mixing messages & methods: examing news content on facebook & twitter
Post on 05-Dec-2014
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Mixing messages & methods
Dr. Jennifer Brannock Cox@jencox416
introduction
• Changes in audience news-gathering habits
• Changes in presentation of news
• Changes in framing
• Changes in audience preferences
Pew research center, 2012
Even in 2010, all but one of those top news sites, with the exception being Google News, obtained a
portion of their traffic from Facebook.
Facebook users spent an average of 423 minutes each on the site in one month. By contrast the
average time spent on a top 25 news site is just under 12 minutes per
month.
Study purpose
• To determine how news organizations are using Facebook & Twitter to distribute their messages
• To determine what type of messages are being distributed on each platform
Mixing messages
• Limited to 140 characters
• More searchable
• More connections with strangers with shared interests
• More immediate
• Constantly updating
• Not as limited in text
• Very visual
• Moves more into personal lives
• More sharing of news stories
• More traffic to news organization websites
Twitter Facebook
Hypotheses & RQs
• News organizations will post more frequently on Twitter than on Facebook
• Facebook: • More evergreen, lifestyle, helpfulness features & soft news• More staff & contributor-written articles
• Twitter: • More spot news, crime, disaster, politics & hard news• More wire & news partner articles/links
• RQs:• Which platforms will contain posts on more international
or domestic stories?
method
• Constructed 7-day week from Twitter & Facebook• Sample: up to 20 per day from each organization from each site
• Six publications based on top online circulation:• Online-only – Yahoo! News & Huffington Post• TV: CNN & MSNBC• Newspaper: New York Times & Washington Post
• Coding for:• Author type• Geographic focus• News topic• Timeliness• Story type
N = 1,232
Post distribution
Huffington post
Authors
Geographic focus
topics
topics
topics
timeliness
Story type
Story type
Summary of findings
• News organizations posted more frequently on Twitter than on Facebook (except CNN)
• Facebook contained: • More evergreen, lifestyle, helpfulness features & soft news• More staff & contributor-written articles
• Twitter contained: • More spot news, disaster, politics & hard news• More wire & news partner articles/links
• Domestic focus the same• Twitter – more international• Facebook – more without geographic focus
gatekeeping
• Journalists decide what audiences need to know
• Readers on Facebook and Twitter are getting different information
• Readers are gatekeepers, too • Sharing different information across platforms
• Emphasis on some topics over others can lead to misconceptions about the state of the world or importance of issues• Facebook – selfishness? Niche topics? Less news
overall?• Twitter – polarization? Misinformation of spot news?
Indifference or desensitization?
Future study
• Cross-reference data to look more closely at variables
• Qualitative interviews with subjects – why?
• Audience effects of exposure/usage of sites
Twitter: @jencox416Facebook: Jennifer Brannock Cox
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