Motives to use online news and the impact on satisfaction with the government and vote choice

Online news plays an important role in determining vote choice. The aim of this study is to examine motives to use online news sites and their impact on satisfaction with the government and vote choice. A sample of 700 registered voters in Klang Valley, Malaysia, participated in this quantitative study. A partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis revealed that 'social utility' and 'personal fulfilment' play a significant role in determining satisfaction with the government. The motive of 'guidance' shows a negative effect on satisfaction with the government, which supports the hypothesis that the more people surf online news for guidance, the more they will be dissatisfied with the government. However, surprisingly, 'information-seeking' was not found to be significantly correlated with satisfaction with the government. Finally, satisfaction with the government, as a variable, was found to have a positive impact on vote choice.