Big Tweets: How the microblogging site Twitter has impacted on major news stories around the world

John Murphy

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

97 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The social media site Twitter has had a dramatic effect on news gathering and reporting. Many stories start on Twitter either because they are announced there by PR representatives or because journalists and the public post the first details of a major story that they witness on Twitter. The story can move from Twitter to the conventional media and then back again through retweets and comments from users. This means that it is possible to analyse the anatomy of a major breaking story from first break through citizen contributions to in depth follow up by conventional media which themselves get tweeted. This research aims to track the movement of major international news stories, such as The Sydney Lindt Café Siege, the Parliament Hill attack in Canada, the Chibok kidnappings in Nigeria and the killing of Osama bin Laden with a view to creating a map of their structure. The resulting map of the progress of the story will be useful to students covering major international news stories or desk editors trying to make sense of what is happening.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWJEC4 Full Papers
Place of PublicationAuckland
PublisherWorld Journalism Education Council
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jul 2016

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Big Tweets: How the microblogging site Twitter has impacted on major news stories around the world'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this