SOCIAL PRESENCE, AND JOURNALISTIC USE OF TWITTER Jeremy J. Littau Lehigh University Mi Rosie Jahng Hope College
INTERACTIVITY,SOCIAL
PRESENCE,AND
JOURNALISTICUSE OF TWITTER
Jeremy J. LittauLehigh University
Mi Rosie JahngHope College
BACKGROUND
INTERACTIVITY➤ Replies➤ Public replies➤ Retweets➤ Quote tweets
HIGHSOCIALCUE
LOWSOCIALCUE
INTERACTIVITY & CREDIBILITY➤ When users assess
journalists they don’t know via search or retweets:➤ Interactivity is good! In
fact, it mitigates problems such as gender effects.
➤ Social disclosure creates positive impressions, but doesn’t affect credibility.
Jahng, M., Littau, J. (2016). Interacting is believing: Interactivity, social cue, and perceptions of journalistic credibility on Twitter. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 93(1), 38-58.
OUR PURPOSE
SNAP JUDGEMENTS➤ PREVIOUS STUDY:
➤ How do users assess the credibility of a source when they run into news online?
➤ CURRENT STUDY:➤ How interactive are
journalists, and is there some relationship with social presence?
STUDY SCOPE➤ Content analysis of 555
journalist profiles➤ Scored on:
➤ Coverage area (lifestyle, business, civic issues, science/tech, media, politics, opinion, sports)
➤ Interactivity ratio (20 most recent tweets)
➤ Social cue ratio
FINDINGS
43.9% OF PROFILES EXHIBITED HIGH SOCIAL CUE➤ Lifestyle, technology only categories to reverse
high/low split➤ Sports, civics, media more severe versions of split
40.8% OF PROFILES EXHIBITED HIGH INTERACTIVITY➤ Lifestyle, technology, media only categories to reverse
high/low split➤ Most lower categories closer to mean than on social
cue
A CLOSER LOOK1. High amounts of social presence were a strong
predictor of high interactivity.2. Job, not topic area, is mostly driving interactivity
1. Content creators are likely to interact2. Editors and executives less likely to interact.
IMPLICATIONS
➤ Social presence is a bridge to interactivity. This has training implications.
➤ How open should we be? Where is the line for professionalism?
➤ Interactivity is not monolithic across the professions. Role matters. So does coverage topic.
➤ Bring out the trolls: Is passion/fandom in follower base driving less engagement?