Never Mind the Source? The Drivers of User Engagement With Politicians’ Online News-Sharing Posts in 15 European Countries

Politicians on social media curate the flow of information their followers are exposed to, and they share news as a way to do so. Previous research has shown that they are strategic in their selection of news stories—they select specific news items and outlets to appeal to their online audiences. The reach of politicians’ news-sharing posts and their possible effects, are, however, influenced by the extent to which individual social media users engage with them. Combining comparative survey data (N = 22,145) with Facebook posts (N = 21,113) by 2,021 MPs in 15 European countries, this article zooms in on user engagement with politicians’ online news-sharing posts. Results show that, in general, news content and message cues can drive user engagement, and that news outlet characteristics do not. Nevertheless, the ideological closeness between a politician and the news outlet, which was found to predict politicians’ online news-sharing behavior, does positively influence reactions in media systems with high levels of political parallelism. These findings shed a new light on partisan selective exposure following politicians’ news recommendations in the digital information environment.