News in 140 Characters: A Content Analysis of U.S. News Outlets on Twitter Becky Moylan A Capstone Project Presented to the Faculty of the School of Communication in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Public Communication Supervisor: Caty Borum Chattoo April 22, 2013
COPYRIGHT © Rebecca Mary Moylan 2013 2 Acknowledgements To my parents, who lovingly supported me in the adventure of graduate school. To Professor Caty Borum Chattoo, who guided me through this process of uncharted territory. To my friends, who listened to stories of my coding woes and successes. And finally to the Marquette University basketball team, who kept me company as I wrote many parts of this capstone and were a lesson in perseverance and the benefits of hard work. 3 Executive Summary Twitter offers a window into the top social media conversations of the day through its “trending topics” list and “discover” section. It also is a growing source for news amongst its users; however, little research exists into understanding how news outlets themselves are using the social media platform, as well as the implications of this use for news consumers. This research project conducts a content analysis that evaluates three U.S. news sources’ use of the platform to share news and disseminate content. The flagship Twitter accounts for Huffington Post, USA Today and Fox News are evaluated in this study, which examines elements such as tweet frequency, content, and mechanisms. This data is then analyzed within the framework of the agenda setting and framing theories. Through the research, a clear contrast in the approach of each news outlet is revealed, while also discovering some common trends in the use of Twitter to drive readers back to each publication’s own website. Considering the effects of selective exposure, the analysis includes implications for news consumers and the future of journalism. 4 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….6 LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………………………………………………………………9 Twitter ………………………………………………………………………………………….…………….9 The Language of Twitter …………………………………………………………..…………………11 Agenda Setting ……...………………………………………………………….………………….…….12 Framing ………………………………………………………………………………….………………….13 Political Ideologies of Media…………………………………………….………………………….14 Selective Exposure ………………………………………………………….………………………….16 METHODS ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..................18 RESULTS ……………………………………………………………………………………...………………………………21 DISCUSSION ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..................31 CONCLUSIONS ….....................................................................................................................................................39 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………41 APPENDIX ………………………………...…………………………………………………………………………………45
5 INTRODUCTION Twitter, the 140-­‐character social media network, has steadily grown since it began in March 2006, currently reaching the 200 million active user mark (Fiegerman, 2012). As Twitter’s followers have increased, so too have the ways in which users can access the tool—now available on the Web, via text message, on secondary dashboard sites like HootSuite and TweetDeck, and via apps on many smart devices including iPhones, iPads and Androids. Twitter has proven itself to be a social media platform that has become a mainstay on the Internet—and in its users’ lives. Additionally, many Twitter users have identified the tool as a source for news (Tau, 2013), increasing the need to research the ways in which different news sources utilize Twitter to disseminate news content. Broadly, Twitter users are creating a news agenda as they tweet every day, most evident through the trending topics the platform shares. The top conversations are displayed for every user and can be narrowed to a specific city or country. The insight of trending topics can be beneficial, but it also means that users are exposing themselves only to a certain set of events—the ones fellow Twitter users deem interesting and conversation-­‐worthy, not necessarily the ones that are the most newsworthy, per se. In addition to Twitter’s use by consumers, major news outlets are using the platform to share news reports, each with a unique agenda. This project will analyze how three different U.S.-­‐based news sources—Huffington Post, USA Today, and Fox News—are utilizing Twitter to share content and engage with consumers on a daily basis. The research will focus on: • The similarities and differences of three major U.S. news sources’ use of Twitter • The story agenda set by each of the news sources on Twitter 6 •
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The framing techniques used in tweets The ways news sources extend their content beyond 140 characters through links, pictures, videos and other media Inasmuch as the news media have always played a key role in shaping the public’s knowledge and understanding of news events, the ability of Twitter to act as a kind of news media agenda setter is important to examine. Analyzing tweet content will lead to a better understanding of how the news media are utilizing the social media platform and the impact on users’ knowledge and understanding of news events. Little research currently exists on this topic because the platform is still evolving. The three news sources’ Twitter accounts that will be the basis of this research were selected to represent different parts of the news industry, both in ideological leaning and history as an outlet. @HuffingtonPost is the umbrella Twitter account for Huffingtonpost.com, a U.S.-­‐based site that launched in 2005 (McGinn, 2005) with a liberal perspective, to compete with the conservative aggregate news website, Drudge Report. AOL acquired the company in 2011 (“AOL Agrees To Aquire The Huffington Post,” 2011). The news outlet started as and remains a digitally-­‐based publication (AOL Agrees To Aquire The Huffington Post, 2011). In March 2013, the account had approximately 2.8 million followers. @FoxNews is the lead Twitter account for Fox News, which started as a cable television channel in 1996 (Newscorp, 2012) and currently refers to itself as America’s number one cable news network. The outlet now includes a news website, foxnews.com. The outlet’s slogan is “fair and balanced” but critics often say that reporting is biased with a 7 conservative slant. The @FoxNews Twitter account showed roughly 2.5 million followers in March 2013. Finally, @USATODAY is the iconic newspaper’s Twitter account. USA Today launched in 1982 as a major daily newspaper, which currently has the largest print circulation in the U.S. It launched its website, USATODAY.com, in 1995 (USATODAY.com). The outlet now focuses strongly on visual storytelling across print, digital, social and video platforms (USATODAY.com). The account had around 509, 500 followers in March 2013. This paper begins with a literature review that explores the topics of Twitter, agenda setting theory, framing theory, selective exposure theory, and political ideologies and histories of Fox News, USA Today and Huffington Post. The paper then explains the methodology of the original content analysis of a sample from a week of tweets from @FoxNews, @HuffingtonPost and @USATODAY, followed by a report of the findings. The capstone project concludes with an analysis and discussion of the findings and implications for the future of journalism. 8 LITERATURE REVIEW Twitter Twitter is a social media platform that launched in March of 2006 (“Twitter Turns Six,” 2012). The site allows 140-­‐character messages, called “tweets,” to be sent out to followers (Dijck, 2011) in a microblogging style. From its inception, Twitter focused on being a social media site that was compatible with many different devices, including cell phones—many of which were not “smart” at the time—and computers (Dijck, 2011). Now entering its seventh year, Twitter says it has 200 million active users as of December 2012 (Fiegerman, 2012). Twitter positioned itself initially as a place to answer the question “What are you doing?” but as the site gained popularity it changed its prompt to “What’s happening?” (Dijck, 2011, p. 340). Users integrated tweeting into their daily lives, and through technology, the site adapted and grew (Hermida, 2010). This growth led to Twitter being adopted in newsrooms, used as a tool to enhance journalists’ storytelling (Hermida, 2010). Twitter serves four main purposes: “daily chatter, conversation, sharing information and reporting news” (Hermida, 2010, p. 299). Two of these uses—sharing information and reporting news—are relevant to an examination of the ways in which Twitter is used by news outlets. It has emerged as a news source (Tau, 2013) for many users. In 2009, it increased its relevance when news first broke via the platform about a plane crashing into the Hudson River (Greer & Ferguson, 2011). Twitter has become a platform where news is “reported, disseminated and shared online in short, fast and frequent messages” (Hermida, 2010, p. 301). This functionality illustrates its usefulness to journalists and news outlets as a whole, in addition to the 9 general public. Furthermore, Hermida determined that “Twitter users tend to be the people who are interested in and engaged in the news” (2010, p. 298) and news sharing of headlines is a major part of users’ activity (Dijck, 339). Regardless of what prompted Twitter’s connection to the news as a constant source of content for users, it is a distinct part of the platform’s functionality in users’ lives, again influencing news outlets to be present and active on Twitter (Hermida, 2010, p. 342). Outside of the promoted tweet function, a paid ad that appears in the form of a tweet in a user’s twitter feed, users self-­‐select all the accounts followed. Because of this self-­‐selection process, “a Twitter user is unlikely to be exposed to cross-­‐ideological content” (“Birds of a feather tweet together Integrating network and content analyses to examine cross-­‐ideology exposure on Twitter,” 2011, p. 9). This is important to note, because Twitter users who are utilizing the medium as a way to get news are therefore selecting particular news sources, which could have bias. This is particularly impactful in terms of political news, because this selective exposure process could influence what news stories a user reads and how the user understands the story. In 2011, the Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism studied news outlets’ use of Twitter, finding that tweets “closely [matched] that of their legacy platforms” (Holcomb, Gross & Mitchell, 2011, Para. 6) in situations where the outlet did not start digitally. This finding illustrates that Twitter is simply an extension of each outlet’s tradition; however, the research does not explore the ways in which Twitter extends or changes the legacy platform’s presence. The quality of stories has been questioned; however, as Hermida points out in Twitter content’s defense, “essential and non-­‐essential contents have always coexisted,” 10 (2010, p. 340) including in reputable news outlets. Therefore, it is only natural that both soft and hard news content would exist on any news outlet’s Twitter feed. In Twitter, the use of sharing content beyond the 140-­‐character text message is common, often linking to an article that extends the ideology reflected in the tweet (Himelboim, McCreery & Smith, 2013). This function furthers Twitter’s role as “a system of communication with its own media logic, shapes and structures” (Hermida, 2010, p. 300). Analyzing the content of news outlets’ tweets will increase the understanding of how Twitter shapes news communication. To successfully analyze news content on Twitter, the use of communication theories traditionally used in news analysis is essential. The Language of Twitter As frequent Twitter users know, understanding the meaning and use of the “Twitter language” is crucial for the effective use of the tool for sharing and engagement. The following are the words and phrases used most frequently in Twitter, defined here as a way to understand other parts of this project (Smith, 2012). Twitter – A social media platform where users share information in 140 characters of text or less. Tweet – A single 140-­‐character message; the action of sending a 140-­‐character message. Follower – Someone following another user on Twitter. Retweet – Re-­‐sharing a tweet that was originally sent by another user, crediting the original user for the tweet; this function can be performed manually by copy-­‐and-­‐pasting the tweet, with the letters “RT” at the beginning of the tweet, or in an automated fashion through functionality provided by the Twitter platform itself. Mention – Reference of another Twitter user by @username. The user is notified of all mentions. 11 Reply – Similar to the mention, this is a @username being included in a tweet as a way to reply to the user, therefore having a conversation. Hashtag – A function of Twitter that tracks tweets by topic, if the user uses a # followed by a word or short phrase. Hashtags can then be searched by other users. Example: #TodayShow Favorite – A function that allows users to catalog tweets they liked by “starring” it to indicate that the tweet is a “favorite.” The original user who sent the tweet is notified, other users can see how many “favorites” a tweet received, and other users can see what a user has “favorited.” Agenda setting Agenda setting is a key communication theory explaining that the news media tell the public what to think about, by acting as the gatekeepers for what news is shared via their outlets. The theory “systematically . . . [documents] the effects of mass media on the audience’s cognitions” (Meraz, 2009, p. 683), analyzing the impact of media decisions with regard to which stories to tell, when to tell them, and what amount of space or time to give them. The theory of agenda setting is often associated with its influence over politics (McCombs & Shaw, 1972), but it has relevance across news coverage because the media have “the power to influence . . . what the public thinks about” (Meraz, 2011, p. 107) by focusing on certain stories. Coverage of the stories prompts the public to believe those are the key issues at present. While research on the topic is still developing, scholars have recognized that emerging technology will influence the process of agenda setting (Aikat & Yu, 2005) because the access to information and its dissemination is changing. In their study in 2005, Aikat and Yu explored the question of whether or not issue salience was different among different media outlets; however, they ultimately concluded “media agenda is still consistent over different media” (p. 14). Though this study will not compare media agendas 12 across platforms, it is still important to understand that the theory of agenda setting is being re-­‐shaped because of emerging media. In today’s media landscape, different media are used to provide content for one another, thus further influencing the agenda setting process. Framing Similar to the foundation of agenda setting, which theorizes that the news media tells the public what to think about, the theory of framing explores how the news media actually shape the stories. Framing is a communication theory that analyzes how a news story is portrayed based on what information is included and excluded in a story. Entman defines framing as “[selecting] some aspects of a perceived reality and [making] them more salient in a communicating text” (1993, p. 52). By emphasizing certain details of a story, the communication text directs audiences to think in a certain way, by heightening some details and obscuring others. Through this process, parts of the topic become more salient, more meaningful and memorable to the audience (Entman, 1993), therefore heightening the topic’s importance. The process of framing “unifies information into a package that can influence audiences” (Tewksbury & Scheufele, 2009, p. 19). Framing is a valuable tool for journalists, allowing them to write on a deadline, and make a story understandable for the reader. It also allows a writer “to define a problem or suggestion” (Kweon, 2000, p. 166), which is what makes journalism an influential force in society (Kweon, 2000) as framing shapes the way the public understands an issue. Different frames can lead to different reactions from the public (Xigen & Xudong, 2010), making the frame an important part of the public’s decision making process. Previous research has proven framing’s powerful influence on the public (Xigen & Xudong, 2010), 13 which showcases the value of researching and analyzing news organizations’ use of frames. Though framing is influential, it is not an instantaneous process. Attention to messages may be more necessary for a framing effect to occur than an agenda setting effect. Exposure to a story may influence a person in terms of agenda setting, but framing takes more time, requiring the reader to read and comprehend a story for it to have an impact (Scheufele & Tewksbury, 2007). This is an important distinction to consider when analyzing the influence of a news story, recognizing that framing is not a process that simply occurs, but rather develops. Framing in microblogging platforms such as Twitter is still rarely represented in scholarly research (Wasike, 2012). However, the studies that have been published spoke frequently to the human-­‐interest frames that emerged in their studies (Wasike, 2012; Hamdy & Gomaa, 2012). Another trend revealed by Hamdy and Gomaa’s (2012) research was that Twitter framed issues differently than the traditional news outlets. While framing on Twitter is still largely uncharted territory, these studies demonstrate that the principles of the framing theory are still relevant and applicable. Political Ideologies In the United States over the past few decades, particular news outlets have emerged as thought-­‐leaders for particular political leanings. This identity influences the outlet’s agenda setting and framing of news. It also leads to attracting certain audiences, while alienating others. This strategy “is one of the key lines of demarcation allowing websites to attract a relatively loyal audience” (Baum & Goeling, 2008, p. 347). This idea similarly transfers to Twitter, where users are known to follow users similar to themselves Himelboim, McCreery & Smith, 2013). Though ideological bias is often seen as negative, it is 14 a mainstay of the journalism industry, often times “newspapers overtly take sides” (Tweney, 2007, Para. 1). The literature shows that Fox News is considered a predominantly right-­‐leaning, conservative news source while Huffington Post is starkly the opposite, a left-­‐
leaning publication (“Roger’s Balancing Act,” 2003; Silcock, 2008; Maraz, 2011). USA Today is a traditionally straight source (Hartman, 1987; Logan, 1986). The following paragraphs will expand upon the political leanings of Fox News and Huffington Post in particular, along with insight about the “middle road” sensibilities and output of USA Today.. Both Fox News and Huffington Post have strong ties to their creators. Roger Ailes, the Fox News founder, claims he embraces being called the conservative news outlet because it boosts viewership (“Roger’s Balancing Act,” 2003). According to Pew research, Ailes is right: Fox News is viewed as the most ideological news television outlet by Americans—and the viewers see it as a positive (Kohut, 2009, Para. 1). In one study that compared Fox News coverage to CNN coverage of the Iraq war, 71 percent of Fox’s stories contained journalistic bias, compared to two percent of CNN’s (Silcock, 2008), highlighting its tendency to favor the Bush administration and the war and therefore the Republican party. Huffington Post’s ideology lies at the other end of the political spectrum, viewed as a “left-­‐leaning” (Maraz, 2011, p. 112) source by communication scholars. Founded by Arianna Huffington as a progressive celebrity blog, the website has greatly expanded over the past eight years, now featuring a “wide range of progressive interests” (Tweney, 2007, Para. 1), and is currently owned by AOL. Huffington believes that the news website embraces both “journalistic values” and newsworthiness by focusing on issues that matter and deserve attention (Tweney, 2007,Para. 28). The site is the first Internet newspaper, 15 which allows it space to create its own system of telling the news; for example, Huffington said that the “guiding philosophy is to embrace editing” (Tweney, 2007, Para. 65) particularly in deciding what stories are on the front page of the site. USA Today began as a daily, national paper designed to appeal to a wide audience (Ura, 2009). It transformed print journalism in America through its use of color, graphics and mix of entertainment and news stories (Hartman, 1987; Logan, 1986). Its focus on the audience, which was criticized in its early years of publication (Hartman, 1987), drove its move to embrace digital platforms. In 2010, the publication shared its vision for remaining dedicated to the audience through sharing content on multiple platforms (Moynihan, 2010). When USA Today made its announcement to embrace multiple platforms in 2010, it declared itself a platform media company that would share “exclusive, entertaining content” (Moynihan, 2010, Para. 8). Selective Exposure The significance of Twitter as a way to get news is connected to the selective exposure theory, which suggests that news consumers seek out information from outlets that will reinforce current worldviews, rather than challenge and expand knowledge of current events and political beliefs (Graf & Aday, 2008). Emerging media platforms, particularly Twitter, could increase the opportunity for selective exposure (Graf & Aday, 2008). Research on the influence of selective exposure is rare, given the challenge of conducting experiments that prove its impact (Knobloch-­‐Westerwick, 2012). As evident from the previous section of this literature review, Fox News and Huffington Post both have strongly presented ideologies in their news reporting. These ideologies influence their audiences. Getting news from sources similar to one’s already-­‐
16 held beliefs “has been suggested to limit informed opinion formation, decrease political tolerance, and polarize citizens” (Knobloch-­‐Westerwick, 2012, p. 629). With such influence on thought, it is important to consider the differences of news outlets’ and consider their influence on the audience. 17 METHODS The following method was developed from the foundation of traditional news media content analysis, and then utilized to research how Huffington Post, USA Today and Fox News utilize Twitter to share their respective content and news agenda. To assess the news agendas, frames and usage in @HuffingtonPost’s, @USATODAY’s and @FoxNews’ tweets, a content analysis of one week of tweets was conducted. The research was designed to assess several dimensions of the content. The specific objectives of the content analysis were to determine the following: How each news outlet utilizes its Twitter platform in terms of promoting and framing its content, the mechanisms used in the tweet (i.e. retweet or hashtag), the type and content of stories being shared, the framing of the tweet, and the extension of the content beyond 140 characters. This study examined the similarities and differences of the three news outlets’ Twitter accounts, grounded in the theoretical frameworks of agenda setting and framing. In addition to a more traditional content analysis of the tweets, such as looking at the topics and content of the news story in each tweet, the research also assessed the overall strategy involved in each tweet by coding for each tweet’s functional elements. All content tweeted by @HuffingtonPost, @FoxNews and @USATODAY during the week of Sunday, March 3, 2013, to Saturday, March 9, 2013, was pulled from the Twitter feed and stored for analysis. This included retweets, but excluded any content deleted quickly from the feed. In total, 2,603 tweets were collected—2,145 from @HuffingtonPost, 109 from @FoxNews and 349 from @USATODAY over the course of the week. From the total of 2,603 tweets, a sample of 10 percent of the overall total number of tweets collected was taken, equaling 261 tweets. To ensure representation across each 18 media outlet and control for the obvious difference in volume of tweets across the outlets, 87 tweets were taken from each Twitter account, to ensure that the samples would be comparable with one another. In total, 87 tweets were coded for each news outlet’s Twitter account, equaling 261 tweets total. For sampling purposes, to collect the same number of tweets per outlet (87 tweets per outlet, totaling 261 tweets, or 10 percent of the total number of tweets—
2,603—during the study timeframe), every 25th tweet was coded from @HuffingtonPost, every fourth tweet was coded from @USATODAY, and the first 70 tweets were coded for @FoxNews, then every other for the remaining 17 coded tweets. A comprehensive codebook (see Appendix A) was then constructed to serve as the assessment tool for each tweet, evaluating 47 specific variables. The broad topics of the variables include: •
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The content of the tweet including text, links to an article, links to photos, links to videos, hashtags, retweets and mentions The agenda setting present in the tweet through hashtags, timeliness in the news cycle (breaking, continuing, evergreen), type of news (hard, soft, opinion) and tweet text style (headline, question, quote or summary) Article content and broad prominent story topic (political news, non-­‐political news, entertainment, sports or lifestyle articles) In a few instances, tweets did not yield a news story at all. In those instances, there was no coding given for those data points, but the other elements present in the tweet were coded. Therefore, in some of the results, numbers will not total 261. Also, percentages were rounded up, and therefore did not always total 100 percent. 19 The coding was tracked and tabulated through Microsoft Excel, and then resulting data points were analyzed. 20 RESULTS Out of the 2,603 tweets collected, 261 are included in the final sample, equaling 87 tweets from each of the three news outlets’ Twitter accounts. @HuffingtonPost yielded the largest collection of tweets over the course of a week, totaling 2,145. @USATODAY tweeted 349 times over the course of the week. @FoxNews tweeted the least, tweeting 109 times. One element evaluated—text—was found in all of the tweets coded in the final sample. General Tweet Makeup The majority of the tweets sampled, 92 percent, linked to an article in the tweet. Of those links, 87 percent of them were links to the outlet’s respective websites. @USATODAY shared links to other publications most frequently, as 15 percent of its links clicked onto a webpage not housed on USATODAY.com. Using photos in the tweets that included a link was also frequent and common across all three outlets. In total, 85 percent of tweets included a photo with a link. @USATODAY included a photo with a link least frequently amongst all three outlets, present in 82 percent of tweets with a link. @FoxNews included a photo paired with a link in 85 percent of its tweets that included a link, and @HuffingtonPost included a photo with a link in 96 percent of its tweets with a link. These general “tweet makeup” findings are depicted below in Figure One. 21 Figure 1: Photo links to article Figure Two shows that the tweets across all three outlets linked to a video 38 percent of the time. Of these links, 96 percent of them were embeded videos hosted on the publication’s own website. Figure 2: Total Sample links to a video 22 In the samples, @FoxNews and @HuffingtonPost utilized videos almost equally, linking to videos 40 percent and 44 percent of the time, respectively, as depicted below in Figure Three. By contrast, @USATODAY shared video content in 28 percent of its tweets sampled. Figure 3: Outlet's link to a video Hashtags were utilized in 21 percent of the total tweet sample. @FoxNews used hashtags significantly more than the other two outlets; 49 percent of the coded Fox News tweets contained at least one hashtag. @USATODAY used at least one hashtag in 10 percent of its sample tweets. @HuffingtonPost used a hashtag in just two tweets coded in the sample, less that one percent of its total. The ratio of hashtag usage is depicted below in Figure Four. 23 Figure 4: Ratio of hashtags 24 In addition to the presence of a hashtag in each tweet, hashtags were also evaluated based upon the specific word or purpose for a hashtag, as shown in the chart below, Figure Five. News story hashtags, examined later in the discussion section, were present in 80 percent of the tweets that contained a hashtag. One percent of tweets used #breaking, less than one percent of tweets used #Obama, two percent of tweets used a promotional hashtag (#JobRaising, #dailychat, #snapshots) for an outlet’s ongoing feature and less than one percent used a popularly followed/searched hashtag (#forbes, #royalbaby). Figure 5: Ratio of specific hashtags @FoxNews also tweeted more frequently using a @mention; 36 tweets (41 percent of its tweets) contained a @mention. By comparison, @USATODAY utilized a @mention five times and @HuffingtonPost utilized a @mention twice. Retweets were a less frequently used Twitter mechanism. In the final sample, @FoxNews retweeted another Twitter account twice, @USATODAY retweeted another account five times and @HuffingtonPost did not retweet any other accounts. Tweet Content Continuing news stories were the most commonly tweeted-­‐about topics, with 64 percent of the total tweets covering continuing news. Breaking news, defined as news that was announced in the past two hours, was tweeted in five percent of the overall sample, specifically by @FoxNews in five percent of its tweets and in nine percent of tweets by @USATODAY. There were no breaking news stories tweeted by @HuffingtonPost. Evergreen stories, or those that could be shared at any time and still be relevant to readers (such as feature stories), comprised 30 percent of tweets. Figure Six depicts the frequency with which each outlet tweeted evergreen, continuing and breaking news. Figure 6: Type of news story tweeted 26 When assessing all three outlets’ Twitter accounts together, hard news comprised 60 percent of the news stories tweeted over the course of the studied week. Soft news comprised 34 percent of the stories coded and the final five percent was opinion news, including opinion blog posts. @FoxNews and @USATODAY tweeted more hard news than @HuffingtonPost, however. Hard news comprised 77 percent of @FoxNews’ tweets. @USATODAY tweeted hard stories in 71 percent, of its sample and @HuffingtonPost shared hard news in 31 percent of its tweets. @HuffingtonPost in turn shared more soft news stories, 61 percent of the time, while @USATODAY tweeted soft news 24 percent and @FoxNews tweeted soft news stories in 17 percent of its tweets. In Figure Seven below, the bar chart depicts the frequency of opinion, soft and hard news in the coded tweets. Figure 7: Kind of news The use of text to introduce the story in the tweet was also coded, as seen in Figure Eight. Summary of the story (sharing enough detail that the reader would know the general idea of the story without reading further) was the most common, comprising 44 percent of the tweets coded. The second most common was a headline, similar to a traditional news article heading, which was found in 39 percent of tweets. Questions were posed in the tweet nine percent of the time. Finally, a quote was the least commonly used text style, present in seven percent of the sample. Figure 8: Tweet Text Style National political news, local news and celebrity news were the three most frequently tweeted news stories amongst the three outlets. However, no one type of story was particularly dominant, evident from national political news, the most common story, accounting for 18 percent of the total story topics. The pie chart in Figure Nine depicts the ratio of the story themes present in the coded tweets. 28 Figure 9: Ratio of story topics Travel Romance Sports Wellness Entertainment Local Political News Business News National News Lifestyle World News World Political News Celebrity News Local News National Political News <1% 1% 2% 3% 3% 3% 5% 7% 8% 9% 10% 14% 15% 18% 29 The most common story shared by @FoxNews related to national political news, which accounted for 32 percent of its tweets. @USATODAY’s most common theme was a localized news story, which was the type of story in 17 percent of tweets. @HuffingtonPost most frequently tweeted stories about celebrities, accounting for 31 percent of its tweets for the week. In Figure Ten, the story types are broken down to visually depict the frequency of each type of story. Figure 10: Frequency of each story type 30 DISCUSSION In the study of the tweet activity – including content and interaction with other users – across three U.S. news media outlets, Huffington Post, USA Today, and Fox News, the overall makeup of tweets was very similar across all three Twitter accounts. Text was used in every tweet, showing that the primary functionality of Twitter, expressing a thought in 140 characters or less, is still how it is used most often. Furthermore, the majority of the tweets analyzed included a link to some type of content, most often an article or article and video combination. This demonstrates that @FoxNews, @HuffingtonPost and @USATODAY are all utilizing Twitter to funnel followers to content that is housed elsewhere. Almost all of this content was on the respective account’s own website, further illustrating that clicks on links and views on the outlet’s website are driving Twitter content decisions. Uniquely, @USATODAY tweeted the main URL of the outlet (www.usatoday.com) during breaking news events, such as Hugo Chavez’s death and an earthquake in China. The reasoning for this decision likely being that with breaking news stories, the story will be updated frequently and the main webpage will remain most relevant for followers. The use of video in more than a third of stories helps to demonstrate that video is the fastest growing content area on the Web (O’Malley, 2009). Through the coding process, it was observed that the majority of videos also included a text-­‐based article in the link. This tendency depicts how news outlets can cater to consumers, who have different preferences, in the same story. Hashtags are a beneficial way to draw in readers, even if they do not follow the outlet directly. However, the research found that hashtags were only used in just under a 31 quarter of tweets. The three outlets utilized this Twitter function vastly differently. @FoxNews utilized hashtags most frequently. Additionally, @FoxNews used multiple hashtags in half of its tweets where a hashtag was present. This signifies two key ideas: First, what the outlet views as the most important elements of the story, and second, the notion that the outlet is hoping to draw in readers who are interested in a particular news story. Its use of hashtags demonstrates a way it is using the Twitter platform well to leverage its content. By contrast, @HuffingtonPost virtually did not use hashtags at all. Given that it is a digital native publication, this is a surprising approach because hashtags are such an integral part of the Twitter experience for most users (Jones, 2011). @USATODAY leveraged hashtags in a unique way, including #dailychat and #snapshot in its repertoire. This lends itself to further promotion of @USATODAY on Twitter, and can be a beneficial way to encourage tracking conversations. For example, the #dailychat states a timely question and asks followers opinions, thus encouraging engagement. Similar to how @USATODAY leverages creative hashtags in its content, demonstrating its commitment to digital, during data collection it was observed that @USATODAY uses the Vine App. The Vine App was released in January 2013 (http://blog.twitter.com/2013/01/vine-­‐new-­‐way-­‐to-­‐share-­‐video.html), and allows users to share six-­‐second videos. @USATODAY uses the app to take a video of the morning’s print edition, highlighting the headlines of the day, and then shares it on Twitter. This is an excellent example of the way that @USATODAY is utilizing Twitter’s capabilities to its full extent. 32 Tweet Content Though Twitter is often discussed as a way that news breaks (Guynn, 2013), “breaking news” was not the most commonly-­‐tweeted story type among the outlets. Rather, “continuing news” was the most frequently tweeted type of news. This finding demonstrates that while as a collective whole, Twitter users tweet breaking news on the platform, each news outlet utilizes it in a broader way, to share the articles that are relevant, timely and in the overall conversation of the news. Evergreen stories comprised the next largest set of stories. Most interestingly, the stories that were coded as evergreen still typically had a tie-­‐in to a recent news event such as @USATODAY tweeting about tips for workplace flexibility, a story that was in the news frequently during that time period because of the “Lean In” phenomena and Yahoo! CEO Marissa Meyer’s decision to end telecommuting. During this week, the most popular breaking news was Hugo Chavez’s death on March 5, 2013. The other breaking stories that @FoxNews classified as such in its tweets’ text were John Brennan’s confirmation as CIA director and President Obama’s support for Venezuela. @USATODAY also shared John Brennan’s confirmation in the context of breaking news, stating it as “breaking” in the tweet’s text, and shared multiple stories about Hugo Chavez’s death quickly after news broke. @USATODAY also tweeted breaking news stories regarding the Dow Jones new high, unemployment numbers for February, Rand Paul’s filibuster, and Democrats’ efforts to raise minimum wage. @HuffingtonPost did not break news through the account included in this sample. This approach may be a precipitate of Huffington Post’s use of multiple Twitter accounts that break news that relate to a specific subject (analogous to the traditional journalism notion of “beats”). For 33 example, the political news that @USATODAY and @FoxNews shared as it broke may have been shared on @HufPostPol, Huffington Post’s political news Twitter account. Additionally, Huffington Post has a greater amount of content every day given its strategy for aggregating content and employing bloggers on such a wide variety of topics. These differences in approaches speak to the history of each publication, and how each presents itself on Twitter as a representation of its respective identity. Similarly, the amount of hard, soft and opinion news each outlet tweeted can also be seen as a result of the publication’s roots. For example, @FoxNews and @USATODAY shared significantly more hard news than @HuffingtonPost. @HuffingtonPost’s focus on sharing soft news also speaks toward the content it generates through its various extensions. Emphasizing softer news, and repeatedly sharing the same stories—a trend that was observed during the data collection—suggests that its efforts to attract clicks is not motivated by news value in itself but through the broader interest in intriguing, unique or popular stories. Surprisingly, all three outlets shared similar amounts of opinion-­‐based stories, though the methods were different. For example @HuffingtonPost’s opinion stories were primarily through blog writers, while @FoxNews’ opinion stories were often coded based on it sharing data from outlet-­‐run surveys polling readers’ opinions. The most popular approach for the text of the tweet was to summarize the story contained in the link. This tendency is particularly interesting because it allows followers to feel they are knowledgeable about a news story without actually clicking on the link and reading the article. Headlines were the second most common approach; however, in general, the presence of pithy headlines was not common. The hurried nature of online news could be the reason for this, as journalists are most concerned with getting the story 34 out as soon as possible, where in times past headlines were a key to the success of selling a paper. The most commonly-­‐tweeted stories, comprising nearly 50 percent of the sample, were national political stories, local news and celebrity news. Considering these three in conjunction again supports the theory presented earlier in this discussion that all three news outlets are sharing content that will generate interest through clicks. National political news impacts a large audience and often includes a flair for dramatics. Local news stories being shared by a national outlet typically plays into sensationalized news (absurd, surprising, unique stories) or devastating events, such as the commonly shared story of the couple in New York City who died in a car crash, the woman with child, and the efforts to save the baby. Celebrity news is sensationalized news unto itself (DeVries, 2009), evident through trends such as PerezHilton.com and tabloid magazine sales. Though these three story types were the most commonly tweeted overall, only local news was shared frequently by all three outlets. Looking at the frequency with which each publication tweeted a certain type of story, the roots of the publication shine through. For example, local news was shared by @USATODAY the most, and least by @HuffingtonPost. By contrast, @HuffingtonPost shared celebrity news far more frequently than @FoxNews and @USATODAY. Even combining @FoxNews and @USATODAY, @HuffingtonPost still shared 17 more stories about celebrity news in the sample. This indicates a difference in strategies between the three outlets. @HuffingtonPost’s content strategy suggests a focus on attracting readers through softer stories, rather than sharing hard-­‐hitting news. If @HuffingtonPost’s “core business” is celebrity news, @FoxNews’ is national political news, unsurprising considering its roots as a politically-­‐focused cable news 35 network. @FoxNews shared national political news in a third of its tweets. Similar to how @HuffingtonPost’s tendency to share celebrity news reflects its Twitter strategy, @FoxNews’ frequency of political stories suggests this is its focus as a news outlet on Twitter. @USATODAY, which as a newspaper prided itself on its four sections (News, Money, Sports, Life), shared the most stories about sports. Though not a significant number of stories in total, it shows that its original coverage is still influencing the outlet on Twitter. Another example of how a publication’s legacy is evident is in the frequency of business stories. @USATODAY again shared the most stories about business—tweeting several times about the stock market’s new highs over the course of the week. This again could be a result of USA Today’s print tradition in the “Money” section. Meanwhile, though Fox News’ readership is likely interested in the topic, it shared only one business-­‐related story. This could be an example of @FoxNews relying on its other Fox News branded Twitter accounts specific to a certain topic to cover such news. Selective Exposure Overall, the news agenda set by each of the Twitter accounts researched presented different narratives for the week. If a person were to follow just one of these accounts and use it as a primary news source—a reasonable assumption given the selective exposure theory’s principle that news consumers follow only news that agrees with already held beliefs—he or she would likely be missing at least some major events each week. @USATODAY was the broadest in coverage, showing a range of stories across all the areas that were coded, again likely a result of the publication’s roots. @FoxNews showed the 36 second widest range, emphasizing political news but also presenting some softer stories. @HuffingtonPost, though tweeting far more frequently, showed the least amount of variety in news type, sharing mostly evergreen stories, and some continuing news stories. During data collection, it was also observed that @HuffingtonPost often tweeted the exact same tweet multiple times, or varied the tweet’s text but shared the same link frequently. These trends in themselves are not good or bad, but are important to consider in regards to the theory of selective exposure. If a person is only exposing himself or herself to one of these outlets on Twitter, then likely at least one major news event will be missed. A strength of Twitter is that with little effort a wide variety of news can be gathered quickly and easily in one place online. The findings of this study support that following multiple outlets, with different political leanings and publication histories, is valuable in highlighting the potential for selective exposure in the digital era of social news. Twitter’s Impact on Journalism In terms of the future of journalism, Twitter presents a valuable tool but also a cautionary note to journalists. It is a tool because it can share breaking news quickly, and therefore a full story is not necessary in order to break the news. However, this has negative implications as well. First, anyone can be a “journalist” reporting what he or she is witnessing, without being held accountable to an editor or the need to fact check. The concept of “citizen journalism” is one that was not studied in this research, but its implications are a question journalists will be wrestling with in the future. Second, longer form journalism—in this case anything over 140 characters—is fighting against readers 37 simply relying on the tweet to convey the knowledge of a story. The frequency of summary-­‐
type tweets that linked to an article is evidence of this. A reader may feel he or she is now knowledgeable about a story simply by reading a tweet, rather than a full article. Finally, recent data from Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism demonstrates that news consumers actually prefer the opinion-­‐based talking heads news format, which again reinforces a news consumer’s already-­‐held beliefs (“No News Isn’t Good News,” 2013). This saves money for news organizations, because it requires less investigative journalism and the time and costs associated with it. However, it also limits the hard-­‐hitting nature of news, which plays a larger, pivotal role in society. Twitter as a news platform encourages outlets to share news that will get clicks, which could further exacerbate news outlets’ tendency to share softer and more opinion-­‐based pieces. 38 CONCLUSION Twitter’s growth and relevance as a source of news is a trend that will likely continue to grow in the coming years as it gains more users and people continue to rely on it as a news source. In addition to individuals, news outlets are utilizing the platform to disseminate content, each representing a unique perspective based on its roots and political leanings. Because of this, it is valuable to understand how news outlets are utilizing the platform, as their actions are shaping public knowledge through agenda setting and framing. This project explored through a content analysis how three U.S. outlets—USA Today, Fox News and Huffington Post—use their flagship Twitter accounts. Specifically, the study explored the similarities and differences of the content each tweeted over the course of a week. It also studied the ways that stories were extended beyond 140 characters through elements such as links, videos and hashtags. The study also researched the agenda setting and framing present in each outlet individually, and all three collectively. Over the course of a week in March 2013, 2,603 tweets were collected, and key content was examined across a sample from the three outlets. In addition to the difference in tweet frequency, the study also discovered that the most commonly shared stories were national political news, local news and entertainment celebrity news, when looking at all three news outlets’ tweets collectively. However, individually, each outlet focused more on a different type of news, which reflected its own news legacy. Furthermore, the data revealed that although Twitter is often discussed as a place for breaking news, the outlets’ Twitters most frequently shared continuing news, rather than breaking news stories. The study concludes that while Twitter can be a valuable source for news, no one Twitter outlet 39 is sharing the full scope of news in a particular week. Given the selective exposure theory, this is crucial to consider as the platform grows in popularity, because people tend to focus on only certain news outlets based on a variety of preferences. The lack of a second coder in the content analysis limits the reliability of the coding results. To verify the results, a second coder would need to code the collection of tweets to rule out any bias. Furthermore, this study coded only 10 percent of the tweets collected over the course of a week, and therefore cannot be generalized to represent each outlet’s use of Twitter in full. Future research should conduct experiments that test selective exposure in social media, specifically Twitter, to test how Twitter users are selecting news on the platform and the impact of these choices. Another area of future research is the use of video on Twitter, particularly the Vine App, which proved itself particularly relevant during the Boston Marathon Bombings (McDermott, 2013) because it allows users to quickly share video content. Overall, this study demonstrates that news outlets do share some valuable content on Twitter, however in itself no one news source on Twitter offers a full picture of current events. Each outlet took a unique approach to its use of Twitter, evident through differences in content, use of elements like video and hashtags, and story choices. However, a commonality also exists amongst all three outlets, particularly each utilizing the platform to direct its audience back to its own website. As the platform continues to grow, users will continue to utilize Twitter as a news source, making a news outlet’s use of its account essential to its identity as a publication. 40 REFERENCES Aikat, D., & Yu, J. J. (2005). News on the Web: Agenda Setting of Online News in Web Sites of Major Newspaper, Television and Online News Services. Conference Papers -­‐-­‐ International Communication Association, 1-­‐15. AOL Agrees To Aquire The Huffington Post. (2011, February 7). Retrieved February 23, 2013, from huffingtonpost.com: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/07/aol-­‐
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