Diffusion of News of the Shuttle Columbia Disaster: The Role of Emotional Responses and Motives for Interpersonal Communication

This study examined the role of emotion in the process of news diffusion following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Respondents reported both sadness and anger, but sadness was the predominant emotional response. Early learners reported more sadness, but emotional response was unrelated to the initial source of the news. Regarding interpersonal news diffusion, individuals who reported more sadness were more likely to pass the news on to others and spent more time discussing the event. Anger was associated with contacting a greater number of people. Individuals who contacted more people and spent more time in discussion reported stronger emotional (but not informational) motives for talking with others, and were more likely to say that they felt better after interpersonal contact. Overall, the findings suggest that interpersonal news diffusion and discussion function, in part, as ways to cope with emotional responses to news coverage.