ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Media Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1604723
This article is part of the Research TopicDigital Citizenship in the New Era of Social MediaView all articles
Motivations Behind Gen Z's News Sharing on Social Media: A PLS-SEM Study in Vietnam
Provisionally accepted
Le Dinh Hai1,2*
Xiao Yan Xiong1- 1School of Journalism and Communication, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
- 2Faculty of Journalism and Communication, Thai Nguyen University of Sciences, Thai Nguyen, Vietnam
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This study investigates the determinants of news-sharing behavior among Generation Z users on social media in Vietnam by integrating three theoretical frameworks: Newsworthiness Theory, Uses and Gratifications Theory (U&G), and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). A structural equation modeling approach (PLS-SEM) was employed to examine the relationships between perceived news value (social significance, audience relevance), user gratifications (information seeking, socializing, status seeking, entertainment, and pass-time), and psychological drivers such as Fear of Missing Out (FoMO). Data were collected from a stratified random sample of 1.224 high school and university students across six socio-economic regions. The results reveal that social significance, audience relevance, and most gratification-based motivations—excluding pass-time—significantly influence the intention to share news. FoMO was found to positively moderate the impact of information seeking and status seeking on sharing intention. Furthermore, intention to share news significantly predicted actual news-sharing behavior, with inattention to news credibility acting as a mediating factor. The findings underscore the importance of both content attributes and user psychology in shaping digital news sharing among youth. Practical implications are discussed for media organizations aiming to enhance engagement and credibility in the digital era.
Keywords: news sharing behavior, Generation Z, Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), News credibility, Social media engagement
Received: 02 Apr 2025; Accepted: 30 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dinh Hai and Yan Xiong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Le Dinh Hai, School of Journalism and Communication, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
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