Mixing Messages & Methods: Examing News Content on Facebook & Twitter

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?

twitter

facebook

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