연재형 웹 콘텐츠 휴재가 조회수에 미치는 영향: 웹소설을 중심으로

초록

This study investigates the effect of hiatuses on viewership in serialized web content, with a focus on how the emotional tone of authors’ communication moderates this effect. Using panel data collected from a major web novel platform and applying a dynamic panel model, the analysis yields several key findings. First, hiatuses generally have a negative effect on viewership. When the episode preceding the hiatus has a high viewership, this negative effect is mitigated, however, if hiatuses have occurred frequently in the past, such mitigating effects diminish. In addition, sentiment analysis of authors’ announcements shows that when a hiatus is communicated using positive language, the negative effect on viewership is significantly reduced. While hiatuses are a common phenomenon in web content, few empirical studies have examined their effects. This research addresses this gap and provides a basis for understanding how hiatuses affect audience engagement with serialized web content. Moreover, the findings show that the emotional tone used by authors in their communication can significantly influence reader behavior, offering practical implications for content platforms’ hiatus policies and content creators’ audience engagement strategies.

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