The Impact of Title Features on the Communication Effect of County-Level Converged Media Centers’ WeChat Official Accounts: Taking Guangxi as an Example

Abstract

There have been 2,585 county-level converged media centers established in mainland China. Enhancing the attractiveness of information published on WeChat official accounts to users is a major challenge faced by these centers. This research selected articles published by WeChat official accounts of five representative county-level media converged centers in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (from June to October 2023, totaling 4045 WeChat articles). The negative binomial regression method was used to explore the impact of title features (including punctuations, Arabic numerals, internet slang, and emotions) on the readership of WeChat articles. The results indicate that title length, square brackets, dashes, book title marks, and vertical bars are negatively correlated with readership. Titles containing Arabic numerals and reader addressing correlate positively with readership. Positive emotion tones have a positive impact on the reading behavior of users, but the effects of different emotions are complex. This research offers valuable insights for the design of WeChat article titles at county-level converged media centers and provides a new case study for research into the title features of WeChat official accounts.

Keywords

• County-level media converged centers
• title features
• WeChat official accounts
• readership
• Guangxi of China