The document discusses how Twitter was used as a mechanism for both reporting and sharing news during the 2011 Egyptian uprising. It analyzes over 1.5 million tweets to understand the news values and rhythms of storytelling on Twitter. Traditional news values of recency, drama, and relevance were found, but Twitter also enabled new values like crowdsourced reporting, constant updates, and expressions of solidarity and emotion. The blending of facts, opinions, and affect on Twitter represented a hybrid form of news that was both oral and written in nature.

1. @zizip
The rhythms of news storytelling on Twitter:
Affective news streams, hybridity, and networked publics
Zizi
Papacharissi,
PhD
Professor
and
Head,
Communica7on,
University
of
Illinois-­‐Chicago
Papacharissi, Z. & Oliveira, de Fatima M. (2012). Affective News and Networked Publics: The
Rhythms of News Storytelling on #Egypt. Journal of Communication, in press.

2. • TwiCer
and
news
storytelling
• Collec7vely
prodused
news
feeds
and
the
news
economy
• TwiCer
as
alterna7ve/primary
channel
for
informa7on
Premise

3. • TwiCer
as
news
repor7ng
mechanism
• Established
news
values
guide
use
of
TwiCer
• News
breaking/premedia7on/instantaneity
• Homophily,
peripheral
awareness
and
ambient
news
environments,
hybridity
• TwiCer
as
news
sharing
mechanism
during
uprisings
• Electronic
word
of
mouth
• Broadcas7ng
and
‘listening
in’
on
uprisings
• Homophily
and
group
iden7ty
Previous Research

4. • News
values
• The
form
of
news
as
specific
to
socio-­‐cultural
context
RQ1:
What
news
values
were
prevalent
in
the
TwiCer
news
streams
capturing
the
events
of
the
2011
Egyp7an
uprising?
RQ2:
What
form
did
news
storytelling
on
TwiCer
take
during
the
recent
2011
Egyp7an
uprising?
• METHOD:
Frequency
analysis
(
R
),
1.5
million
mul7lingual
tweets,
Content
analysis,
(word
network
map),
Discourse
analysis
#egypt
News values and the form of news on Twitter

5. • News
values
priori7se
stories
about
events
that
are
recent,
sudden,
unambiguous,
predictable,
relevant
and
close
(to
the
relevant
culture/class/loca7on).
• Priority
is
given
to
stories
about
the
economy,
government
poli7cs,
industry
and
business,
foreign
affairs
and
domes7c
affairs-­‐either
of
conflict
or
human
interest-­‐
disasters
and
sport.
• Priority
is
given
to
elite
na7ons
(the
US,
the
UK,
Europe,
etc.)
and
elite
people.
• News
values
ocen
involve
appeals
to
dominant
ideologies
and
discourses.
What
is
cultural
and/or
historical
will
be
presented
as
natural
and
consensual.
• News
stories
need
to
appeal
to
readers/viewers
so
they
must
be
commonsensical,
entertaining
and
drama7c
(like
fic7on),
and
visual
(Hartley,
2002,
p.
166).
News
values
turn
events
into
stories
(news values)

6. • Old
values
• Large
scale
of
events,
closeness
to
home,
clarity
of
meaning,
short
7me
scale,
relevance,
consonance,
personifica7on,
significance,
drama,
ac7on
+
++
it’s
all
there,
except
nega7vity
• Remedia7ons
and/or
new
values
• (drama)
of
instantaneity
• Events
instantly
turn
into
stories
• crowdsourced
elites
• Solidarity
• Ambience
• Constancy
and
con7nuity
of
always
on
news
environment
with
a
pulse
of
its
own,
organic,
collec7ve
Hybridity of old new news values

10. Affect:
Emo7ve
expressions
subjec7vely
experienced
connected
to
processes
of
premedia7on/an7cipa7on
of
events
prior
to
their
occurrence
• Rhythm
and
pace
of
storytelling
• Instant,
emo7ve,
pha7c
• Repe77on
and
mimicry
set
the
pace
• Oral
and
print
cultures
of
storytelling
combine
News,
fact,
drama,
opinion,
emo7on
blend
into
one
=
affect
The Form of Affective News

11. Collabora7ve
news
feeds
expose
(temporal)
incompa7bili7es
between
live
twee7ng
news
and
news
repor7ng
=
many
journalisms
Leaderless
publics/revolu7ons?
Affect
and
news
storytelling,
affect
and
mobiliza7on
Affective news streams

12. Thank you!
www.uic.edu/~zizi
@zizip, zizi@uic.edu

13. instantaneity

14. instantaneity

15. Affective-resignation

16. Affective-most

17. Affective 2

18. Affective 3

19. Affective 5

20. Affective 6 -newsy

21. Affective 7 – mainstream

22. Oral and print

23. Affective-much more mainstream

24. General