Why do people access news with mobile devices? Exploring the role of suitability perception and motives on mobile news use

• Suitability for accessing news is associated with online news reading motivations.
• Social utility motive is not significant in news use with smartphone or social media.
• Information seeking is a primary reason for social media news consumption.
• Mobile news users have the potential to engage in political issues.
• Mobile media are not distinct from other media offering news.

Using self-reported survey data (N = 281), the present study explores the structural relationships among mobile users’ perceptions of the suitability of two types of mobile news (political feature news and entertainment news), users’ motivations for mobile news usage, and their behavioral patterns. Our findings show that two types of perceived suitability for mobile news, particularly for political feature news, are strongly associated with all dimensions of motivations for mobile news usage. Furthermore, as predicted, our findings show that the information-seeking motive is the very factor that determines mobile news usage. The results also reveal that the accessibility motive mediates the relationship between the perceived suitability of obtaining news via a mobile device and users’ mobile news behavior. However, contrary to our expectation, the social utility motive does not mediate the relationship between users’ perceptions of the suitability of mobile devices for this purpose and their mobile news usage. Finally, the information-seeking and accessibility motives each have an indirect effect on the association between perceived suitability and mobile news usage. The implications of the study and recommendations for future research are also discussed.