a large percentage of editors and half of the
larger group of journalists, the data showed that there remained a large number of those who
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lacked the confidence in their ability that was necessary to persist and achieve at these important
tasks. These inconsistent feelings of self-efficacy regarding social media skills among
Newspaper X employees partially validated this factor as a motivational influence at the
organization.
Validated Organizational Influences
Allocation of resources: lack of adequate resources to do all that is needed. A
misalignment between an organization’s goals and the resources that were necessary to achieve
them was a common cause of institutional failure (Clark & Estes, 2008). What was true in most
sectors was even more pressing in diminishing industries such as the newspaper business. This
principle was confirmed by the qualitative and quantitative data from this study. During
interviews, editors expressed frustration with the constant need to do more with less on both the
budgetary and personnel fronts. When asked about resource allocation for social media
operations at Newspaper X, 10 out of 13 (76.9%) editors responded that resources were
misaligned because so much being dedicated to social media was limiting the ability to perform
other essential functions. The response from survey participants was moderately better. In
response to the statement that financial resource allocation for social media was adequate, 36 out
of 60 (60%) responded in the negative. Out of those 60 journalists, 25 (41.7%) responded in a
negative fashion because their view was that too many funds were spent on social media
operations. Reflecting staffing cutbacks that were mentioned in the interview findings, the
response to the allocation of personnel resources is ever more negative. When asked about the
allocation of personnel resources for social media duties, 40 out of 60 (66.7%) survey
respondents said too many people worked on social media. A proper funding balance needed to
be struck for competing functions for an organization to be successful. Data from this study
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validated that resource allocation was an organizational influence that contributed to
performance challenges at the newspaper.
Training: lack of instruction about how to post content on social media. For an
organization to succeed, it was important to know what team members did not know pertaining
to essential functions that were part of the operation (Clark & Estes, 2008). There was particular
knowledge related to how to undertake social media operations that was necessary to perform
effectively in the increasingly digitized news industry. Training was a useful means of helping
workers turn conceptual knowledge into effective everyday practices. In other words, training
could make theories and ideas real by showing practical steps regarding how to implement them
on the job. Qualitative and quantitative data gathered as part of this study both showed that there
was a lack of this procedural knowledge at Newspaper X. When editors were asked in interviews
whether their organization provided training, mentoring, or other assistance to provide team
members with direction in social media practices, only four out of 13 (30.1%) responded that
they had such essential training. The results were even lower among the broader group of
journalists who responded this study’s survey items. In response to the statement, “I have the
necessary training to perform assigned social media tasks,” 11 out of 60 (18.3%) said that they
did have sufficient training to do the job. Without training, workers were not provided access
with the knowledge they needed to be competitive in an increasingly competitive world (Clark &
Estes, 2008). Such a declared lack of training about basic procedural functions pertaining to how
to undertake social media functions validated this area as an organizational influence impacting
success at the newspaper.

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Work processes: no clarity about goals and relationship of social media into
organizational structure. A strategic plan sets forth a vision and goals and lays out how
constituent parts of an operation work in concert to achieve those goals (Clark & Estes, 2008).
When such an overview was in place, it was important for the organizational goals and the
individual goals to be aligned so everyone was working towards the same end game. Intrinsic to
properly ordered work processes was tying individual and department performance metrics to the
overall business goals of the institution. Having an operational blueprint was not enough if the
entire team was not aware of it or its priorities. In this sense, communicating with a team about
what a strategic plan contained was as important as the plan itself. No one could act on priorities
they did not know. Interviews and surveys both highlighted dysfunctional work processes as a
problem at Newspaper X. Qualitative findings exposed a consistent lack of clear strategic
planning. When asked if a strategic plan exists, eight out of 13 (61.5%) of the interviewed
editors, many of whom were senior leaders in the organizational structure, said that there was no
strategic plan. Editors also stated that many department and team goals were set by team leaders
with no coordination with the executive structure and goals in other areas of the newspaper. The
quantitative data presented an even more stark picture. In response to the statement, “The goals
for our social media operations are clearly set forth in a strategic plan that lays out how social
media fits into the rest of the organization’s activities,” only eight out of 60 (13.3%) journalists
surveyed agreed that such a plan and goals were in place. A full 52 of 60 (86.7%) responded that
a strategic plan did not exist or they were unaware if one did. It is impossible to get all the
sailors rowing in the same direction if they are not even seated in the same canoe. Large
majorities of those at the newspaper saying there was neither a strategic plan nor clear goals
validated uncoordinated work processes as an organizational influence for this study.
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Document Analysis Results
Qualitative and quantitative data gathered for this study validated that there were
knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences that presented obstacles to journalists at
Newspaper X from optimizing their performance to achieve the organization’s goals to use social
media platforms to generate online readership growth. Internal data that tracked the results of
the newspaper’s social media efforts over a two-year period from August 2015 to August 2017
further verified that expectations were not met in regards to the traffic generation that social
media was expected to achieve. The original concrete target of a pilot project launched as part of
this study was to achieve one million new Facebook followers for the newspaper within one year
and measure the relationship between the acquisition of new followers and the generation of
additional digital readers. Due to a change in management at the organization, that performance
goal was changed to an ongoing expectation that social media would be responsible for 25%
online readership growth annually. This robust projection was not met. In the first year,
distribution of newspaper content using social media platforms was responsible for a 5% growth
in online pageviews. That result was 80% lower than the organization’s expectations. After two
years, the total growth of online readership attributed to social media was 11%. That was a
cumulative result combining the total acquisition of new digital traffic from both years between
August 2015 and August 2017. Not only were expectations not met, no significant improvement
was shown from the first year of the pilot project to the second year, suggesting no practical
learning was happening that would lead to better results.
Failure to achieve performance goals related to social media was not because journalists
at the newspaper were not actively using social media platforms in their work. When asked in
the survey if they used social media professionally, 55 out of 60 (91.7%) responded that they did,
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while only five of 60 (8.3%) said that they did not use social media at work. Forty out of 60
(65%) stated that they agreed with the statement that it was important to use social media to
enhance their own individual public profile as a journalist. What social media platforms they
used, and for what purposes, shed some light on the performance failures in these operations.
Although performance data from internal documents that were provided for review did
not break down social media performance by individual social media platforms, the information
confirmed that the entirety of the traffic growth derived from social media came from Facebook.
This confirmed research from the literature review that stated that Facebook could lead to traffic
compared to other platforms such as Twitter that did not generate clicks for content even when
user rates at those sites were very active. Journalist usage of particular social media platforms
did not parallel those that were shown to have the greatest likelihood to generate traffic for
newspaper content. In response to the survey item asking what social media platforms they used
professionally, 53 out of 60 (88.3%) of the journalists said they used Twitter, 22 of 60 (36.7%)
said LinkedIn, 19 of 60 (23.3%) said YouTube, 12 of 60 (20%) said Facebook, three of 60 (5%)
said Pinterest, and two of 60 (3.3%) reported that they use Flickr, Tumblr, and Instagram. By
far, Twitter was the most used social media platform by those surveyed despite it not being a tool
that commonly led to traffic growth, while Facebook was only the fourth most used social media
platform despite its ability to deliver clicks on newspaper content. These preferences were not
attributable to the journalists’ lack of familiarity with one platform over another as reported use
of social media in their personal lives was heavily centered on Facebook, although overall social
media interaction was lower. In response to the survey item stating that they used social media
in their personal lives, 44 out of 60 (73.3%) said that they did use social media at home, while 16
of 60 (26.7%) said that they did not, so more journalists surveyed used these platforms for
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professional reasons than they did for personal reasons. Of those that did use social media in
their personal lives, when asked which platforms they use, 41 out of 60 (68.3%) of those
surveyed said they used Facebook, 20 of 60 (33.3%) said Twitter, five of 60 (8.3%) said
YouTube and Pinterest, four of 60 (6.7%) said Instagram, two of 60 (3.3%) said LinkedIn and
Tumblr, and one of 60 (1.7%) reported using Flickr for personal reasons. As shown in Table 11,
there was a marked difference in which platforms the surveyed journalists used in their
professional lives and which they used in their personal lives. These preferences were not
parallel to what platforms have been shown to have a greater likelihood of facilitating traffic
growth and therefore contributed to the challenges the newspaper faced in achieving its social
media performance goals.

Table 11
Summary of Social Media Preferences
How Used Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest LinkedIn Flickr Tumblr YouTube
For professional reasons 12/60
20%
53/60
88.3%
2/60
3.3%
3/60
5%
22/60
36.7%
2/60
3.3%
2/60
3.3%
14/60
23.3%
For personal reasons 41/60
68.3%
20/60
33.3%
4/60
6.7%
5/60
8.3%
2/60
3.3%
1/60
1.7%
2/60
3.3%
5/60
8.3%

That the journalists surveyed preferred to use social media platforms that were not the
most effective for achieving their organization’s goal of using social media to generate more
traffic for the website begged the question why they made these choices. The answer was that
content staff viewed social media as a way to develop and spread their own personal brand
regardless of a lack of value that may have had for their employer. Of those surveyed, 40 out of
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60, or 66.7%, responded that social media was important to use to enhance their own individual
public profile as a journalist. There were no discernible patterns based on race or gender. Age
was a different story, with younger journalists responding with high degrees of certainty that
social media would enhance their individual profile, while those on the older end were more
skeptical. When asked if social media was important to enhance their individual profile, nine out
of 10 (90%) of those between 26 and 30 years old said that it was, as did 27 of 34 (79.4%) of
those 30 to 40 years old, while only three of 12 (25%) of those 40 to 50 years old, and one out of
four (25%) over 50 years old, agreed. Given the dichotomy between Twitter and Facebook use
for professional versus personal reasons, demographic data was examined to see if there were
any more patterns regarding those specific choices. Again, there were no identifiable trends
based on race or gender, with answers falling across the spectrum seemingly at random. Given
the differences in responses based on age on the individual importance of using social media, age
categories were examined closely pertaining to specific platform use. However, the data did not
reveal similar trends based on age as it did above. For example, Twitter use for work was high
among all age groups. Of those 30 to 40 years old, 31 of 34, or 91%, used Twitter for work, but
only 10 of 34, or 29.4%, used it at home. Despite the success of Facebook to drive traffic, only
seven of 34, or 20.6% of those 30 to 40 years old used Facebook for work, while 15 of 34, or
44% used it for personal reasons. The numbers were consistent across the board. Among those
using Twitter for work, even though it did not generate traffic, were nine out of 10 (90%) of
those between 26 and 30 years, 10 out of 12 (83%) of those 40 to 50 years old, and three of four
(75%) for those over 50. Meanwhile, those using Facebook at home, where it did not help the
organization, included seven out of 10 (70%) of those 26 to 30 years old, 25 of 34 (73.5%) of
those 30 to 40 years, six out of 12 (50%) of those 40 to 50 years, and three out of four (75%) of
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those over 50. These preferences reflect the lack of knowledge about social media platforms that
was borne out by the qualitative and quantitative data, but any additional conclusions based on a
connection between social media usage and demographic profiles required further research.
Summary
Clark and Estes (2008) instructed that the first step in addressing performance shortfalls
was to pinpoint the causes so that solutions could be developed to implement an improvement
plan. They stated that the causes of an organization’s failure to achieve its goals could be
attributable to insufficient knowledge, motivation, and organizational structures that negatively
impact employee performance. This study determined that there were knowledge, motivation,
and organizational influences at Newspaper X that prevented social media operations from being
used appropriately to maximize the generation of increased online traffic for the outlet’s news
content. In total, seven performance influences related to knowledge, motivation, and
organizational factors were validated through qualitative and quantitative research conducted as
part of this examination into attitudes and practices pertaining to social media at the newspaper.
An improvement plan to mitigate these influences was a necessary component for achieving
performance goals in the future. Interviews with editors and surveys with a broad group of
journalists at the newspaper identified precise areas where influences barring better performance
existed. These conclusions were confirmed by analysis of documents showing that social media
performance goals at the newspaper were not being achieved. The qualitative and quantitative
data derived from these interviews and surveys opened the door to the development of context-
specific recommendations tailored to overcoming the knowledge, motivation, and organizational
influences that were identified and validated in this chapter. The next chapter provides
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recommendations for developing an improvement plan to address performance in the social
media operations at Newspaper X.

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CHAPTER 5
RECOMMENDATIONS
In Chapter 4, seven assumed influences on social media performance were validated as
being influences on successful digital traffic growth at Newspaper X. These influences were
validated through qualitative data from 13 interviews with editors who had social media
experience, and quantitative data generated from surveys taken by a broad cross section of 60
journalists at the outlet. Both the interviews and surveys sought input regarding attitudes and
practices pertaining to social media among those at the newspaper who were charged with using
social media to pursue the organization’s goals to increase online readership of news content.
The influences that were validated as being part of social media performance were organized into
knowledge, motivation, and organizational categories for the purpose of this study. The
validated knowledge influences related to declarative understanding about the benefits of
utilizing social media, procedural about how to effectively undertake social media operations,
and metacognitive knowledge resulting from journalists self-assessing their work and adapting to
be more successful. The validated motivation influences were utility value regarding belief in
the value of social media to increase traffic, and self-efficacy about individual journalist’s
confidence in their own ability to undertake social media operations effectively. Organizational
influences were shown to exist in the areas of resources allocation, where tightened budgets were
seen to make it harder to do numerous tasks well, a lack of training, and inadequate work
processes, particularly the lack of a strategic plan that clearly set forth goals and how social
media should be integrated in wider operations at the newspaper.
This chapter uses the findings from the qualitative and quantitative data, research from
the literature review, document analysis, and the researcher’s own professional experience with
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social media in the newspaper business to draft recommendations to improve social media
performance, an integrated plan for implementing these recommendations to address the
validated knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences, and conclusions pertaining to
the totality of what was undertaken in this examination. Strengths and weaknesses of the
methodological approach are offered, as are limitations of this study and suggestions for where
and how future research could answer questions that remained to be fully answered by the
analysis and conclusions provided in this paper.
Recommendations for Practice to Address KMO Influences
Knowledge Recommendations
Introduction. Newspaper X was at the beginning of a transformative process from a
centuries-old print format to a business model based on digital formats using online distribution
vehicles. Knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences often lead to performance issues
that hamper a company’s ability to reach its organizational goals (Clark & Estes, 2008). That
was the case at this newspaper. Table 12 provides a collation of knowledge influences and
whether or not these were validated based on qualitative and quantitative data that was collected
for this examination from journalists at this outlet, the literature review, and the researcher’s
personal knowledge and experience in the work at hand. Krathwohl (2002) informed that four
knowledge types provided the basis for learning: factual, conceptual, procedural, and
metacognitive. Based on the researcher’s past experience, which was validated through data
collection, there were conceptual knowledge influences in which journalists did not appreciate
the connection between social media use and achieving performance goals, procedural influences
based on a lack of knowledge regarding how to conduct effective social media mechanics, and
metacognitive influences in which journalists did not know what it was they did not know.
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Recommendations were provided for how to address the purported knowledge influences, with
these recommendations being based on what was learned from the data collection and analysis
stages of this study. The foundation for these assumptions regarding knowledge influences and
recommendations for addressing them came from surveys of working journalists and individual
interviews with editors who had worked with social media. Understanding and addressing the
knowledge influences set the stage for tackling the motivation and organizational influences that
further inhibited the newspaper from achieving its desired digital optimization.
Declarative knowledge solutions. Reporters needed to know the benefits of effectively
integrating social media posts into content distribution and what social media platforms are most
effective at driving traffic. Clark and Estes (2008) explained that engendering effective
performance in team members depended on clarifying which operational practices in the past
worked, and which did not, so that there was a uniform understanding going forward about what
to do under varying circumstances. Uncertainty about how to achieve performance goals was
mitigated by showing someone how a similar task was accomplished successfully in the past and
making the correlation between the goal at hand and how it may be handled in a similar way.
Providing information laying out a history and cause and effect in previous operations can help
establish understanding about most appropriate courses of action to take to achieve the desired
results. The recommendation to address influences in conceptual knowledge about social media
as a tool to spread news was to provide journalists with performance data on past activities to
show correlation between certain social media operations and their results.

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Table 12
Summary of Knowledge Influences and Recommendations
Knowledge
Influence
Validated:
Yes,
Partial, or
No
(V, P, N)
Priority:
Yes, No
(Y, N) Principle and Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
Conceptual:
Reporters need to
know the benefits
of effectively
integrating social
media posts into
content distribution
and which
platforms are most
effective at driving
traffic on the
website (D).
Y Y Providing information
about procedures
undertaken in the past
helps people
understand what has
and has not worked,
which can determine
proper courses of
action going forward
(Clark & Estes, 2008).
Provide journalists
with performance
data on past activities
to show correlation
between certain
operations and their
results.
Procedural:
Reporters need to
know how to post
content, when and
where to post it to
maximize traffic
output on different
social media
platforms.
Y Y Training provides
“how to” knowledge
and skills needed to
achieve specific
organizational goals
(Clark & Estes, 2008).
Provide training to
journalists in best
practices for social
media use.
Metacognitive:
Reporters may not
self-assess their
own performance
and thus may be
unaware of how
and when to adapt
their behavior to
achieve better
performance.
Y Y Job aids can help
professionals who
have undertaken
training but need
reminders to utilize
new techniques (Clark
& Estes, 2008).
Provide job aids to
staff to remind them
to check their
performance to make
sure they are
implementing what
they have learned so
they can alter
practices accordingly.

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Jenkins (2009) studied the skills needed in the new media culture and what needed to be
taught to develop media literacy in the rapidly changing digital landscape. Students of social
media needed to learn the utility of different tools and information technologies, to know what
the technologies could do, and in what contexts they were to be trusted (Jenkins et al., 2013). As
Rueda (2011) clarified, learners needed to have knowledge about the principles and
generalizations for how to succeed in their area of focus. Central to this question at Newspaper
X were journalists acquiring a solid grasp of conceptual knowledge about what platforms could
be useful to achieve the organization’s goals. Reporters thus would have benefited from being
provided information about what had and had not worked using various social media platforms,
under similar circumstances, in pursuit of similar goals during recent context distribution
exercises.
Procedural knowledge solutions. Reporters needed to know how to post content, when
and where to post it to maximize traffic output on different social media platforms. Knowing
where to post content relied on knowing which social media vehicles generated the best results.
Research (Rueda, 2011) indicated that there are certain things one must know how to do, certain
methods and skills, to accomplish specific professional goals. Clark and Estes (2008) set forth
that training provides the “how to” knowledge and skills needed to achieve specific
organizational goals. The authors advised to use training when team members needed
demonstration, guided practice, and feedback to become adept at new practices. The
recommendation for developing necessary procedural knowledge for digital news distribution
was to provide training to journalists in best practices for social media use.
Schaffer (2013) held that there were essential components a business must understand
how to implement properly as part of a successful social media strategy. He provided a guide for
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understanding frequency and engagement factors that could help maximize social media
strategies and recommended regular training to stay on top of the latest trends in social media
practice, which were always in flux. Clark and Estes (2008) further explained that training was
recommended when the knowledge type entailed no experience or related expertise but routine
procedure. These insights bolstered why the recommendation for social media training may
assist journalists in acquiring the procedural knowledge needed to drive internet traffic using
social media vehicles.
Metacognitive knowledge solutions. Reporters may not have self-assessed their own
performance and thus may have been unaware of how and when to adapt their behavior to
achieve better performance. Clark and Estes (2008) recommended that job aids could help
professionals who have undertaken training but needed reminders to utilize new techniques.
This process worked as a self-help technique to give workers information they needed to figure
out, on their own, how to do a job to reach the organization’s performance targets. The
recommendation to aid journalists to develop this self-awareness was to provide job aids to
remind them to check their performance to make sure they were implementing what they had
learned.
Mayer (2011) showed that assessment was important to call attention to work activities
that may need improvement. Such assessment was an important tool for providing
accountability by setting forth what knowledge solutions were not having the intended effect by
showing that sufficient learning had not occurred. In this case, jobs aids could have helped
journalists self-assess their own individual performance, make a determination about what was
not sufficient in relation to organizational expectations, and alter practices accordingly.
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Motivation Recommendations
Introduction. Clark and Estes (2008) warned that motivation factors contributed
additional negative influences on achieving organizational performance goals beyond knowledge
and organizational considerations. They explained that motivation influences affected workers’
ability to begin a job, be persistent enough to complete the job, and to allocate sufficient mental
effort required to do the job satisfactorily. Based on the qualitative and quantitative data that
was collected for this study, Table 13 provides a summary of motivational influences that were
impacting Newspaper X’s performance in social media operations. Whether these influences
were validated is shown, as are recommendations to address the motivational influences based on
a literature review, the researcher’s experience in the field, and the data collection. The two
motivational influences studied were: utility value, which addressed journalists’ seeing the
importance of social media to the newspaper’s overall operational success; and self-efficacy,
which pertained to journalists’ confidence in their ability to use social media to get the job done.
Solving motivational barriers to digital excellence would allow Newspaper X to address any
organizational factors that provide roadblocks for the outlet that prevent it from cruising down
the Internet highway on the route to digital success.
Utility value. Reporters needed to see the value of social media as a tool to increase
readership traffic. Clark and Estes (2008) articulated that belief is everything, almost. If people
did not believe in the effectiveness of a particular undertaking, they were unlikely to follow
through with it wholeheartedly, with resultant negative consequences for performance. As the
authors suggested, showing employees the concrete benefit of completing certain tasks helped
them to finish doing it. At Newspaper X, helping journalists focus on the benefits of social
media would help motivate them to follow through with it. To this end, it was recommended
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that the practical utility of social media operations be thoroughly explained to reporters in
relation to reaching traffic goals.

Table 13
Summary of Motivation Influences and Recommendations
Motivation
Influence
Validated:
Yes,
Partial, No
(V, P, N)
Priority:
Yes, No
(Y, N) Principle and Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
Utility value:
Reporters need
to see the value
of social media
to increase
readership
traffic.
P Y Showing employees
the concrete benefit of
completing certain
tasks can help them
finish doing it (Clark
& Estes, 2008).
Describe to reporters
the benefits of social
media operations in
relation to reaching
traffic goals.
Self-efficacy:
Reporters need
to feel confident
in their ability to
use social media
in their work.
P Y Instilling confidence
in employees that they
have the ability to
achieve goals is an
important motivator
for improved
performance (Clark &
Estes, 2008).
Assign reporters brief
but challenging social
media tasks with
specific goals that
they can achieve to
gradually build their
confidence level in
social media
operations.

Hyder (2016) examined why social media marketing efforts commonly failed, and she
concluded that very often people simply did not believe in the ability of digital platforms to
deliver the hoped-for benefits. However, once a user understood and appreciated the advantages
of social media, using the platforms to achieve organizational goals became easier. The first step
in transforming an organization’s digital platforms was believing that the tools could transform
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them. As such, the recommendation to explain to journalists the value of social media for
reaching their online readership goals was a key solution to motivating them to use this means
for reaching the desired ends.
Self-efficacy. Reporters needed to feel confident in their ability to use social media in
their work. Research (Clark & Estes, 2008) showed that one of the most debilitating
motivational barriers to achieving organizational goals was workers’ doubts that they were
capable of getting the job done. Workers’ confidence about whether they have the necessary
skills to do a task is one of the most vital determining factors regarding their commitment to do
the job and the quality and quantity of mental effort they will invest in the job, Clark and Estes
(2008) wrote. For that reason, instilling confidence in employees that they have the ability to
achieve goals was an important motivator for improved performance. To address this need, it
was recommended that reporters be assigned brief but challenging social media tasks with
specific goals that they could achieve to gradually build their confidence level in social media
operations.
Rueda (2011) studied the motivational factors involved in effective individual and team
performance and concluded that belief in their own competence was one of the most important
variables to success. On the other hand, uncertainty about whether one could achieve stated
organizational goals was one of the most daunting roadblocks to worker motivation. The
author’s recommendation for navigating these narrow straits was to design tasks that were
challenging but doable to create an opening for one to build confidence by generating a track
record of success. This was the thinking behind the recommendation to give journalists at
Newspaper X targeted exercises to build up their confidence in their social media abilities and
thus their motivation to engage fully in the platforms in the course of their work.
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Organization Recommendations
Introduction. Organizational factors related to resources and work processes often
prohibited organizations from achieving their performance goals even when team members were
sufficiently motivated and possessed the knowledge and skills required to be successful (Clark &
Estes, 2008). The newspaper industry was no exception to this rule. During a period of intense
change in the news business, many newspapers failed to adapt to the changing times. Data
analysis, a review of the related literature, and the researcher’s experience in the news business
pointed to organizational influences that were having an impact on Newspaper X’s pursuit of its
goals to becoming a digital first media outlet. As shown in Table 14, the organizational
influences, if they were validated, their priority, and recommendations for addressing these
factors are provided. The organization influences being studied were resource allocation based
on adequate funds to accomplish social media goals, and work processes related to a strategic
plan necessary for inculcating and prioritizing social media in the greater scheme of the outlet’s
operations. Getting the organization properly ordered would position Newspaper X to compete
better in the media’s rapidly evolving digital market.
Resource allocation. One potential factor inhibiting performance at Newspaper X was
that budget cuts had hollowed out the organization, so adequate funds may not have existed for
successful social media implementation. Organizations require certain resources so employees
can do their jobs adequately to achieve goals (Clark & Estes, 2008). Even if team members have
the knowledge and skills to achieve organizational goals, and they are motivated to succeed,
optimal performance may be out of reach if adequate materials are not allocated for the
endeavor. This problem becomes acute when different departments within an organization are
competing for scarce resources. To avoid this pitfall in pursuit of greater online traffic, the
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recommendation was to align the structure of the newspaper so that adequate resources were
available for social media operations that were central to the increasing digitization of the news
business.

Table 14
Summary of Organization Influences and Recommendations
Organization
Influence
Validated:
Yes, Partial,
No
(V, P, N)
Priority:
Yes, No
(Y, N)
Principle and
Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
Resource
allocation:
Budget cuts have
hollowed out news
organizations so
adequate funds
may not exist for
successful social
media
implementation.
Y Y Organizations
require certain
resources so
employees can do
their jobs
adequately to
achieve goals
(Clark & Estes,
2008).
Align the structure of
the newspaper so that
adequate resources
are available for
social media
operations that are
central to the
increasing
digitization of the
news business.
Work processes:
Newspaper X
needs to have a
strategic plan for
including social
media into
readership goals.
Y Y Work processes
must be aligned
with goals and set
forth in a plan so
employees
understand
organizational
priorities (Clark &
Estes, 2008).
Establish and
distribute a strategic
plan with a clear
vision, goals, and
ways to measure
success.

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Herndon (2012) researched the decline of daily newspapers in the United States and
concluded that downward performance trends are based on losing the online revolution. The
author detailed two organizational factors that contributed to a failure to increase readership in
the contemporary context. First, the advent and eventual dominance of the internet as a
distributor of news created a split personality at traditional newspapers in which journalists did
not know whether their main focus should be print or digital news. This uncertainty led to
budgetary disarray in which too few resources were dedicated to trying to do too much, and as a
result no areas were financed adequately to get their intended jobs done. The recommendation to
align newspaper resources to optimize digitization through social media was intended to confront
performance problems related to resource allocation.
Work processes. Newspaper X needed to have a strategic plan for including social
media into readership goals. Clark and Estes (2008) explained that an essential tool for aligning
organizational culture with organizational behavior was carefully laying out what was expected,
and how the team would get there, in a comprehensive strategic plan. It was necessary for work
processes to be aligned with goals and set forth in a plan so employees understood organizational
priorities. Then, organizational structures and internal processes could be aligned with the stated
goals. To achieve such alignment, the recommendation was that the newspaper establish and
distribute a strategic plan with a clear vision, goals, and ways to measure success regarding the
place of social media in the overall scheme of operations.
In his study of organizational behavior, Rueda (2011) elucidated how it was necessary to
define and prioritize goals in a plan of action to provide direction to everyone within an
organization. Performance could be enhanced when team members knew clearly what was
expected of them, when, and how that fit into operations across the board. Clarifying priorities
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increased the likelihood that all the oars were in the water paddling the canoe in the same
direction. Getting everyone going in the same direction towards accelerated digitization, and
clarifying the role of social media in that process, were behind the recommendation to set forth
the newspaper’s vision and priorities in a well-circulated strategic plan.
Integrated Implementation and Evaluation Plan
Implementation and Evaluation Framework
The model that was used to design this integrated implementation and evaluation plan
was the New World Kirkpatrick Model. This model was based on four levels of training
evaluation that together can help identify and address issues that were important to
organizational success: reaction, learning, behavior, and results (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick,
2016). The New World Kirkpatrick Model provided an evaluation approach that lead to a
training plan that could be implemented to address any knowledge, motivation, and
organizational influences discussed in the previous sections of this chapter. The original
Kirkpatrick model, designed in the 1950s, looked at results last; the new, updated model inverted
the order of the four levels to consider results first and work upwards from that point. As
explained by Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2016), the four levels were: results, which show
whether desired outcomes have been achieved following training; behavior, which showed
whether or not employees applied what they have learned during training when they were back at
work; learning, which entailed the knowledge, skills, and commitment to the necessary
operations at hand as exemplified by their engagement in training; and, reaction, which measured
whether staff found the training useful and relevant to their work. In this study, the New World
Kirkpatrick Model provided a framework for creating an effective training structure that offered
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solutions to influences that were preventing Newspaper X from reaching its performance
potential in the social media context.
Organizational Purpose, Need and Expectations
Newspaper X was one of the most recognized general interest, daily newspapers in the
United States. The newspaper’s mission was to inform readers and be on the forefront of media
transformation by staying ahead of the competition with innovative digital platforms. The goal,
which had become standard in the industry, was to replace print readership with digital readers
and expand online traffic so that digital revenue would grow to the point that print editions of the
newspaper could be discontinued. The problem was digital traffic growth was not expanding at a
pace sufficient to generate the necessary advertising revenue growth, which was based on a
simple headcount of readers, how many articles each one read, and how much time they spent on
the newspaper’s website. The organization needed digital news to compensate for the implosion
of print news. The news content section, the stakeholder group at issue in this study, had a goal
to attract 25% traffic growth for newspaper content annually using social media platforms. The
reason for this goal was that successes and challenges could be studied in an experimental study
and then be adapted and applied across the organization once the lessons learned had been
established. This directly related to the organization’s goal to become a digital-only publication
because social media platforms were some of the main tools available for driving increased
readership on the internet. The expectation was that the desired outcome would be reached with
the pilot project, but that the methods employed to get there differed substantially from what
surveys and interviews showed was standard operating procedure throughout the newspaper.
This study thus shined the light down an important but heretofore unlit path to organizational
change.
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Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators
Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2016) defined the desired results as being the degree to
which training brought about the desired outcome. They explained that leading indicators were
measurements and observations that showed over a short term whether critical behaviors were
leading to those desired outcomes. At Newspaper X, the desired outcome was to generate more
newspaper traffic by using social media platforms to distribute news content. One benefit of
digital media was that everything was easily measurable, and data reports could be run on
autopilot. Metrics that needed to be measured included overall online readership numbers,
traffic produced from social media links, which journalists were or were not responsible for
those pageviews, and digital advertising revenue that was generated as a result of these
operations. As shown in Table 15, observing the practices of individual journalists, in
conjunction with a report listing the performance of each journalist, could provide a thorough
overview of whether critical behaviors were being undertaken sufficiently to put operations on
track to achieve the targeted traffic growth.

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Table 15
Metrics and Methods for External and Internal Outcomes
Outcome Metric(s) Method(s)
External Outcomes
Newspaper readership
increases online.
Traffic numbers. Daily, weekly, and monthly
reports.
More digital ads are
purchased.
Advertising revenue dollars. Weekly and monthly reports.
Reputation for being one of
the industry’s new media
leaders is enhanced.
Perception among peer
groups.
Reviews in media industry
publications.
Internal Outcomes
Staff effective use of social
media to distribute news
content leads to more
internet traffic.
Number of clicks that come
from social media.
Daily, weekly, and monthly
reports from the editor show
the origin of pageviews.
Journalists improve in the
mechanics of posting
content on social media.
A “batting lineup” kept by the
editor to keep track of what is
being done correctly (or
incorrectly) by whom.
Weekly progress reports
provided to individual
journalists broken down by
daily performance.

Level 3: Behavior
Critical behaviors. To reach the organization’s goals, it was important to make sure that
consistent progress was being made towards those goals. Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2016)
recommended checking behavior to measure whether staff learning was leading towards the
desired results. As shown in Table 16, performance data pertaining to individual journalists
needed to show progress in generating online traffic growth generally and through the use of
social media platforms to demonstrate that movement was being made toward achieving the
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desired digital outcomes. Lack of progress necessitated closer attention and intervention by the
editor into what was lacking in the critical behavior of those individuals who were not moving
forward.

Table 16
Critical Behaviors, Metrics, Methods, and Timing for Evaluation
Critical Behavior Metric(s) Method(s) Timing
Editor requests
spreadsheet on online
traffic performance of
journalists.
Pageviews attained
per journalist.
Most recent
performance
available is compared
to previous intervals.
Daily, weekly,
and monthly.
Editor requests
spreadsheet on online
traffic performance of
journalists that was
gained through social
media posting.
Pageviews attained
per journalist from
social media posts.
Most recent
performance
available is compared
to previous intervals.
Daily, weekly,
and monthly.
Editor meets with
journalists to review
progress of social media
operations.
Attendance log to
show when and
which journalists
followed through
with meetings.
Kept by the editor’s
executive assistant.
Every month.
(Every week if
sufficient
progress is not
being shown.)

Required drivers. Success in achieving organizational goals did not happen on its own.
Positive results were the culmination of a process that led to the desired outcome. Intrinsic to
this process were drivers, which entailed the systems and methods which inculcated and
validated the necessary behaviors that employees needed to undertake in pursuit of the
organization’s goals (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). Newspaper X needed to develop
processes and actions that reinforced, encouraged, and rewarded successful performance related
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to these critical behaviors. As shown in Table 17, this included seeking out what was needed to
succeed, providing it, discussing progress and problems along the way, and making a routine
practice of publicly encouraging further effort and identifying success. No man is an island, and
most success is not accomplished in isolation. Attaining the newspaper’s goals would be the
result of a process that engendered progress as a team using established drivers to get ahead.

Table 17
Required Drivers to Support Critical Behaviors
Method(s) Timing
Critical
Behaviors
Supported
1, 2, 3 Etc.
Reinforcing
Editor provides journalists with a help sheet inquiring about areas
where more information about social media is needed.
Ongoing 1, 2
Editor provides job aid to journalists for how to how to properly
utilize social media.
Ongoing 1, 2
Editor meets with journalists weekly to discuss problems with
social media implementation.
Ongoing 3
Encouraging
Hold team meeting with journalists to discuss the success of social
media operations in relation to reaching traffic goals.
Monthly 1, 2, 3
Progress reports highlighting high achievers. Quarterly 1, 2, 3
Rewarding
Identify progress, both by individuals and the team, in open
forums during staff meetings.
Monthly staff
meetings
1, 2, 3
Establish a social media award for highest traffic generator using
social media platforms.
Annual
company awards
luncheon
1, 2, 3

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Monitoring. The digital editor at Newspaper X would construct and launch a process for
searching out, providing, and monitoring journalists’ requests for further information regarding
social media use for distribution of news content. The editor would track each journalist’s
development in relation to utilizing established protocols and learning opportunities in pursuit of
their individual part that is necessary to reach the organization’s goals. Journalists would be
asked to address their progress in individual meetings with the digital editor, and noteworthy
progress made by individuals and the team as a whole announced during staff meetings. Areas
where improvement was needed would be handled in the same manner. Spreadsheets kept by the
digital editor kept track of individual journalist’s performance in light of established
expectations.
Level 2: Learning
Learning goals. In order to perform the critical behaviors necessary to achieving
Newspaper X’s goals, journalists needed to be able to undertake or realize specific things in
context of their performance. These included:
1. Apply steps necessary to receive needed information about the conducting of social
media operations as a tool for news distribution (P)
2. Describe the role of social media in newspaper operations (M)
3. Explain the importance of digital media as part of the digital transformation of news
(M)
4. Apply the steps for most effective posting of content on social media platforms (P)
5. Generate a plan to inculcate social media operations into the general news operation
(P)
6. Value the role of social media in attaining the newspaper’s traffic targets (M)
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7. Attribute the success and failure to achieve traffic targets to one’s own social media
efforts (M)
8. Feel efficacious about utilizing social media to attain organizational and individual
goals (M)
9. Be confident that one can effectively use social media to generate greater online
traffic (M)
Program. The goals listed in the previous section would be achieved with regular
interaction between the digital editor, sub-editors, and journalists who used social media to
distribute news content. This included focus on social media operations and their importance in
weekly department staff meetings and opportunities to refine social media skills at monthly
digital workshops held on campus. At every meeting between the editor and staff, whether
formal or informal, the opportunity to promote the digital first message would be prevailed upon
to engender an understanding of the importance of social media to the future digital orientation
of the newspaper. At digital workshops, instructors demonstrated the procedures for effective
social media posting, and journalists would be given the opportunity to practice their skills with
the help of on-site instruction in real time, and the use of cheat sheets and jobs aids reminded
them of social media best practices. The goal of these exercises was the increase in knowledge
and intellectual capability due to learning opportunities offered to team members responsible for
achieving organizational goals (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016).
Components of learning. It was vital to evaluate journalists’ learning to know whether
training was having the intended effect of helping the team achieve the newspaper’s goals.
Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2016) instructed that there were five components that must be
measured to effectively evaluate learning: knowledge, skills, attitude, confidence, and
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commitment that was made evident by staff participation in training that was offered by the
organization. In Table 18, the methods, activities, and timing are shown that evaluate the
journalist learning of the social media skills that were necessary to do their jobs. Skill tests,
group discussions, and quizzes were used to determine if journalists know what they need to
know. Checklists and scenarios to demonstrate social media solutions help determine if
journalists could do what was necessary at the moment. Group discussions, question and answer
and sessions, and editor observation of their subordinates would be undertaken to gauge if
journalists found the training to be worthwhile. Coaching, team discussions, surveys, and
question and answer opportunities help determine whether journalists were able to implement
their leaning after the training was over when they were back on the job. Open discussions about
any possible issues, editor check-ins and observation of individual journalists, and action plans
laying out how team members implemented their learning would evaluate the commitment of
journalists to use the new skills they gained. The goal of this evaluation was to figure out if the
intended level of learning was occurring that was necessary for Newspaper X to more effectively
pursue its digital goals using social media platforms in the online distribution of news content.

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Table 18
Components of Learning for the Program
Method(s) or Activity(ies) Timing
Declarative Knowledge: “I know it.”
Have skill tests checking social media ability After training sessions
Have group discussions to share social media best practices and lessons
learned
During and after
training sessions
Before and after quizzes to measure social media knowledge and progress Before and after
training sessions
Procedural Skills: “I can do it right now.”
Provide a how-to “cheat sheet” laying out appropriate social media steps to
take
During training
sessions
Provide examples of situations in which specific social media social media
solutions were utilized as solutions for routine organizational problems
During and after
training sessions
Attitude: “I believe this is worthwhile.”
Hold group discussions about the utility and justification for social media
activities
Before and during
training sessions
Hold question and answer session to discuss any problems or questions
regarding social media practices
During training
sessions
Real-time observation of editors Before, during, and
after training sessions
Confidence: “I think I can do it on the job.”
Provide opportunity for team conversations in small groups to discuss
social media challenges
During and after
training sessions
Provide coaching After
Hold question and answer sessions During training
Provide surveys to gauge social media ability Before and after
training
Commitment: “I will do it on the job.”
Hold open forum on all aspects of social media practices During and after
training sessions
Have editor check-ins to determine individual progress After training
Have journalists develop action plans laying out how they will put into
practice what they have learned
After training session

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Level 1: Reaction
It was important to gauge whether journalists found the social media training that was
provided by the newspaper to be useful to their jobs to determine if the methods employed
served the purpose of helping them achieve organizational goals. Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick
(2016) informed that there were three components to evaluate to determine staff reaction to
training: engagement, relevance, and customer satisfaction. In Table 19, the methods are shown
that needed to be employed to evaluate each of these areas. The timing was a combination of
during and after the training sessions were held. Engagement of individual journalists was
measured by taking attendance at training sessions, moderating discussions about meaningful
questions about social media operations, exercises to put new skills into practice, and editor
interaction with journalists to assure that was learned was being put into practice going forward.
Surveys and editor check-ins with journalists would be used to measure their view of the
relevance of the training to their individual, team, and organizational goals. Lastly, customer
satisfaction would be measured through anonymous surveys and trainer observation of trainees
in real time while the training was being conducted. The goal of evaluating journalist reaction to
training was to keep it simple and timed very close to when the training occurred. This made it
easier to make changes if they were deemed necessary to increase the engagement, relevance,
and customer satisfaction so that training would be more effective in the future (Kirkpatrick &
Kirkpatrick, 2016).

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Table 19
Components to Measure Reactions to the Program
Method(s) or Tool(s) Timing
Engagement
Keep records of individual attendance At the beginning of each
training session
Engage journalists with in-depth discussion and questions
about social media at the newspaper
During training sessions
Have journalists undertake practice exercises to utilize what
they are learning
During and after training
sessions
Editor interaction to keep journalist focus on implementation
of new skills
After training session
Relevance
Survey inquiring about usefulness to individuals At the end of each training
session
Editor check-in and observation Immediately after training
session
Customer Satisfaction
Trainer observation of journalist behavior During training sessions
Anonymous written survey in training room After each training session

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Evaluation Tools
Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2016) recommended a blended evaluation approach in
which many perspectives were evaluated covering multiple levels at the same time. The
perspective of a trainee could change over time as new knowledge and skills settle in and were
put into practice so it was useful to evaluate at different times in relation to the training to
develop a reliable gauge for what was accomplishing what was intended and what needed to be
changed going forward. The two evaluation periods for this study were to be conducted
immediately following the program implementation and also delayed for a period after the
program implementation.
Immediately following the program implementation. After each social media training
session, journalists would be asked to evaluate the training program to measure the effectiveness
of delivering the desired knowledge and skills to help in the pursuit of organizational goals. The
evaluation tool used immediately following the program implementation focused on Level 1
reaction and Level 2 learning factors. The rating was on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 representing a
low level of agreement with the statement proffered, and 5 signifying a high degree of
agreement. In addition to survey questions with set answers and open-ended questions, editors
monitored journalists after training to observe whether journalist perception of the training
complements what actually was occurring on the job. Table 20 shows a sample of evaluation
tools to be used immediately after training. These items provided a general overview of
journalists’ perceptions about the social media training they took in close proximity to the
sessions themselves.

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Table 20
Evaluation Tool (Sample) Immediately After Training
Level 1 Category Item
Engagement Survey question: This training session held my interest through the
entirety of the social media program.
Relevance Survey question: What I learned during this social media training
session will help me on the job.
Customer
Satisfaction
Open-ended survey question: How could this social media training
program be improved?
Level 2 Category Item
Declarative
Knowledge
Open-ended question: What did you learn about social media during this
training session?
Procedural Skills Open-ended question: What are the steps for properly posting news
content using social media vehicles?
Attitude Question: I believe applying what I learned about social media during
this training session will be worthwhile for my work.
Confidence Survey question: Do you feel confident that you will be able to apply
what you learned about social media when you are back on the job?
Commitment Open-ended question: How do you plan to apply what you have learned
about social media when you are back on the job?

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Delayed for a period after the program implementation. Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick
(2016) advised that mixed methods of evaluation were most effective at deciphering the
effectiveness of training programs. For that reason, as shown in Table 21, a combination of
survey questions with fixed answers and open-ended questions would be asked thirty days after
training to monitor the perceived effectiveness of the sessions after journalists were back
working on their jobs. The period provided enough time on the job to see if journalists were
using what they learned in training, while allowing an opportunity to intervene before too much
time was wasted if they were not utilizing new skills. The rating for survey questions was set on
a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 representing a low level of agreement with the statement proffered, and 5
signifying a high degree of agreement. These items helped evaluate the training using
Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of results, behavior, learning, and reaction to monitor it in context
with journalists undertaking their everyday professional duties.

Table 21
Evaluation Tool (Sample) Completed 30 Days After Training
Category Item
Results Open-ended question: What success have you had at increasing online traffic
using social media after taking this social media training?
Behavior Question: I have successfully applied what I learned about social media in the
training session since I have been back at work.
Learning Survey question: I understand the mechanics of social media and the steps to
most effectively posting news content using social media platforms.
Reaction Question: What about social media that you learned in the training session has
been relevant to your job?

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Data Analysis and Reporting
One of the benefits of digitally-based news products was that everything was instantly
measurable. The online traffic performance of every article or piece of news content, every
subject matter area, and each individual journalist or department could be measured on an
annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily, or even real-time basis. Digital monitoring programs
automatically tracked performance and produced reports on all of these factors and time periods.
Access to these reports was a different matter. At the time of the study, a digital dashboard
available to all journalists in the Newspaper X newsroom displayed performance of individual
news stories in real time so everyone could view their performance at the moment compared to
their peers. However, aggregated data covering lengthier periods of time was kept at the
purview of the editors and executive team so that they could evaluate and discuss action items
when necessary at their discretion. This analysis and evaluation would occur at the weekly,
monthly, and annual senior executives meetings during which performance issues and the
ongoing digitization of the outlet were routinely addressed. Editors in charge of news
departments and social media operations would have access to all of the automatically generated
reports. They would share data regarding progress, or lack of progress, in social media
operations at their individual staff meetings with their respective teams on a weekly and monthly
basis and be empowered to make changes in operations at the department level to enhance
results. Table 22 shows a sample dashboard that would display traffic performance growth
progress due to social media utilization by individual journalists and departments on a graduated
basis.

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Table 22
Sample Weekly Dashboard Reporting on Social Media-Driven Traffic Progress
Result Target Actual
Previous
Week
Social media-generated traffic growth for Journalist1 100% 95% 75%
Social media-generated traffic growth for Journalist2 100% 15% 5%
Social media-generated traffic growth for Sports 100% 25% 50%
Social media-generated traffic growth for Opinion 100% 75% 70%
Social media-generated traffic growth for Domestic News 100% 75% 55%
Social media-generated traffic growth for International
News
100% 10% 15%

Summary
The purpose of this examination was to evaluate and provide training to improve social
media performance by journalists tasked with increasing online traffic for news content at
Newspaper X. The outlet was undergoing an operational transformation into being a digital first
publication, so it was imperative to identify where there were knowledge, motivation, or
organizational influences on success and to find solutions for them. A vital component in the
ongoing digitization of the news business was social media, but journalists had varying degrees
of experience and comfort with these new media platforms. The New World Kirkpatrick Model
was utilized to plan, evaluate, and implement a training regimen that could set a standard for
social media optimization across the newspaper, monitor progress towards the targeted
outcomes, and follow through to increase general concurrence by journalists to the new skills
necessary for success. Change was coming fast to the old world of newspapers. Newspaper X
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needed to constantly adapt to survive and be competitive in the information revolution. Effective
evaluation and training were central to such competitiveness. This chapter laid out a program to
help journalists use social media to reach the newspaper’s digital goals.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Approach
There were strengths and weaknesses to using the Clark and Estes (2008) gap analysis
framework as the guiding organizational structure for this study. The first strength was that
having a ready-made methodological approach already set to cut down on time that otherwise
would have been spent on finding and comparing various methodological approaches to decide
on one for this project. Not having to do that allowed the researcher to accelerate work on the
study itself, notably on the time-consuming data collection process. The other organizational
strength of this framework was that the knowledge, motivation, and organization structure
provided categories into which many organizational problems can easily be fit. For this
particular study, the weakness of the approach relied mainly in the narrowness of examining
barriers at only a single organization. It was true that the purpose was to provide
recommendations that lead to performance improvement at the newspaper in question, but
limiting data collection to input mainly from staff at the troubled institution risked missing
valuable insights that may have existed at competitors but were unknown at Newspaper X due to
persistent group think, a draining of creativity after years of layoffs, or other negative factors
unique to the circumstances at this one place. Although it would be more time-consuming,
research into several organizations could have provided useful data and led to helpful
recommendations applicable to all of the businesses examined.
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Limitations
There were several limitations to this study that became apparent during the data
collection process or after during the data analysis stage. One trend that was exposed was the
significant difference in responses in the in-person interviews and the surveys, the latter of which
could be perceived to benefit from more of a sense of anonymity on the part of the respondent.
Part of this could be explained by an expected difference of views between higher-level
managers and staff lower in the organizational pecking order given that the interviews were
conducted with editors with managerial and executive responsibility and surveys involved a
broader group across different rungs on the hierarchical ladder. For example, editors in
interviews were less likely to criticize organizational priorities and planning and more likely to
express confidence in the benefits of current operations because they were the ones in charge of
implementing them. In the researcher’s experience, it was common for many managers to avoid
rocking the boat. In a similar vein, in relation to managers who were interviewed tending to tow
the company line more than the broader survey group, the editors seemed in interviews to want
to impart how much they knew rather than focus on the institutional challenges and insights
about organizational underperformance. This raised the question whether there was more
leeriness about being forthright about problems at the newspaper in a one-on-one, in-person
setting.
During the course of this study, the lead researcher’s role at the organization under
review changed in a way that provided less access to internal documents and data than had been
envisioned when the research plan for this project was conceptualized, which led to less reliance
on document analysis and more concentration on qualitative and quantitative data. One area
where this had a negative impact on access to relevant information was the pilot project.
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Performance results from this experiment were only provided in an annual summary and broken
down into monthly, weekly or daily progress reports, which made it impossible to assess
incremental progress or declines or to identify performance trends. Data provided likewise did
not break down social media performance by individual platform but generally reported that the
entirety of the traffic increase derived from social media distribution was due to Facebook
promotion.
The other two data collection limitations to this study were related to the upheaval at the
newspaper due to internal changes that were ongoing during the entirety of the project. For
example, organizational and performance goals related to readership targets changed midstream.
Fortunately, this did not overly disrupt research for this project in ways that were not fixable, but
it did reinforce the helter-skelter operational nature of a company in the midst of undergoing
major internal and external changes while being examined. More disruptive, and in a way that
could affect the reliability of some data, was the constant turnover of staff. When the surveys
were conducted, it was generally known that another series of layoffs were on the horizon after
years of ongoing downsizing. Often, employees knew if they were in the line of fire in an
upcoming round of dismissals. That awareness understandably could engender a negative view
of the organization that could come out in survey items that otherwise might be answered more
objectively in happier circumstances.
There were several more general limitations that were taken into consideration while
undertaking this study. The first is that although the subject of social media was being
considered in general, only one social media platform was confirmed by the opinion editor as
being a traffic driver: Facebook. There were numerous other social media platforms in use, and
several that were very popular with even higher participant engagement numbers than Facebook,
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but the newspaper would not provide data broken down into numerous platforms. A longer
study could address multiple platforms for a more specific overview of more technological
platforms. This potential limitation was taken into account and addressed by consulting
literature in the field to determine which platforms were considered to have the most direct
correlation to the problem of practice being studied, which was the decline in newspaper
readership. There could be some limitations posed by the relative truthfulness, or lack thereof, of
the respondents given that the focus of this study was directly related to their job performance in
a current hot topic in their profession, making honest admission of unfamiliarity or remedial
ability not guaranteed when it may be a factor. This was addressed by using a large enough
sample to minimize the effects of such factors, and by comparing data results in interviews and
surveys to look for trends in attitudes to establish general parameters that represented typical
responses. There may be some uncertainty about the generalizability of the results as they
applied to the industry as a whole, but the purpose of this study was to examine a problem of
practice at one specific organization, Newspaper X. The intended conclusion of this study was to
derive results and make recommendations for this one outlet, so organization-specific findings
were suitable.
Future Research
One area for further study would be to conduct the same survey items that were involved
in this project at the same newspaper during a period of less institutional disruption. The
ownership, executive leadership, management, and a large percentage of the staff changed or
were reassigned during the three years of this review. Some of this uncertainty was to be
expected in an industry that had been in a freefall for a couple decades, but the neverending
internal conflict related to constant change did beg the question if data would have borne out
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124
different results in even a slightly more peaceful work environment with a stabilized staffing
situation. Likewise, further examination of the same themes conducted at other newspapers
could lead to valuable insights as to the similarity of the performance barriers and failure to meet
goals elsewhere in the industry. Future research beyond one newspaper could help identify
knowledge, motivation, and organizational challenges industry-wide that lead to determining
solutions for more than one institution. The final area that could deliver interesting results would
be further research investigating any connection between demographic data and trends in social
media preferences and usage. The quantitative data for this study showed that younger
journalists were more convinced that social media could enhance their individual personal brand
than skeptical older journalists were, but the numbers did not provide more insight on a broader
scale regarding demographics. A study examining that subject might provide answers that would
prove useful in developing solutions for tackling the problem of social media underperformance
when it comes to driving internet traffic.
Conclusion
The newspaper business was reeling for many years due to a technological shift by
readers to digital formats and the subsequent decline of print products and their important
revenue-producing advertising. The advent of cable television news created a 24-7 news cycle
that subsequently was outpaced by the growth of social media and its constant flow of
information that was updated by the second in real time. Newspapers tried to take advantage of
the digital wave by moving news content online and dedicating substantial financial and
personnel resources to trying to drive reader traffic using social media platforms. This timely
study took one of the most prominent newspapers in the United States and evaluated knowledge,
motivation, and organizational influences that may have prevented the newspaper from attaining
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125
greater digital success by effectively utilizing social media. Qualitative data derived from
interviews with newspaper editors and quantitative data from surveys of a broader group of
journalists at Newspaper X validated the existence of these influences and helped lead to the
formulation of recommendations to improve attitude and practices and the development of an
implementation plan to foster better social media performance. The lessons learned from this
study served not only as a model to improve social media’s effectiveness at increasing readership
traffic at the newspaper under review but for the besieged newspaper industry in general.

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APPENDIX A
SURVEY ITEMS
1. Social media is a useful reporting tool. Circle one:
Definitely agree (1)
Agree (2)
Not sure (3)
Disagree (4)
Definitely disagree (5)

2. Social media is effective at distributing news content to readers. Circle one:
Definitely agree (1)
Agree (2)
Not sure (3)
Disagree (4)
Definitely disagree (5)

3. Social media helps build brand awareness with the public. Circle one:
Definitely agree (1)
Agree (2)
Not sure (3)
Disagree (4)
Definitely disagree (5)

4. Social media is a vital part of our news operation. Circle one:
Definitely agree (1)
Agree (2)
Not sure (3)
Disagree (4)
Definitely disagree (5)

5. Social media is a waste of time. Circle one:
Definitely agree (1)
Agree (2)
Not sure (3)
Disagree (4)
Definitely disagree (5)

6. Do you use social media professionally?
No, I do not use social media at work. (1)
Yes, I do use social media at work. (2)

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If yes, please pick which social media platforms you use at work from the dropdown list
below (you may click on more than one):
a. Facebook
b. Twitter
c. Instagram
d. Pinterest
e. LinkedIn
f. Flickr
g. Tumblr
h. YouTube
i. Other, please write in

7. Do you use social media in your personal life?
No, I do not use social media in my personal life. (1)
Yes, I do use social media in my personal life. (2)

If yes, please pick which social media platforms you use for personal reasons from the
dropdown list below (you may click on more than one):
a. Facebook
b. Twitter
c. Instagram
d. Pinterest
e. LinkedIn
f. Flickr
g. Tumblr
h. YouTube
i. Other, please write in:

8. Management has made social media operations a priority. Circle one:
Definitely agree (1)
Agree (2)
Not sure (3)
Disagree (4)
Definitely disagree (5)

9. The goals for our social media operations are clearly set forth in a strategic plan that lays out
how social media fits into the rest of the organization’s activities. Circle one:
Definitely agree (1)
Agree (2)
Not sure (3)
Disagree (4)
Definitely disagree (5)

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10. Do you have the necessary training to perform assigned social media tasks. Circle one:
Definitely agree (1)
Agree (2)
Not sure (3)
Disagree (4)
Definitely disagree (5)

11. What are your feelings about the allocation of financial resources for social media operations.
Circle one:
Significantly too many financial resources are allocated to social media (1)
A little too much funding is allocated for social media (2)
Adequate financial resources are allocated for social media (3)
A little more funding should be allocated for social media (4)
Significantly too few financial resources are allocated to social media (5)

12. What are your feelings about the allocation of personnel resources for social media
operations. Circle one:
Significantly too many personnel resources are allocated to social media (1)
A little too much staffing is allocated for social media (2)
Adequate personnel resources are allocated for social media (3)
A little more staffing should be allocated for social media (4)
Significantly too few personnel resources are allocated to social media (5)

13. It is important for me to use social media to increase newspaper traffic. Circle one:
Definitely agree (1)
Somewhat agree (2)
Don’t have any feeling one way or another (3)
Somewhat disagree (4)
Definitely disagree (5)

14. It is important for me to use social media to enhance my own individual public profile as a
journalist. Circle one:
Definitely agree (1)
Somewhat agree (2)
Don’t have any feeling one way or another (3)
Somewhat disagree (4)
Definitely disagree (5)

15. I regularly self-assess my own social media performance to see where I could perform better.
Circle one:
Definitely agree (1)
Agree (2)
Not sure (3)
Disagree (4)
Definitely disagree (5)

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16. I am confident in my ability to use social media at work. Circle one:
Definitely agree (1)
Agree (2)
Not sure (3)
Disagree (4)
Definitely disagree (5)

17. How long have you been a journalist? Circle one:
0 to 5 years (1)
6 to 10 years (2)
11 to 15 years (3)
16 to 20 years (4)
Over 20 years (5)

18. How old are you? Circle one:
20 to 25 (1)
26 to 30 (2)
30 to 40 (3)
40 to 50 (4)
Over 50 (5)

19. What is your gender? Circle one:
Male (1)
Female (2)
Other (3)
If other, please identify:

20. What is your race? Circle one:
African-American (1)
Asian (2)
Hispanic (3)
Pacific islander (4)
White (5)

21. Is there anything else you would like to add about your, your outlet’s or the industry’s
attitudes and practices towards social media, or recommendations for how it should be used?

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APPENDIX B
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What do you think about social media as a means to increase online readership?

2. In what ways, if at all, have your impressions of social media changed over time regarding its
utility to drive traffic?

3. In your opinion, what caused that change?

4. How, if at all, is using social media an effective means to advance your organization?

5. Overall, do you find social media has improved the news business or hurt it? Why?

6. Can you describe an instance or way social media has presented itself as useful to aspects of
promoting readership, bottom line, reputation or other quality that you wish to see advanced?

7. What is the reason for using social media at your outlet? Do you see that social media has
value to generate traffic?

8. Does your organization value the role of social media as part of the news business?

9. Does your industry value social media as a necessary part of media work?

10. Does your organization have a strategic plan laying out how social media fits with the rest of
the organization’s operations and goals? Do you think social media is sufficiently inculcated
and prioritized in your operations?

11. What’s your overall approach for how you should integrate social media operations into
other efforts to increase online readership?

12. When you think about your approaches to social media, what have you thought about
regarding what you should or should not do?

13. What do you think is important when considering how you should use social media to
increase traffic?

14. There are competing views about quantity versus quality regarding how much or how little
content should be posted for social media to be effective. What are your views about
frequency of posting?

15. Is there something social media helps you accomplish, or will help you accomplish, at your
outlet regarding readership?

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16. How exactly do you use social media to increase traffic? Are there tricks of the trade that you
use to help push traffic along?

17. What, if anything, do you think is not useful about social media regarding traffic generation?

18. Can you describe an example where a social media initiative did not turn out as planned,
either more or less positively, in relation to generating readership growth? And did you do
anything differently afterwards?

19. What are you views, if any, about the allocation of resources that are dedicated to social
media operations at the newspaper? Are they adequate, and if not, should more or less
funding and personnel go towards social media?

20. How, if at all, might current social media practices in your organization be altered to improve
outcomes associated with using social media?

21. How confident are you in your ability to use social media to generate traffic?

22. Do you use social media in your personal life? Which platforms?

23. Does your organization provide training, mentoring, or other assistance to provide team
members with direction in social media?

24. What do you see as the challenges and benefits of using social media at your organization?

25. Is there anything else you would like to add regarding social media practice or your views on
the subject?

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE DECLINE OF U.S. NEWSPAPERS

142
APPENDIX C
RECRUITMENT SCRIPT
Hello, my name is Brett M. Decker. I am a doctoral student at the University of Southern
California in the Rossier School of Education. I am conducting research on the use of social
media at news organizations, and I am inviting you to participate because you are an editor at a
news outlet with a large digital presence.

Participation in this research entails an interview about your attitudes toward, and experience
using, social media. This interview will take approximately 60 minutes. The identity of you and
your organization will be kept strictly confidential.

If you have any questions or would like to participate in the research, I can be reached at
brett.decker@gmail.com or (202)870-1123.

Thank you for your consideration,

Brett M. Decker

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE DECLINE OF U.S. NEWSPAPERS

143
APPENDIX D
INFORMED CONSENT/INFORMATION SHEET
University of Southern California
Rossier School of Education
3470 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, CA 90089
INFORMATION/FACTS SHEET FOR EXEMPT NON-MEDICAL RESEARCH

SOCIAL MEDIA AS A DRIVER OF NEWS TRAFFIC
You are invited to participate in a research study. Research studies include only people who
voluntarily choose to take part. This document explains information about this study. You should
ask questions about anything that is unclear to you.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This research study aims to understand how the utilization of social media vehicles to distribute
news content can be used to drive digital audience growth. One nationally known newspaper
maintains two hundred separate Twitter feeds and fifty Facebook pages along with a sizable
presence on numerous other platforms. The purpose of this study is to determine what, if any,
benefit to online traffic is derived from this commitment of financial and personnel resources at a
time when most print-based media companies are sustaining year-after-year of operating losses
and declining readership. One benefit of the study will be to determine what works, what does
not, and whether there are best practices conducted by some outlets that could be emulated by
others who are not using social media successfully to spur traffic growth. The research is being
conducted to present a promising practice for how social media can be used effectively to
increase the online presence of news organizations.

PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT

If you agree to take part in this study, you will be asked to participate in a 30-60-minute audio-
taped interview about social media practices under your supervision at your news outlet. You do
not have to answer any questions you don’t want to; if you don’t want to be taped, handwritten
notes will be taken.

CONFIDENTIALITY

The confidentiality of participants is a priority of this study. Any identifiable information
obtained in connection with this study will remain confidential. Your responses will be coded
with false names for you and your organization to disguise your identity and that of your outlet.
All information regarding personal involvement will be maintained separately for an indefinite
period of time in an encrypted file available only to the researcher, with no paper copies
SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE DECLINE OF U.S. NEWSPAPERS

144
produced at any time. The only two individuals who will have access to the initial raw
information are the researcher and his transcriber. The audio-tapes will be destroyed once they
have been transcribed, and the transcriber will be working under a strict confidentiality contract.
Once the transcription is complete, you have the option of reviewing the content for accuracy
and final approval for use in the study.

The members of the research team and the University of Southern California’s Human Subjects
Protection Program (HSPP) may access the data. The HSPP reviews and monitors research
studies to protect the rights and welfare of research subjects.

When the results of the research are published or discussed in conferences, no identifiable
information will be used.

INVESTIGATOR CONTACT INFORMATION

Principal Investigator Brett M. Decker via email at brett.decker@gmail.com or phone at
(202)870-1123, or Faculty Advisor Dr. Kimberly Hirabayashi at hirabaya@usc.edu or (213)740-
3470

IRB CONTACT INFORMATION

University Park Institutional Review Board (UPIRB), 3720 South Flower Street #301, Los
Angeles, CA 90089-0702, (213) 821-5272 or upirb@usc.edu

Abstract (if available)

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Asset Metadata

Creator Decker, Brett M. (author)

Core Title Social media and the decline of U.S. newspapers: the role of learning in digital media transformation

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Organizational Change and Leadership (On Line)

Publication Date 06/21/2020

Defense Date 04/02/2018

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag facebook,media,newspapers,OAI-PMH Harvest,social media,social networking,Twitter

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Hirabayashi, Kimberly (committee chair), Crawford, Jenifer (committee member), Krop, Cathy Sloane (committee member)

Creator Email bdecker@usc.edu,brett.decker@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c40-504992

Unique identifier UC11266899

Identifier etd-DeckerBret-6342.pdf (filename),usctheses-c40-504992 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-DeckerBret-6342.pdf

Dmrecord 504992

Document Type Dissertation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Decker, Brett M.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA