Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Who’S Following Twitter? Coverage Of The Microblogging Phenomenon By U.S. Cable News Networks, Deborah S. Chung, Mina Tsay-Vogel, Yung Soo Kim

Journalism and Media Faculty Publications

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 …