A Study On The Impact Of Multi-Platform Image Construction By Television News Anchors In The Era Of Media Convergence On Audience Identification

Abstract

Background and Aim:Media convergence has enabled television news anchors to engage audiences across multiple digital platforms, a practice known as multi-platform image construction (MPIC). Drawing on Social Identity Theory, Parasocial Interaction Theory, and the Elaboration Likelihood Model, this study examines how anchors’ MPIC influences audience identification (AI). We propose a moderated mediation model in which perceived credibility (PC) mediates the effect of MPIC on AI, and audience media literacy (AML) moderates this process. The aim is to clarify the psychological mechanisms linking multi-platform persona construction by news anchors to audience identification in the digital era.

Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 657 television news viewers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, China, from March to April 2025. Participants reported their perceptions of anchors’ MPIC, PC, AI, and their own AML using validated Likert-scale questionnaires. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to test direct and mediated effects of MPIC on identification. In addition, Hayes’s PROCESS macro (Model 7) was used to assess the proposed moderated mediation model, with bootstrap confidence intervals (5,000 resamples) to evaluate the conditional indirect effects.

Results:The findings supported the proposed model. MPIC had a significant positive effect on audience identification (p < 0.001). This relationship was partially mediated by perceived credibility: anchors who cultivated a consistent and authentic multi-platform presence were viewed as more credible, which in turn enhanced viewers’ identification with them. Furthermore, audience media literacy significantly moderated the process. The positive impact of MPIC on identification (both the direct effect and the indirect effect via credibility) was stronger among viewers with higher media literacy. The moderated mediation analysis confirmed that higher-AML audiences derive greater identification benefits from anchors’ multi-platform image construction efforts.

Conclusion:Effective multi-platform image construction by television news anchors can substantially strengthen audience identification, especially when audiences perceive the anchor as credible. Credibility emerged as a key mechanism through which MPIC fosters identification, and this effect is amplified for media-literate viewers. These results underscore that audience identification in the convergence era is co-shaped by anchors’ cross-platform image strategies and audiences’ cognitive engagement. The study extends Social Identity and Parasocial Interaction theories into multi-platform contexts, and highlights the importance of audience media literacy in moderating media effects. Practically, the findings suggest that news anchors should maintain a transparent, authentic persona across platforms, and that enhancing public media literacy can further reinforce audience–anchor connections in digital news environments.