Mixing Messages & Methods: Examing News Content on Facebook & Twitter
- 1. Mixing messages & methods Dr. Jennifer Brannock Cox @jencox416
- 2. introduction ⢠Changes in audience news-gathering habits ⢠Changes in presentation of news ⢠Changes in framing ⢠Changes in audience preferences
- 3. Pew research center, 2012 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. 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.
- 4. 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
- 5. Mixing messages ⢠Limited to 140 characters ⢠Not as limited in text ⢠More searchable ⢠Very visual ⢠More connections with strangers with shared interests ⢠Moves more into personal lives ⢠More immediate ⢠More sharing of news stories ⢠More traffic to news
- 6. 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?
- 7. twitter
- 8. facebook
- 9. 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 â 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
- 11. Huffington post
- 12. Authors
- 13. Geographic focus
- 14. topics
- 15. topics
- 16. topics
- 17. timeliness
- 18. Story type
- 19. Story type
- 20. 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 â more international ⢠Facebook â more without geographic focus
- 21. 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 â selfishness? Niche topics? Less news overall? ⢠Twitter â polarization? Misinformation of spot news? Indifference or desensitization?
- 22. Future study ⢠Cross-reference data to look more closely at variables ⢠Qualitative interviews with subjects â why? ⢠Audience effects of exposure/usage of sites Twitter: @jencox416 Facebook: Jennifer Brannock Cox