The effects of gratifications on intention to read citizen journalism news: The mediating effect of attitude

• The indirect effects of gratifications on intention to read citizen journalism news.
• Using a survey conducted across nearly 300 users, hypotheses were tested.
• All gratifications, except for escape, have direct effects on attitude.
• However, none of the gratifications has a direct effect on intention.
• Attitude mediates the path between all gratifications and intention.

This paper investigates gratifications of reading citizen journalism news by applying the research model drawn from the uses and gratifications approach, and the cognitive–affective–conative framework. Based on the uses and gratifications literature and the cognitive–affective–conative framework, the effects of gratifications on attitude (i.e., affective) and intention (i.e., conative) are examined. The indirect effects of gratifications on intention to read news (i.e., conation) through the interpretation of affection that users experienced are also examined. Using a survey conducted across nearly 300 users, the results show that all gratifications, except for escape, have direct effects on attitude. However, none of the gratifications has a direct effect on intention. The proposed model shows that attitude mediates the path between the effects of all gratifications and intention. The model explains a high percentage of variance with gratifications explaining about 46% of the variance in attitude. However, their effects on intention are limited when attitude is controlled.