The document discusses how news values and storytelling took place on Twitter during the 2011 Egyptian uprising. It finds that:
1) Established news values like immediacy and relevance guided Twitter use, but new values like ambient news environments and collective production also emerged.
2) News storytelling on Twitter combined oral and print traditions, with a rhythmic and affective style where facts, drama, and emotions blended together instantly.
3) The form of news on Twitter challenges traditional distinctions between media and audiences, as collaborative and leaderless networks collectively framed the events in real-time.
1. Affec&ve
news
streams
and
networked
publics:
mediality
and
engagement
on
#egypt
Zizi
Papacharissi,
PhD
Professor
and
Head,
Communica&on,
University
of
Illinois-‐
Chicago
@zizip
Papacharissi, Z. & Oliveira, de Fatima M. (2012). Affective News and Networked Publics: The Rhythms of News
Storytelling on #Egypt. Journal of Communication.
Meraz, S. & Papacharissi, Z. (2012). Broadcasting and Listening Practices on #egypt: Networked Gatekeeping
and Networked Framing. Paper presented at IAMCR, Durban, South Africa.
Papacharissi, Z. & Meraz, S. (2012).The Rhythms of Occupy: Broadcasting and Listening Practices on #ows-IR13
Meraz, S. & Papacharissi, Z. (2012). Networked framing and gatekeeping on #ows - forthcoming
2. premise
• TwiIer
as
news
repor&ng
mechanism
• TwiIer
and
news
storytelling
– Established
news
values
guide
use
of
TwiIer
– News
breaking/premedia&on/
instantaneity
• Collec&vely
prodused
news
– Homophily,
peripheral
awareness
and
ambient
news
feeds
and
the
news
economy
environments,
hybridity
• TwiIer
as
news
sharing
• TwiIer
as
alterna&ve/ mechanism
during
uprisings
primary
channel
for
– Electronic
word
of
mouth
informa&on
– Broadcas&ng
and
‘listening
in’
on
uprisings
– Homophily
and
group
iden&ty
3. • News
values
• The
form
of
news
as
specific
to
socio-‐cultural
context
RQ1:
What
news
values
were
prevalent
in
the
TwiIer
news
streams
capturing
the
events
of
the
2011
Egyp&an
uprising?
RQ2:
What
form
did
news
storytelling
on
TwiIer
take
during
the
recent
2011
Egyp&an
uprising?
METHOD:
Frequency
analysis
(
R
),
1.5
million
mul&lingual
tweets,
computerized
content
analysis
(seman&c,
addressivity
markers,
flow),
discourse
analysis
#egypt
News
values
and
the
form
of
news
on
TwiIer
4. [news
values]
• News
values
priori&se
stories
about
events
that
are
recent,
sudden,
unambiguous,
predictable,
relevant
and
close
(to
the
relevant
culture/class/loca&on).
• Priority
is
given
to
stories
about
the
economy,
government
poli&cs,
industry
and
business,
foreign
affairs
and
domes&c
affairs-‐either
of
conflict
or
human
interest-‐
disasters
and
sport.
• Priority
is
given
to
elite
na&ons
(the
US,
the
UK,
Europe,
etc.)
and
elite
people.
• News
values
ofen
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
drama&c
(like
fic&on),
and
visual
(Hartley,
2002,
p.
166).
News
values
turn
events
into
stories
5. Old
values
Large
scale
of
events,
closeness
to
home,
clarity
of
meaning,
short
&me
scale,
relevance,
consonance,
personifica&on,
significance,
drama,
ac&on
+++
it’s
all
there,
except
nega&vity
Remedia-ons
and/or
new
values
(drama)
of
instantaneity
Events
instantly
turn
into
stories
crowdsourced
elites
(networked
gatekeeping)
solidarity
(networked
framing)
ambience
Constancy
and
con&nuity
of
always
on
news
environment
with
a
pulse
of
its
own,
organic,
collec&ve
Hybridity
of
old
+
new
news
values
12. Affect:
emo&ve
expressions/feeling
subjec&vely
experienced
connected
to
processes
of
premedia&on/an&cipa&on
of
events
prior
to
their
occurrence
• Rhythm
and
pace
of
storytelling
– Instant,
emo&ve,
pha&c
• Repe&&on
and
mimicry
set
the
pace
• Oral
and
print
cultures
of
storytelling
combine
News,
fact,
drama,
opinion,
emo&on
blend
into
one
=
affect
The
Form
of
Affec&ve
News
13. Affec&ve
news
streams
Collabora&ve
news
feeds
expose
(temporal)
incompa&bili&es
between
live
twee&ng
news
and
news
repor&ng
=
many
journalisms
Leaderless
publics/revolu&ons?
Affect
and
news
storytelling,
affect
and
mobiliza&on
14. Aferword
Affec&ve
Publics
(Oxford
U
Press,
2013)
Mul&-‐mediali&es
Supersurfaces
and
electronic
elsewheres
uic.edu/~zizi
::
zizi@uic.edu
::
@zizip