AUDIENCE AGENCY THROUGH TWITTER: A CASE STUDY OF THE ROHINGYA CRISIS 2017 - MUEP
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2018 AUDIENCE AGENCY THROUGH TWITTER: A CASE STUDY OF THE ROHINGYA CRISIS 2017 LAURA BRANDÉN SUPERVISOR: ANDERS HOG HANSEN EXAMINER: MICHAEL KRONA EXAMINATION DATE: 19 JUNE 2018 GRADE AWARDED: B A MASTERS THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FUFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS IN THE FACULTY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY | MALMO UNIVERSITY
ABSTRACT
LAURA BRANDÉN
AUDIENCE AGENCY THROUGH TWITTER: A CASE STUDY OF THE ROHINGYA CRISIS 2017
(Under the direction of Anders Hog Hansen)
Within the last two decades, social media has grown to becoming an integrated part of everyday life and along
with it profound changes to how audiences can interact with news. Prior to web 2.0, audiences had limited
selections when consuming news through their medium of choice and little possibility to interact with news
organisations directly. With the advent of social media, audience are now able to personally curate their media
consumption and fully interact with news organisations and the articles they post online. Because of this
increased influence, audiences can now impose their agency on published new stories by liking, retweet, and
discuss current new stories. This paper offers an in-depth study of how audiences can exert their agency over
news publishing during September 2017. Utilizing the spread of the Rohingya Crisis of 2017 as a case study, this
paper analyses in what ways audience agency influenced the new cycle during September 2017. This said,
research conducted will utilise a two-step process for analysing the causes and effects of this phenomenon; a
content analysis and an audience analysis; thus, a focus will be placed on understanding shifts in newspaper
publishing in relation to audience engagement.
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………….6
LIST OF DIAGRAMS…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………6
LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……….…..6
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7
1.1 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY………………………………………………………………………………………………………9
CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………….…10
2.1 ROHINGYA CRISIS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..10
2.2 TWITTER………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………11
2.3 JOURNALISM IN A TIME OF SOCIAL MEDIA………………………………………………………………………………………….12
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH QUESTION…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….13
CHAPTER 4: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………15
4.1 ACTIVE RECIPIENTS OR PROSUMERS……………………………………………………………………………………………………15
4.2 TRADITIONAL JOURNALISM PRACITCES IN A TIME OF SOCIAL MEDIA ………………………………………………..17
4.3 NATURALISING TWITTER…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….18
CHAPTER 5: ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK……………………………………………………………………………………………………….….20
5.1 STRUCTURE VERSUS AGENCY……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..21
5.2 USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY……………………………………………………………………………………………………23
5.3 AUDIENCE RESEARCH…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………24
i. AUDIENCE FRAGMENTATION……………………………………………………………………………………………..24
ii. AUDIENCE DISSEMINATION………………………………………………………………………………………………..25
iii. AUDIENCE FEEDBACK…………………………………………………………………………………………………………25
CHAPTER 6: METHODOLOGY, METHOD AND SCOPE OF EMPIRICAL DATA………………………………………………..25
6.1 LITERARY CONTEXT ANALYSIS…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….26
6.2 CONTENT ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK……………………………………………………………………………………………………..28
6.3 CODING CATEGORIES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………30
6.4 ARTICLES FOR CONTENT ANALYSIS…………………………………………………………………………………………………….30
6.5 DATA COLLECTION AND SAMPLE DETERMINATION …………………………………………………………………………..31
I. PUBLISHED NEWS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….32
II. TWITTER……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..36
6.6 VALIDITY…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….36
CHAPTER 7: ETHICS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…37
7.1 INFORMED CONSENT…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………37
7.2 PUBLIC DOMAIN DATA……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….37
7.3 COPYRIGHT………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..38
CHAPTER 8: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS……………………………………………………………………………..39
8.1 CONTENT ANALYSIS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………43
i. RESEARCH QUESTION 1………………………………………………………………………………………………………43
ii. RESEARCH QUESTION 2………………………………………………………………………………………………………48
8.2 AUDIENCE RESEARCH…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………49
i. RESEARCH QUESTION 3………………………………………………………………………………………………………50
a) AUDIENCE FRAGMENTATION………………………………………………………………………………50
b) AUDIENCE DISSEMINATION…………………………………………………………………………………51
c) AUDIENCE FEEDBACK…………………………………………………………………………………………..51
CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….53
CITE LIST……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….54
2
LIST OF FIGURES
6 METHODOLOGY, METHOD AND SCOPE OF EMPIRICAL DATA
6.1………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………31
8 PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
8.1………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…..45
8.2………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…..46
8.3……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...46
LIST OF DIAGRAMS
6 METHODOLOGY, METHOD AND SCOPE OF EMPIRICAL DATA
6.1…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..31
6.2…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..34
6.3…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..35
6.4…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..35
8 PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
8.1………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………..……..40
8.2……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…….……..40
8.3…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…….………..41
8.4…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..42
8.5…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..42
8.6…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………43
LIST OF TABLES
6. METHODOLOGY, METHOD AND SCOPE OF EMPIRICAL DATA
6.1…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..33
8 PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
8.1…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..44
8.2…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……..52
3INTRODUCTION
“Over the last years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for
fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same. The world is waiting and the Rohingya Muslims are
waiting.”
- Malala Yousafzai, via Twitter (2017)
In 2017 the world was again shocked by the realisation of an ongoing genocide of a minority population. Up-
until this point, reports had been published from several NGO’s and INGO’s within the international political
system about the developing atrocities in Myanmar1, however it wasn’t until September 2017 that articles
about the ongoing genocide was prominent within mainstream media (Rannard, 2017). This sudden interest
in the emerging crisis was so instantaneous within social media platforms, that questions were raised
regarding what variables lead to this peak of interest and whether these were dependant on each other.
Twitter has been the subject of extensive previous research on its very apparent inclusion in modern
journalism and the production of mass social movements originating from the platform. In particular,
contemporary academic literature has focused mainly on citizen journalism and/or how journalists are using
twitter as an extension of their profession.
One of the central questions within media research is ‘who controls the news?’, in which specifically research
within this field aim to understand to what extent external actors, as well as actors within news organisations,
can affect the published news content (Johansson & Odén, 2017; Strömbäck & Nord, 2007). Factors such as
audience dissemination, audience fragmentation, crowdsourcing and audience feedback now affect the way
editors must think when selecting material to publish to accommodate the effects of external actors. This said,
it remains important to acknowledge that Twitter exists alongside other more traditional forms of news
consumption, and as a platform for consuming news Twitter only contributes a fraction of the total news
consumption across all platforms. However, in 2018, Twitter reached 330 million users, of which 75% follow a
journalist or news organisation on the platform. Because of increased availability of choice, Twitter users are
enabled to decide who and what to follow and curate their news flow and in turn, exert their agency on their
news consumption. Through personal news consumption, along with shifting journalism practices, Twitter
audiences are now able disrupt traditional news patterns. As such, by analysing how audiences interact with
news content through Twitter, and the resulting effects on published news articles; this thesis primarily aims
to bring further attention to the ongoing debate if audience have or have no any influence over what news
are published by news organisations, as it is still emerging as a research field.
1The attacks in Myanmar are centred around the Rakhine state, an area seen by Rohingya as their traditional land, and they have resided at this area
for hundreds of years.
4The motivation behind this research stems from the sudden and explosive interest for the Rohingya that
emerged in 2017. The year earlier, in December 2016, over a thousand homes of the Rohingya had been burnt
down by security forces and several hundred individuals had been killed. However, it wasn’t until early 2017
that official reports from human rights groups stated that 90 000 individuals had been displaced from their
homes (Alal O Dulal Collective, 2017). And while several reports where released by official news bodies, it
wasn’t until mid-September 2017 that coverage was picked up and escalated within social media platforms.
This emerging scale of interest and evolution of coverage is important especially when considering the
Rohingya community has faced wide scale human rights abuses for decades, and videos have surfaced where
militant nationalist monks, such as the 969, have vocalised hate speech and called for their eradication (AP
Archive, 2015)2. This curiosity becomes even more prominent when considering the ongoing involvement by
the UN and human rights groups, and the large scale historic persecution of the group has been a long known
factor and yet, not within public interest or general domain until late 2017 (UNHCR, 2018).
This said, research within the paper aim to;
• Build upon this literature by focusing on the relationship between newspaper and social media, and
how this relationship influences what news are published;
• Focus on how Twitter as a social media platform has changed the modern understanding of the
audience from being passive recipients to actively involved consumers and producers. Specifically, it
will focus on the now somewhat assumed, yet debated, agency that audiences have over their own
news consumption and influence over what news are published in the media;
• Not only analyse how media is deterministic, but also explore an emerging field of audience research
through the context of news consumption on social media;
• And finally, analyse the relationship between audience behaviour on social media and international
PURPOSE OF THE CASE STUDY
This project aims to understand social media, and social media responses to the victims of the Rohingya Crisis.
It’s goal is to expand upon the understanding and resulting pact of international news platforms through
continued use of social media to publish and popularise ongoing conflict and escalated societal issues -
commonly referred to as ‘crisis news’.
The Rohingya crisis has been disproportionately represented in levels of media coverage compared to Black
Lives Matter and the Occupy movement. At the core, these three movements are focused on governmental
2The 969 is a Buddhist movement in Myanmar run by militant monks with strong anti-Muslim sentiment. The leader of the group has called himself
the “Burmese bin Laden”. Reports have found that the violent attacks, in Rakhine state 2012, which lead to 192 dead and 140 000 individuals
displaced, where incited by the nationalist monks associated with this group (Marshall, 2013).
5issues that are affecting minorities or certain levels within society. Just as Occupy and Black Lives the Rohingya
crisis grew in recognition on social media as a wide scale issue that affected the international society at its
core. Thus, concurrency of the Rohingya crisis as the latest crisis to garner social media recognition is very
important; as unlike other viral movements such as the black lives matter and the occupy wall street, the
Rohingya crisis has not gain the same level of research interest.
This lack of social media coverage is critical to the solution of the crisis and gaining a resolve to an international
issue by making the government of Myanmar recognise this misstep and recognise that the Rohingya are
legitimate citizens that deserve to be treated as such for the first time ever. hence this said, the purpose of
this study is to the explore the effects of social media, not only in regard to the Rohingya, but also the contrast
between news bias impact on social media, and social medias reverse effect through virilization.
BACKGROUND
THE ROHINGYA CRISIS
The Rohingya crisis is a long-standing humanitarian crisis, that is in effect the government of Myanmar trying
to forcefully displace the Rohingya community out of the Rakhine state, by systematically attacking, and
decimating the population settlements and peoples through grave human rights abuses, in an attempt to force
the community out.
On the 25th of August 2017 in Myanmar, a group of Rohingya militants allegedly attacked a police post, killing
12 police. Within a month, half a million individuals of the Muslim minority community fled to bordering
Bangladesh to escape persecution (Lone & Marshall, 2017). This emerging crisis astounded global communities
that a genocide could happen under the watch of Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi3, which resulted in
petitions for her to be stripped of this honour (Agence France-Presse, 2017). However, despite this emergent
global ‘shock’, the persecution against the Rohingya did not start in 2017, but instead a pattern of oppression
can be dated back to mid-20th century.
There has been prolonged involvement by international organisations, such as the UN, within the Rakhine
state due to previous condemnations and interventions for previous Rohingya population mistreatment
felonies by the militarised junta government. As such, the UN has consistently worked with the affected
Rohingya communities to increase their social standing within the Myanmar society in addition to facilitating
discussions with the current government to legitimise the group as citizens of Myanmar. The narratives
3
Aung San Suu Kyi won a Nobel Peace prize in 1991 “for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights” (The Nobel Foundation, 2014).
6portrayed by these NGOs regarding the crisis is not supported by the current government in Myanmar who
adamantly argues that the violence is perpetrated by military guerrilla movements within the Rohingya
themselves, and not the government
While the Rohingya mainly reside in Myanmar, they can be found spread across Asia through migration and
refugee movements. However, within Myanmar, they are not recognised as legitimate citizens, or even a
native minority which has led to numerous negative factors including accessibility and inclusivity affecting the
community daily (Mahmood et. al., 2016). The Rohingya are being internally resettled, stripped of their
customary lands (used for agriculture) which has directly lead to malnourishment and decline public health
(Staples, 2012). Any Rohingya individual who violate the restrictions imposed upon them are subjected to
systematic sexual violence, torture, forced labour and even imprisonment (Mahmood et. al., 2016). While
there is no official state religion in Myanmar most of the population adhere to strict Buddhism, and there is
clear religious reasoning behind the prosecutions - the military state even sought to further the disadvantage
religious minorities within the state by elevating the status of Buddhism (U.S Department of State, 2009;
Staples, 2012). Which would further decrease the standing of the Rohingya community in Myanmar.
TWITTER
On Twitter’s “Getting Started Page” it reads: ‘follow everything from breaking news and entertainment, to
sports, politics, and everyday interests. Then, join the conversation’ (Twitter, 2018). This statement highlights
what much of literature has researched; Twitter’s ability to be the first platform for breaking news. The
website has grown from a place where people shared unfiltered snippets of their lives, to a platform that
people actively engage in political discussion and societal critique, keep up with their favourite celebrities,
engage with events, and more importantly for this thesis, follow the news. It has grown to now becoming one
of the most popular social networking sites in the world.
In accordance to Boyd and Ellison (2007:2011), Social Networking Sites (SNS) are defined as web-based
services that allow individuals to:
1. Construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system;
2. Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection;
3. View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature
and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.
There are many SNS’s available on the internet today, and within this scope Twitter is considered a “micro-
blogging” platform. The app, which was originally designed for mobile phone use, allows users to
instantaneously “tweet” a 280-character message to their followers, or choose to retweet a tweet written by
another user – instantly sharing it to their own followers (Twitter, 2018). By including so called “hashtags”
7users can navigate the website and locate other tweets using the same hashtag, for example users where able
to read more about the Rohingya crisis by searching for, or directly click on #rohingyacrisis. The site also keeps
track of “trending topics” which notify users what hashtags are being used most frequently and allows users
to quickly be notified of breaking news as they emerge. Unlike the curated trending topics found on Facebook,
the trending feature is dependent on audience engagement - how many tweets a hashtag receives within a
given time frame.
Arguably, the way audiences are interacting with news is changing as we know it. In 2018, Twitter had 330
million active users and over 75% actively follow newspapers and/or journalists (Great Speculations, 2017;
Reynolds, 2014.) Notably, a correlation has shown that users who follow news outlets and journalists online
are also more likely to be active daily on the site, and twice as likely to tweet daily (Reynolds, 2014). For
example, the combine accounts of the New York Times amount to over 42 million followers and averages
about 100 tweets per day (Twittercounter, 2018). However, this availability of choice in who to follow, allows
users to decide what they want to follow, and what account’s tweet information that they find interesting.
These audience actions lead to audience shifting away from mass media outlets that are not fulfilling their
information needs. Thus, this audience fragmentation is then forcing news organisations to directly target the
information desires of their users and rethink what content they publish.
JOURNALISM IN A TIME OF SOCIAL MEDIA
While global newsrooms may be using social media extensively in their work, they also rely on technology for
their organisation to function. This said, technological advances have fundamentally altered what it means to
be a journalist, now they must always be available on social media and constantly navigate their social media
platforms to keep touch with their audiences and look for trends in audience behaviour and potential news
stories. More importantly, social media have affected news production in three main ways: dissemination,
crowdsourcing, audience feedback (Ferruci, 2018).
Firstly, social media has opened the channels that allows audiences to access news through their social media
accounts, they now receive news from friends, family and news organisations straight through their social
media feeds. Due to this, modern audiences are sharing and spreading news articles that they find interesting
through their social media channels, which now directly affects the audience counts on news websites. This
act of sharing and tweeting about news stories through personal social channels is called dissemination. Even
though majority of news online is still directly access through the news websites themselves, social media is
quickly growing to becoming an important source of traffic for these websites, with 9% of total traffic being
attributed to social media in 2013. It is therefore growing increasingly important to create news that audience
will want to share through their channels (Weeks & Holbert, 2013).
8Secondly, modern journalists are increasingly relying on crowdsourcing4 for their information through social
media by gathering sources, stories, quotes, or general information about an event, but they may also use the
platform to gain a general understanding of how the public feel towards specific events, stories and content
(Poell & Borra, 2011; Howe, 2008). Twitter has grown to becoming an indispensable platform for journalists
when they want to get information about breaking news as quickly as possible. For example, a Twitter user
live tweeted the apprehension of Osama Bin Laden while it was happening - which would then become the
most accurate detailing of the event that news organisations had until the official statement was released
(Olsson, 2011).
Lastly, social media’s feedback mechanisms are allowing audiences to exert their agency over news stories.
Storied that gain higher ‘likes’, retweets, or reach trending on twitter are more likely to be pick up by news
organisations, proving that audiences are able to influence what editors deem to be publishable news (Edson
& Vos, 2015).
These new types of practices are affecting the journalistic profession and fundamentally changing how news
are sourced and produced. Journalists are experiencing the increased influence of the audience and in
response are adapting their old routines to fit this new ‘news media system’, and in turn starting to relinquish
their sovereignty over the news (Edson & Vos, 2015. Positioning this knowledge then within the context of
Web 2.0, and the increased agency of the audience granted by social media, this research will focus on why
the Rohingya crisis was brought to attention so late in the year.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS (HYPOTHESES) & OPERATIONALISATION
Current research does not sufficiently explain the presumed agency that audiences possess in today’s
mediated world, and the research that does exist is limited. By focusing on the spread of news at the time of
the Rohingya crisis 2017, this thesis presents a unique set of research that contributes to the further
understanding of audience agency in the social media era. Thus, considering the above arguments this thesis
proposes the following overarching question: to what extent was international newspapers influenced, in any
way, by their audience’s agency on Twitter about the Rohingya Crisis?
1. To what extent is the public’s interaction, (as illustrated in theory presented by Edson & Ferruci, 2017)
with news on Twitter affecting newspapers and how they construct their content and priorities
2. Through the content analysis presentation of the Rohingya Crisis in online media: How has
predisposed determinants of normative interaction with international news by the common populace,
4
(citizen-journalism)
9as presented by Golan, impacted how the Rohingya Crisis evolved to become a matter of importance
within multi-platform news broadcasts.
3. In what way have the tactics by broadcast producers, such as fragmentation, dissemination and
audience feedback, affected the cumulative variables within in news stories and the presentation of
whole news sources. This said, how has new media production catered to the popularization of specific
stories on certain platforms, and in which ways have news corporates normalised news media and
source gathering via these means.
The data in this thesis will be presented through a context which focuses on: How has contemporary news
stories been impacted by the evolving perspective as shared on online platforms such as Twitter, and in which
regard has this concurrent multi-platform evolution impacted the development narrative.
Considering the existing research and knowledge of social media in uses within news media and political /
international relations contexts, there is a disproportionate coverage of the Rohingya Genocide movement
online, then that given to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ or the ‘Occupy Wallstreet Movement’. Small data sets
collected by some sources [place sources or any sort of coverage media here], have suggested through the
coverage of the Rohingya crisis that it is of critical international importance and that it needs more coverage,
and this coverage comes in the form of social media. As such, given that majority of previous academic
research on the social media impact in conjunction with Rohingya movement has been limited or isolated,
there this thus a significant lack in understanding the extent of which conflicts such as these have impact
within the global setting have within social media platforms.
Understanding this context both culturally and academically, through qualitative data collection is therefore
critical. This research will not only engage with Twitter as a platform to show that a international humanitarian
crisis narrative emerged through the active audience agency on the platform. But this paper will also establish
why this narrative became a main news story to begin with. Furthermore, this research is significant as it will
also launch into a exploratory endeavour regarding the increasing importance of social media in the journalism
field and how audience agency is increasingly influencing editorial decisions. As such, this project will not only
embody empirical investigation methods, but also analytical and normative exploration of conflict, societal
systems, and global culturalism norms to determining the impact of audience agency on Twitter and
comprehensively understand conflict and social media in regards to audience agency on an a academic level
not previously explored.
Thus, this research is significant as it aims to:
10a) Fill the gap in existing academic research to understanding the impact of audience agency and it
b) To comprehend and better understand how international news publishing is influenced by viralisation
within social media and in contrast;
c) How international news publishing impacts social media narratives regarding ‘crisis news’.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Research within academic literature regarding the influence of audience agency within mass new production
is limited. Majority of previous research within the field has predominantly centred on the role of social
networking sites, the debate of users as active recipients or active producers, the transformation of modern
journalism through social media, and finally how Twitter is being naturalised into the journalism field.
By disseminating previous related academic works, this thesis will explain how research is interpreting the
emerging relationship between agency, audiences, and the journalism field. Notably, whilst there is academic
agreeance on social media and web 2.0 indeed affecting previous knowledge regarding media and media
consumption and the need of new fields of research – there remains an ongoing debate regarding how much
impact user generated content and audience agency actively have on news production.
The influence of web 2.0 has expanded the forms of engagement available to users to now include online
participation that allows for expressive and personalised responses (Kahne, Lee & Feezell, 2013; Theocharis &
Quintelier, 2016). This participation is manifested through the ability to ‘tweet’ and participate in discussions
on current events connected through multiple Social Networking Sites (SNS), or even mobilising support for
special causes as seen with ‘Black Lives Matter’.
The theoretical work surrounding SNS’ presents three dominant factors that affect the level of engagement of
SNS users (Theocharis & Quintelier, 2016):
1. Providing information
2. Introducing social pressure
3. Enhancing discussion among peers
These factors of engagement correlates with how the platform also provides topical sections and feature
trending topics in which users are able to easily access current popular discussions from across the site (the
primary factor). Regarding the Rohingya crisis case study, when the user began following the hashtag thread
regarding the event, and escalation of social pressure was applied in taking notice of the crisis within larger
circles (the final factor). Notably however, the level of participation a user invests depends on their pre-
determined needs and interest.
ACTIVE RECIPIENTS’ OR PROSUMERS
11Traditional communications theories are becoming increasingly obsolete with the increased prominence of
social media in people’s lives. In the developing social media landscape, the traditional idea of passive
audiences has become superseded as users are taking control of their own online communication and news
consumption (Berenger, 2013). With web 2.0 users are no longer just consumers of news, as there is a growing
body of research which advocate that in the new media environment brought on by web 2.0 users are now
characterised by interactivity and the production of news (Johansson & Oden, 2017; Webster, 2017).
The contributions to the social movement literature, brought on by social media, tend to focus on how it was
utilised as informational sources in very specific cases such as ‘Black Lives Matter’ (Ince, Jelani & Rojas, 2017),
the ‘Occupy Movement’ (Juris, 2012), and the Arab Spring (Bruns, Highfield & burgess. 2013). In all three cases,
the media represented a crucial role during events like these to mobilise information about what is happening,
mobilising information means is content outside the spectrum outside politics and political actors and in other
words integrate crisis’s and conflicts into the wider scope of the community. Arguably social media has
allowed users to fulfil their political participatory needs by engaging and discussing these types current events
on Twitter (Ping Yu, 2016; Oser, 2017). Much of communications research focuses on the way that social media
and the experience of users is important to democratic engagement and focuses on the user’s involvement
and engagement with politics (Theocharis & Quintelier, 2014; Ostman, 2012). However, a major gap in the
literature is this lack of understanding how audiences on social media influence the news cycle by showing
support and raising awareness of issues that concern them on social media.
Research has begun showing that users, or often called sources, are being able increasingly manage the news,
with 62% of US citizens receiving their news from social media it is becoming crucial for news organisation to
have a presence on social networking sites (Carlsson, 2018). The power of the user is granted by the economic
decline of news organisations, the increased prevalence of news management, as well as the possibility for
users to selectively bypass news all together – factors that have all contributed to shifting the advantage of
power (Brorersama et. al., 20132; Cushion et. al., 2014, Cherubi & Nielsen, 2016). However, there are different
perspectives on this power relationship with some arguing that journalists are still in power (Johansson &
Oden, 2017). Arguably however, no matter where the power in this relationship lies, there is evidence that
social media (Twitter) is still a power is a powerful platform for breaking news. This has been illustrated by
several instances news broke on Twitter before they even reach mainstream media hours later, e.g. Michael
Jackssons death was reported on Twitter within 30 min after the 911 call, (Ju, Jeong & Chyi. 2013). Despite
this, not all research agrees with this view as Jordan’s (2013) research reached a conclusion that tried to
disprove social media’s influence on mainstream news.
One of the most researched consequences related to the growth of social media is audience fragmentation –
because of the over saturation of news sources, digital media and general width of choices user patterns are
16widely distributed (Webster, 2014a.). Because of this this paper will investigate this relationship and see if
social media influences what type of stories news organisations publish to focus on their audience’s desires.
However, it is important to distinguish between what is reported and to what extent is being reported, while
social media users may not be able to actively influence the content of the news, but by bringing certain topics
on Twitter to trending users are able to influence the news selection when it comes to publishing (Johansson
& Oden, 2017). Nevertheless, the fact remains that a lot of research has proved that official information from
non-governmental organisations and public authorities still carry the strongest influence across social media
when it comes to influence in the news.
TRADITIONAL ONLINE MEDIA JOURNALISTIC PRACTICES
Modern journalism research on Twitter tends to focus on the relationship between the established norms and
practices of professional news practices and the SNS, and it has grown to become a major focus of research
(Hermina, 2013). Significant transformations to the journalist field is seen to be the result of different factors;
the increased speed at which communication and breaking news travel, the shifting role of social media as an
audience, and the changing expectations of the audience, as well as stakeholders, to receive news
instantaneously (Johansson & Odén, 2017; Nielsen & Schroder, 2014).
There is a growing body of research that focuses on the transformation of the traditional ‘news beat’ through
the incorporation of social media. A traditional ‘beat’ takes on two forms, a social form and a physical form in
which reporters are assigned to specific beats depending on the needs of the paper5. With the spread of
Twitter this ‘beat’ has evolved from a physical to a digital space, and the site has become an efficient, and
convenient accessible ‘beat’ for journalists when locating information and stories to cover, hence journalists
are increasingly sourcing information online to include in their journalism discourse (Broersama & Marcell,
2013; Kalsnes & Larsson, 2017). In their digital news project (2016) Cherubini and Nielsen suggest that social
media indeed can influence editorial news selection, along with Kalsnes and Larsson (2017) who suggests that
the distribution of news across social media can impact what is published in the news.
One of the research areas which is facing the most tension is that of ‘gatekeeping’ which has enabled the
journalists to determine what qualifies as news and to publish credible information. The term was defined
early by communication researcher McQuail who stated; “'the process by which selections are made in media
work, especially decisions whether or not to admit a particular news story to pass through the "gates" of a
news medium into the news channels” (as cited in Bruns, 2003). This participatory style of journalism has also
been researched to show that journalists and their editors want to keep this role regardless of them inviting
5
For example, in a city abroad or at parliament
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