Emotion vs fact: the power of social media news framing in motivating young boycotters

Abstract Digital platform has become the main source of information and references for the younger generation. The information spread online can be good or bad, right or wrong that trigger various responses. As consumers, young people have unique characteristics that need to be explored. This study attempts to discover the major reasons for young boycotters in responding to news framing in social media. The boycott impacts were focusing on food brands that have become boycott targets. The data was collected from 328 young boycotters (aged 18–25 years old) in Indonesia. These young boycotters have experience accessing social media news related to boycott content. A structural equation modeling (SEM) is performed to examine the hypothesized relationships among variables to explore the reasons for respondents in boycotting food brands. The findings indicate that emotional and factual news framing have significant effects on trust in social media. Emotional News Framing has a direct effect on boycott intention, while Factual News Framing has a significant effect on negative brand image. Results further show that Trust in social media has an effect on the negative brand image of foreign food brands as boycotted targets and has an impact on the positive brand image of local brands, that prompt the purchase intention as a replacement for foreign brands that were boycotted.