Abstract
Through data captured in a digital content analysis (DCA) lab, we examine coverage of Twitter across three 24-hour U.S. cable news channels: CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. This investigation tracked Twitter coverage from its initial stage, followed by its rise to a massively used tool and its subsequent diffusion into society, evident through its plateauing coverage. News stories covering Twitter, as it penetrated into society, were more likely to use benefit/gain frames when discussing the technology, highlighting its positive social, communicative, political, and participatory impact. Benefit frames were also likely to associate Twitter with journalism. Patterns emerging through the indicator graphs plotted by the DCA lab showed that the most intense coverage occurred during crisis situations, as Twitter coverage reached saturation, followed by increased personal daily usage of Twitter.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Funding Information
This project was supported by funds from the Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NSF grant HRD-0450339).
Repository Citation
Chung, Deborah S.; Tsay-Vogel, Mina; and Kim, Yung Soo, "Who’s Following Twitter? Coverage of the Microblogging Phenomenon by U.S. Cable News Networks" (2015). Journalism and Media Faculty Publications. 1.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/jat_facpub/1
Notes/Citation Information
Published in International Journal of Communication, v. 9, p. 3369–3393.
Copyright © 2015 (Deborah S. Chung, Mina Tsay-Vogel, & Yung Soo Kim).
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd).