Comparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media: The Case of Climate Change

Comparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media:

The Case of Climate ChangeAlexandra Olteanu (EPFL), Carlos Castillo (QCRI),

Nicholas Diakopoulos (UMD), and Karl Aberer (EPFL)

Climate Change News September 1st-7th, 2014

Comparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media: The Case of Climate Change. A. Olteanu, C. Castillo, N. Diakopoulos, K. Aberer. ICWSM 2015.

Climate Change News September 1st-7th, 2014

Prominent in Mainstream Media (MSM) Prominent in Twitter

Comparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media: The Case of Climate Change. A. Olteanu, C. Castillo, N. Diakopoulos, K. Aberer. ICWSM 2015.

News Reading From mainstream media to social media

Are people missing anything by getting more and more of their news through social media?

What happens if they switch completely?What happens if they don't switch at all?

Comparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media: The Case of Climate Change. A. Olteanu, C. Castillo, N. Diakopoulos, K. Aberer. ICWSM 2015.

Our approach

● Focus on one issue: climate change● Focus on events, e.g. release of a study

○ Drives media coverage of this topic [Schmidt et al. 2013]

● Focus on one social media platform: Twitter○ Large user base, significant emphasis on news

● Use a large source of online news: GDELT○ Huge collection of online news articles

Comparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media: The Case of Climate Change. A. Olteanu, C. Castillo, N. Diakopoulos, K. Aberer. ICWSM 2015.

What are "Climate Change" news?

UNFCCC definition«A change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.»

News within the climate change frameDefining the problem, diagnosing its causes, making a moral judgment, or suggesting a remedy [Kuypers 2009]

Data 17 monthsInternet Archive Tweets480K+ tweets428 peaks →111 events

News from GDELT560K+ news articles218 peaks →100 eventsComparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media: The Case of Climate Change. A. Olteanu, C. Castillo, N. Diakopoulos, K. Aberer. ICWSM 2015.

Event typology

Disasters, Natural HazardsDisasters, Human-InducedLegal ActionsPublications/Studies/ResearchMeetings/ConferencesOther (Campaigns, Statements)

Comparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media: The Case of Climate Change. A. Olteanu, C. Castillo, N. Diakopoulos, K. Aberer. ICWSM 2015.

Actor typology

Disasters, Natural HazardsDisasters, Human-InducedLegal ActionsPublicationsMeetingsOther

Comparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media: The Case of Climate Change. A. Olteanu, C. Castillo, N. Diakopoulos, K. Aberer. ICWSM 2015.

by:Gov. & Intergov.NGOs & Univ.For-profitIndividuals

Distribution of events

Comparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media: The Case of Climate Change. A. Olteanu, C. Castillo, N. Diakopoulos, K. Aberer. ICWSM 2015.

Twitter: less interest in meetings, publications, more interest on individuals, orig. journalismNews: more interest on disasters, meetings

News values [Galtung and Rouge 1965, Harcup and O’Neill 2001, Stovall 2004, ...]

Both media tend to cover events that are:● extraordinary● unpredictable● of moderate and high magnitude● negative or neutral● not involving conflict● not involving elite personsComparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media: The Case of Climate Change. A. Olteanu, C. Castillo, N. Diakopoulos, K. Aberer. ICWSM 2015.

News values differences

Comparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media: The Case of Climate Change. A. Olteanu, C. Castillo, N. Diakopoulos, K. Aberer. ICWSM 2015.

Extraordinary Ordinary

Twitter 76% 24%

News 84% 16%

Both 80% 20%

Both tend to focus on extraordinary, high- magnitude news …but Twitter also cover ordinary, low-magnitude newsBoth differences significant at p<0.05

High Medium Low

Twitter 25% 55% 20%

News 34% 55% 11%

Both 29% 55% 16%

Conclusions

Overlap in events around 22% to 25%Don't get your news from only one of them

Publications on the effects of climate change covered even if not endorsed by elite persons

Methodology in the paper is generic: can be applied to any topic e.g. racism or immigrationComparing Events Coverage in Online News and Social Media: The Case of Climate Change. A. Olteanu, C. Castillo, N. Diakopoulos, K. Aberer. ICWSM 2015.

Dataset on Climate Change in Media (and more)http://crisislex.org/

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