Objective: This study explores practical solutions for enhancing user interaction and experience with digital news content. Amidst growing concerns about misinformation, declining trust in media, and superficial engagement on digital platforms, the research investigates how media organizations can foster deeper, more meaningful interactions with users. The central aim is to improve the quality of user experience in news consumption by addressing technological, psychological, and content-related factors.
Methods: The research employs a qualitative methodology, specifically thematic analysis of data collected through semi-structured interviews. Purposeful sampling was used to select 16 participants, including journalists, media scholars, and digital platform developers. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using MAXQDA software, allowing the researchers to extract key themes through a three-stage process: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Themes were categorized into five dimensions: user experience, content, trust, discourse and policy-making, and user characteristics.
Findings: The analysis revealed several interrelated factors that shape user engagement and experience with online news. These include:
User Experience (UX): Effective UX requires fast-loading platforms, intuitive design, mobile compatibility, and secure infrastructure. Interactive features, multimedia elements, and personalization based on user behavior were found to significantly improve user engagement.
Content: High-quality, relevant, multimedia-enriched content increases user retention and trust. Ethical considerations such as fairness, transparency, and narrative storytelling were emphasized as crucial to credibility.
Trust: Building trust involves responsiveness to user feedback, accurate reporting, maintaining transparency, and encouraging two-way communication. Establishing media legitimacy and reliability is particularly important in state-controlled contexts.
Policy and Discourse: Media organizations need to redefine traditional news values and focus on user needs. Social responsibility, ethical journalism, and clear editorial policies are vital to shaping a trustworthy media environment.
User Behavior and Context: Psychological factors, educational background, digital literacy, and sociocultural context significantly affect how users engage with news. Personalized recommendations, while beneficial, must avoid creating filter bubbles.
Conclusion: Improving user interaction with news content requires a holistic and user-centric strategy. This includes creating ethical, relevant content, enhancing usability, fostering user participation, and integrating emerging technologies such as AI. The study also highlights the importance of addressing systemic issues such as misinformation and media bias. By implementing these recommendations, media organizations—especially public broadcasters like IRIB—can enhance audience trust, promote media literacy, and build more engaging digital platforms