Read, Not Dead:
A Case Study of #redanddead Viral
News Spread
Geoffrey M. Graybeal, Jiran Hou, and
Carmen Hernández-Ojeda
14th International Symposium on Online Journalism.
University of Texas, Austin.
04/19/2013
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
Intro
• August 2012, The Red & Black shifts control
from student editors to hired professionals.
• Students resign; form digital-only publication,
The Red & Dead.
• Twitter account: @redanddead815;
#redanddead
Facebook Page: Red & Dead.
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
Literature Review
• News content on Twitter Networks.
– Few studies on journalism/breaking news (Brown-Smith,
2012).
– Traditional news orgs primary source of info (Lariscy, Avery,
Sweetser, &Howes, 2009).
• Online Influences (Cha, Haddadi, Benevenuto & Gummadi, 2010).
– User influence-content based (news)/conversational
based (celebrities).
– Topical influence.
• Information flow and Twitter/Preferential
Attachment (Himelboim, McCreery & Smith, 2011; Himelboim & Han, 2012).
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
Research Questions
• RQ1: What role did social media play in
spreading news of Red & Dead?
• RQ2: How did news of The Red & Black
editors’ resignation spread through Twitter so
quickly?
• RQ3: How were the Red & Black editors able
to build a sizable audience for a digital-only
publication?
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
Methods
• Content analysis.
– 500 tweets from the @redanddead815 between
Aug 15 to Aug 21, 2012.
– 111 articles pulled from the Internet.
• Social network analysis.
– A Twitter-topic network of The Red and Dead.
• 304 Twitter users and 840 user relationships were
captured.
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
RQ 1. What role did social media play
in spreading news of Red & Dead?
• 80% of @redanddead815 tweets were posted
during the account’s first three days.
• Red & Dead asked for followers and
influencers to spread the news.
– Half of Aug. 15 tweets fell into the request and
outsider influence categories.
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
RQ 1. What role did social media play
in spreading news of Red & Dead?
Red & Dead Timeline
8/15. 3:58 PM.
First Actions:
Twitter,
Facebook,
Website
8/15. 5:00 PM
Influential
Tweets:
Huffington Post
and USA Today
8/15.
6:30 PM.
Twitter
Impact: 1000
followers
8/21 Back to Red
& Black. 4:38 PM.
8/20
“-30-”
Reinstatements
8/15. Local
Coverage
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
8/16.
National
Coverage
8/16.
125,000
website
views
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
RQ 2. How did news of The Red & Black
editors’ resignation spread through
Twitter so quickly?
Red & Black alumni, ties.
•Journalism.
–Influential journalists first tweeted.
–Professional organizations and advocacy groups.
–Student journalists.
•Red & Dead specific strategy.
– Targeted influential people and organizations.
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
RQ 2. Findings
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
RQ 2. Findings
“We worked hard to make sure the
right people knew about our
situation.” Lindsey Cook (@lindzcook)
950,000
followers
100,000
followers
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
RQ 2. Findings
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
RQ 2. Findings
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
RQ 3. How were the Red & Black editors
able to build a sizable audience for a
digital-only publication?
126,000 page views w/in 36 hrs.
• News coverage.
– Viral nature.
• Social media.
– Tweets drove traffic.
• Key document.
– Stories covering the incident referenced the blog
publication.
• Name recognition.
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
RQ 3. Findings
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
RQ 3. Findings
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
RQ 3. Findings
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread
Discussion
• Traditional news still matters.
– Key players spreading content through SNSs.
– News coverage  audience.
– Journalists pivotal in enabling story to “go viral.”
• Ambient journalism.
• Topical influencers spread info (resonated
beyond Georgia).
– Student Press Freedom, college media, journalism.
04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism
Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread