Metrics in action: how social media metrics shape news production on Facebook.

This article examines how audience engagement metrics on Facebook influence news content production by major U.S. media outlets from 2015 to 2019. Using topic modeling and longitudinal analysis of over 2.2 million posts from 29 ideologically diverse outlets, the study finds that while audience engagement significantly affects future coverage, responsiveness varies widely across outlets and topics. Notably, a small number of right-wing outlets, such as Breitbart and Washington Examiner, are more likely to adjust coverage based on engagement metrics, particularly for partisan political topics, whereas responsiveness to entertainment-oriented content does not correlate with ideological slant. These findings highlight the complex and asymmetrical role of social media metrics in shaping journalistic practices and raise implications for the democratic information environment in the United States.