Cable News Wars on the Internet: Competition and User-Generated Content
研究发现竞争对手的用户生成内容（如博客）能显著影响有线新闻节目的收视率，将竞争因素纳入预测模型可提升3%至5%的准确性，对媒体营销策略制定有参考价值。
Academics and practitioners alike recognize that user-generated content (UGC), such as blog posts, help not only predict but also boost performance (e.g., sales). However, the role of competition in the UGC domain is not well understood. Building on extant research pertaining to the UGC-performance relationship, the authors document empirical evidence for a relationship between competitor UGC and focal firm performance. Data from a 30-week period describe the viewership of competing cable news shows on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC during the 7:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m. time slots. They find evidence of a statistically significant relationship between competitor UGC and viewership and of heterogeneity in the direction of these competitive relationships, positive in some time slots and negative in others. The predictive power of UGC for viewership is enhanced by 3% to 5% simply by incorporating competitors’ UGC, in addition to a show’s own UGC. Thus, the study, as well as formulation of UGC-related marketing strategies, should incorporate competitive relationships.