Where Technology and Content Fuse: Applying Technology Acceptance to the Usage of and Payment for Digital Journalism

Abstract

This paper investigates drivers of technology acceptance of and payment for digital journalism. Environments in which digital media content and technology are fused from the perspective of the user, have yet to be researched with technology acceptance models. In this paper, we subsume digital journalistic content as such technology and investigate how the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) explains the use of journalism. Further, we extend traditional acceptance research by investigating not only usage, but payment intention and behavior. To this end, we refer to a representative survey of the German online population ([Formula: see text]) and estimate effects within the framework of a structural equation model. The results reveal that the traditional model is better suited to explain usage, but can also explain a substantial part of the variance in payment. Above all, price value, hedonic motivation and social influence appear to have the strongest positive effects on intent and behavior. Surprisingly, effort expectancy has a positive influence on paying intent. Managers who engage in content creation should highlight these aspects. The findings further contribute towards a much needed, better understanding of user behavior across technologies.