AUDIENCE AGENCY
THROUGH TWITTER: A
CASE STUDY OF THE
ROHINGYA CRISIS 2017
2018
LAURA BRANDÉN
SUPERVISOR: ANDERS HOG HANSEN
EXAMINER: MICHAEL KRONA
EXAMINATION DATE: 19 JUNE 2018
GRADE AWARDED: B
A MASTERS THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FUFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS IN THE FACULTY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY | MALMO UNIVERSITY
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ABSTRACT
LAURA BRANDÉN
AUDIENCE AGENCY THROUGH TWITTER: A CASE STUDY OF THE ROHINGYA CRISIS 2017 (Under the direction of Anders Hog Hansen)
Within the last two decades, social media has grown to becoming an integrated part of everyday life and along with it profound changes to how audiences can interact with news. Prior to web 2.0, audiences had limited selections when consuming news through their medium of choice and little possibility to interact with news organisations directly. With the advent of social media, audience are now able to personally curate their media consumption and fully interact with news organisations and the articles they post online. Because of this increased influence, audiences can now impose their agency on published new stories by liking, retweet, and discuss current new stories. This paper offers an in-depth study of how audiences can exert their agency over news publishing during September 2017. Utilizing the spread of the Rohingya Crisis of 2017 as a case study, this paper analyses in what ways audience agency influenced the new cycle during September 2017. This said, research conducted will utilise a two-step process for analysing the causes and effects of this phenomenon; a content analysis and an audience analysis; thus, a focus will be placed on understanding shifts in newspaper publishing in relation to audience engagement.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES………..……….6 LIST OF DIAGRAMS………..………6 LIST OF FIGURES……….……….…..6 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION……….71.1 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY………9
CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND……….……….…10
2.1 ROHINGYA CRISIS………..10
2.2 TWITTER………11
2.3 JOURNALISM IN A TIME OF SOCIAL MEDIA……….12
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH QUESTION……….13
CHAPTER 4: LITERATURE REVIEW………15
4.1 ACTIVE RECIPIENTS OR PROSUMERS………15
4.2 TRADITIONAL JOURNALISM PRACITCES IN A TIME OF SOCIAL MEDIA ………..17
4.3 NATURALISING TWITTER……….18
CHAPTER 5: ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK……….….20
5.1 STRUCTURE VERSUS AGENCY………..21
5.2 USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY………23
5.3 AUDIENCE RESEARCH………24
i. AUDIENCE FRAGMENTATION………..24
ii. AUDIENCE DISSEMINATION………..25
iii. AUDIENCE FEEDBACK………25
CHAPTER 6: METHODOLOGY, METHOD AND SCOPE OF EMPIRICAL DATA………..25
6.1 LITERARY CONTEXT ANALYSIS……….26
6.2 CONTENT ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK………..28
6.3 CODING CATEGORIES………30
6.4 ARTICLES FOR CONTENT ANALYSIS……….30
6.5 DATA COLLECTION AND SAMPLE DETERMINATION ………..31
I. PUBLISHED NEWS……….32
II. TWITTER………..36
6.6 VALIDITY……….36
CHAPTER 7: ETHICS……….…37
7.1 INFORMED CONSENT………37
7.2 PUBLIC DOMAIN DATA……….37
7.3 COPYRIGHT………..38
CHAPTER 8: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS………..39
8.1 CONTENT ANALYSIS………43
i. RESEARCH QUESTION 1………43
ii. RESEARCH QUESTION 2………48
8.2 AUDIENCE RESEARCH………49 i. RESEARCH QUESTION 3………50 a) AUDIENCE FRAGMENTATION………50 b) AUDIENCE DISSEMINATION………51 c) AUDIENCE FEEDBACK………..51 CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSION……….53 CITE LIST……….54
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LIST OF FIGURES
6 METHODOLOGY, METHOD AND SCOPE OF EMPIRICAL DATA
6.1………31
8 PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 8.1……….…..45
8.2……….…..46
8.3………...46
LIST OF DIAGRAMS
6 METHODOLOGY, METHOD AND SCOPE OF EMPIRICAL DATA 6.1………..316.2………..34
6.3………..35
6.4………..35
8 PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 8.1……….………..……..40 8.2………..…….……..40 8.3………..…….………..41 8.4………..42 8.5………..42 8.6………..………43
LIST OF TABLES
6. METHODOLOGY, METHOD AND SCOPE OF EMPIRICAL DATA 6.1………..338 PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS 8.1………..44
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INTRODUCTION
“Over the last years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same. The world is waiting and the Rohingya Muslims are
waiting.”
- Malala Yousafzai, via Twitter (2017) In 2017 the world was again shocked by the realisation of an ongoing genocide of a minority population. Up-until this point, reports had been published from several NGO’s and INGO’s within the international political system about the developing atrocities in Myanmar1, however it wasn’t until September 2017 that articles
about the ongoing genocide was prominent within mainstream media (Rannard, 2017). This sudden interest in the emerging crisis was so instantaneous within social media platforms, that questions were raised regarding what variables lead to this peak of interest and whether these were dependant on each other. Twitter has been the subject of extensive previous research on its very apparent inclusion in modern journalism and the production of mass social movements originating from the platform. In particular, contemporary academic literature has focused mainly on citizen journalism and/or how journalists are using twitter as an extension of their profession.
One of the central questions within media research is ‘who controls the news?’, in which specifically research within this field aim to understand to what extent external actors, as well as actors within news organisations, can affect the published news content (Johansson & Odén, 2017; Strömbäck & Nord, 2007). Factors such as audience dissemination, audience fragmentation, crowdsourcing and audience feedback now affect the way editors must think when selecting material to publish to accommodate the effects of external actors. This said, it remains important to acknowledge that Twitter exists alongside other more traditional forms of news consumption, and as a platform for consuming news Twitter only contributes a fraction of the total news consumption across all platforms. However, in 2018, Twitter reached 330 million users, of which 75% follow a journalist or news organisation on the platform. Because of increased availability of choice, Twitter users are enabled to decide who and what to follow and curate their news flow and in turn, exert their agency on their news consumption. Through personal news consumption, along with shifting journalism practices, Twitter audiences are now able disrupt traditional news patterns. As such, by analysing how audiences interact with news content through Twitter, and the resulting effects on published news articles; this thesis primarily aims to bring further attention to the ongoing debate if audience have or have no any influence over what news are published by news organisations, as it is still emerging as a research field.
1 The attacks in Myanmar are centred around the Rakhine state, an area seen by Rohingya as their traditional land, and they have resided at this area
5 The motivation behind this research stems from the sudden and explosive interest for the Rohingya that emerged in 2017. The year earlier, in December 2016, over a thousand homes of the Rohingya had been burnt down by security forces and several hundred individuals had been killed. However, it wasn’t until early 2017 that official reports from human rights groups stated that 90 000 individuals had been displaced from their homes (Alal O Dulal Collective, 2017). And while several reports where released by official news bodies, it wasn’t until mid-September 2017 that coverage was picked up and escalated within social media platforms. This emerging scale of interest and evolution of coverage is important especially when considering the Rohingya community has faced wide scale human rights abuses for decades, and videos have surfaced where militant nationalist monks, such as the 969, have vocalised hate speech and called for their eradication (AP Archive, 2015)2. This curiosity becomes even more prominent when considering the ongoing involvement by
the UN and human rights groups, and the large scale historic persecution of the group has been a long known factor and yet, not within public interest or general domain until late 2017 (UNHCR, 2018).
This said, research within the paper aim to;
• Build upon this literature by focusing on the relationship between newspaper and social media, and how this relationship influences what news are published;
• Focus on how Twitter as a social media platform has changed the modern understanding of the audience from being passive recipients to actively involved consumers and producers. Specifically, it will focus on the now somewhat assumed, yet debated, agency that audiences have over their own news consumption and influence over what news are published in the media;
• Not only analyse how media is deterministic, but also explore an emerging field of audience research through the context of news consumption on social media;
• And finally, analyse the relationship between audience behaviour on social media and international
PURPOSE OF THE CASE STUDY
This project aims to understand social media, and social media responses to the victims of the Rohingya Crisis. It’s goal is to expand upon the understanding and resulting pact of international news platforms through continued use of social media to publish and popularise ongoing conflict and escalated societal issues - commonly referred to as ‘crisis news’.
The Rohingya crisis has been disproportionately represented in levels of media coverage compared to Black Lives Matter and the Occupy movement. At the core, these three movements are focused on governmental
2 The 969 is a Buddhist movement in Myanmar run by militant monks with strong anti-Muslim sentiment. The leader of the group has called himself
the “Burmese bin Laden”. Reports have found that the violent attacks, in Rakhine state 2012, which lead to 192 dead and 140 000 individuals displaced, where incited by the nationalist monks associated with this group (Marshall, 2013).
6 issues that are affecting minorities or certain levels within society. Just as Occupy and Black Lives the Rohingya crisis grew in recognition on social media as a wide scale issue that affected the international society at its core. Thus, concurrency of the Rohingya crisis as the latest crisis to garner social media recognition is very important; as unlike other viral movements such as the black lives matter and the occupy wall street, the Rohingya crisis has not gain the same level of research interest.
This lack of social media coverage is critical to the solution of the crisis and gaining a resolve to an international issue by making the government of Myanmar recognise this misstep and recognise that the Rohingya are legitimate citizens that deserve to be treated as such for the first time ever. hence this said, the purpose of this study is to the explore the effects of social media, not only in regard to the Rohingya, but also the contrast between news bias impact on social media, and social medias reverse effect through virilization.
BACKGROUND
THE ROHINGYA CRISISThe Rohingya crisis is a long-standing humanitarian crisis, that is in effect the government of Myanmar trying to forcefully displace the Rohingya community out of the Rakhine state, by systematically attacking, and decimating the population settlements and peoples through grave human rights abuses, in an attempt to force the community out.
On the 25th of August 2017 in Myanmar, a group of Rohingya militants allegedly attacked a police post, killing
12 police. Within a month, half a million individuals of the Muslim minority community fled to bordering Bangladesh to escape persecution (Lone & Marshall, 2017). This emerging crisis astounded global communities that a genocide could happen under the watch of Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi3, which resulted in
petitions for her to be stripped of this honour (Agence France-Presse, 2017). However, despite this emergent global ‘shock’, the persecution against the Rohingya did not start in 2017, but instead a pattern of oppression can be dated back to mid-20th century.
There has been prolonged involvement by international organisations, such as the UN, within the Rakhine state due to previous condemnations and interventions for previous Rohingya population mistreatment felonies by the militarised junta government. As such, the UN has consistently worked with the affected Rohingya communities to increase their social standing within the Myanmar society in addition to facilitating discussions with the current government to legitimise the group as citizens of Myanmar. The narratives
7 portrayed by these NGOs regarding the crisis is not supported by the current government in Myanmar who adamantly argues that the violence is perpetrated by military guerrilla movements within the Rohingya themselves, and not the government
While the Rohingya mainly reside in Myanmar, they can be found spread across Asia through migration and refugee movements. However, within Myanmar, they are not recognised as legitimate citizens, or even a native minority which has led to numerous negative factors including accessibility and inclusivity affecting the community daily (Mahmood et. al., 2016). The Rohingya are being internally resettled, stripped of their customary lands (used for agriculture) which has directly lead to malnourishment and decline public health (Staples, 2012). Any Rohingya individual who violate the restrictions imposed upon them are subjected to systematic sexual violence, torture, forced labour and even imprisonment (Mahmood et. al., 2016). While there is no official state religion in Myanmar most of the population adhere to strict Buddhism, and there is clear religious reasoning behind the prosecutions - the military state even sought to further the disadvantage religious minorities within the state by elevating the status of Buddhism (U.S Department of State, 2009; Staples, 2012). Which would further decrease the standing of the Rohingya community in Myanmar.
On Twitter’s “Getting Started Page” it reads: ‘follow everything from breaking news and entertainment, to
sports, politics, and everyday interests. Then, join the conversation’ (Twitter, 2018). This statement highlights
what much of literature has researched; Twitter’s ability to be the first platform for breaking news. The website has grown from a place where people shared unfiltered snippets of their lives, to a platform that people actively engage in political discussion and societal critique, keep up with their favourite celebrities, engage with events, and more importantly for this thesis, follow the news. It has grown to now becoming one of the most popular social networking sites in the world.
In accordance to Boyd and Ellison (2007:2011), Social Networking Sites (SNS) are defined as web-based services that allow individuals to:
1. Construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system; 2. Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection;
3. View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.
There are many SNS’s available on the internet today, and within this scope Twitter is considered a “micro-blogging” platform. The app, which was originally designed for mobile phone use, allows users to instantaneously “tweet” a 280-character message to their followers, or choose to retweet a tweet written by another user – instantly sharing it to their own followers (Twitter, 2018). By including so called “hashtags”
8 users can navigate the website and locate other tweets using the same hashtag, for example users where able to read more about the Rohingya crisis by searching for, or directly click on #rohingyacrisis. The site also keeps track of “trending topics” which notify users what hashtags are being used most frequently and allows users to quickly be notified of breaking news as they emerge. Unlike the curated trending topics found on Facebook, the trending feature is dependent on audience engagement - how many tweets a hashtag receives within a given time frame.
Arguably, the way audiences are interacting with news is changing as we know it. In 2018, Twitter had 330 million active users and over 75% actively follow newspapers and/or journalists (Great Speculations, 2017; Reynolds, 2014.) Notably, a correlation has shown that users who follow news outlets and journalists online are also more likely to be active daily on the site, and twice as likely to tweet daily (Reynolds, 2014). For example, the combine accounts of the New York Times amount to over 42 million followers and averages about 100 tweets per day (Twittercounter, 2018). However, this availability of choice in who to follow, allows users to decide what they want to follow, and what account’s tweet information that they find interesting. These audience actions lead to audience shifting away from mass media outlets that are not fulfilling their information needs. Thus, this audience fragmentation is then forcing news organisations to directly target the information desires of their users and rethink what content they publish.
JOURNALISM IN A TIME OF SOCIAL MEDIA
While global newsrooms may be using social media extensively in their work, they also rely on technology for their organisation to function. This said, technological advances have fundamentally altered what it means to be a journalist, now they must always be available on social media and constantly navigate their social media platforms to keep touch with their audiences and look for trends in audience behaviour and potential news stories. More importantly, social media have affected news production in three main ways: dissemination, crowdsourcing, audience feedback (Ferruci, 2018).
Firstly, social media has opened the channels that allows audiences to access news through their social media accounts, they now receive news from friends, family and news organisations straight through their social media feeds. Due to this, modern audiences are sharing and spreading news articles that they find interesting through their social media channels, which now directly affects the audience counts on news websites. This act of sharing and tweeting about news stories through personal social channels is called dissemination. Even though majority of news online is still directly access through the news websites themselves, social media is quickly growing to becoming an important source of traffic for these websites, with 9% of total traffic being attributed to social media in 2013. It is therefore growing increasingly important to create news that audience will want to share through their channels (Weeks & Holbert, 2013).
9 Secondly, modern journalists are increasingly relying on crowdsourcing4 for their information through social
media by gathering sources, stories, quotes, or general information about an event, but they may also use the platform to gain a general understanding of how the public feel towards specific events, stories and content (Poell & Borra, 2011; Howe, 2008). Twitter has grown to becoming an indispensable platform for journalists when they want to get information about breaking news as quickly as possible. For example, a Twitter user live tweeted the apprehension of Osama Bin Laden while it was happening - which would then become the most accurate detailing of the event that news organisations had until the official statement was released (Olsson, 2011).
Lastly, social media’s feedback mechanisms are allowing audiences to exert their agency over news stories. Storied that gain higher ‘likes’, retweets, or reach trending on twitter are more likely to be pick up by news organisations, proving that audiences are able to influence what editors deem to be publishable news (Edson & Vos, 2015).
These new types of practices are affecting the journalistic profession and fundamentally changing how news are sourced and produced. Journalists are experiencing the increased influence of the audience and in response are adapting their old routines to fit this new ‘news media system’, and in turn starting to relinquish their sovereignty over the news (Edson & Vos, 2015. Positioning this knowledge then within the context of Web 2.0, and the increased agency of the audience granted by social media, this research will focus on why the Rohingya crisis was brought to attention so late in the year.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS (HYPOTHESES) & OPERATIONALISATION
Current research does not sufficiently explain the presumed agency that audiences possess in today’s mediated world, and the research that does exist is limited. By focusing on the spread of news at the time of the Rohingya crisis 2017, this thesis presents a unique set of research that contributes to the further understanding of audience agency in the social media era. Thus, considering the above arguments this thesis proposes the following overarching question: to what extent was international newspapers influenced, in any way, by their audience’s agency on Twitter about the Rohingya Crisis?
1. To what extent is the public’s interaction, (as illustrated in theory presented by Edson & Ferruci, 2017) with news on Twitter affecting newspapers and how they construct their content and priorities 2. Through the content analysis presentation of the Rohingya Crisis in online media: How has
predisposed determinants of normative interaction with international news by the common populace,
10 as presented by Golan, impacted how the Rohingya Crisis evolved to become a matter of importance within multi-platform news broadcasts.
3. In what way have the tactics by broadcast producers, such as fragmentation, dissemination and audience feedback, affected the cumulative variables within in news stories and the presentation of whole news sources. This said, how has new media production catered to the popularization of specific stories on certain platforms, and in which ways have news corporates normalised news media and source gathering via these means.
The data in this thesis will be presented through a context which focuses on: How has contemporary news stories been impacted by the evolving perspective as shared on online platforms such as Twitter, and in which regard has this concurrent multi-platform evolution impacted the development narrative.
Considering the existing research and knowledge of social media in uses within news media and political / international relations contexts, there is a disproportionate coverage of the Rohingya Genocide movement online, then that given to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ or the ‘Occupy Wallstreet Movement’. Small data sets collected by some sources [place sources or any sort of coverage media here], have suggested through the coverage of the Rohingya crisis that it is of critical international importance and that it needs more coverage, and this coverage comes in the form of social media. As such, given that majority of previous academic research on the social media impact in conjunction with Rohingya movement has been limited or isolated, there this thus a significant lack in understanding the extent of which conflicts such as these have impact within the global setting have within social media platforms.
Understanding this context both culturally and academically, through qualitative data collection is therefore critical. This research will not only engage with Twitter as a platform to show that a international humanitarian crisis narrative emerged through the active audience agency on the platform. But this paper will also establish why this narrative became a main news story to begin with. Furthermore, this research is significant as it will also launch into a exploratory endeavour regarding the increasing importance of social media in the journalism field and how audience agency is increasingly influencing editorial decisions. As such, this project will not only embody empirical investigation methods, but also analytical and normative exploration of conflict, societal systems, and global culturalism norms to determining the impact of audience agency on Twitter and comprehensively understand conflict and social media in regards to audience agency on an a academic level not previously explored.
11 a) Fill the gap in existing academic research to understanding the impact of audience agency and it b) To comprehend and better understand how international news publishing is influenced by viralisation
within social media and in contrast;
c) How international news publishing impacts social media narratives regarding ‘crisis news’.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Research within academic literature regarding the influence of audience agency within mass new production is limited. Majority of previous research within the field has predominantly centred on the role of social networking sites, the debate of users as active recipients or active producers, the transformation of modern journalism through social media, and finally how Twitter is being naturalised into the journalism field. By disseminating previous related academic works, this thesis will explain how research is interpreting the emerging relationship between agency, audiences, and the journalism field. Notably, whilst there is academic agreeance on social media and web 2.0 indeed affecting previous knowledge regarding media and media consumption and the need of new fields of research – there remains an ongoing debate regarding how much impact user generated content and audience agency actively have on news production.
The influence of web 2.0 has expanded the forms of engagement available to users to now include online participation that allows for expressive and personalised responses (Kahne, Lee & Feezell, 2013; Theocharis & Quintelier, 2016). This participation is manifested through the ability to ‘tweet’ and participate in discussions on current events connected through multiple Social Networking Sites (SNS), or even mobilising support for special causes as seen with ‘Black Lives Matter’.
The theoretical work surrounding SNS’ presents three dominant factors that affect the level of engagement of SNS users (Theocharis & Quintelier, 2016):
1. Providing information 2. Introducing social pressure 3. Enhancing discussion among peers
These factors of engagement correlates with how the platform also provides topical sections and feature trending topics in which users are able to easily access current popular discussions from across the site (the primary factor). Regarding the Rohingya crisis case study, when the user began following the hashtag thread regarding the event, and escalation of social pressure was applied in taking notice of the crisis within larger circles (the final factor). Notably however, the level of participation a user invests depends on their pre-determined needs and interest.
16 Traditional communications theories are becoming increasingly obsolete with the increased prominence of social media in people’s lives. In the developing social media landscape, the traditional idea of passive audiences has become superseded as users are taking control of their own online communication and news consumption (Berenger, 2013). With web 2.0 users are no longer just consumers of news, as there is a growing body of research which advocate that in the new media environment brought on by web 2.0 users are now characterised by interactivity and the production of news (Johansson & Oden, 2017; Webster, 2017).
The contributions to the social movement literature, brought on by social media, tend to focus on how it was utilised as informational sources in very specific cases such as ‘Black Lives Matter’ (Ince, Jelani & Rojas, 2017), the ‘Occupy Movement’ (Juris, 2012), and the Arab Spring (Bruns, Highfield & burgess. 2013). In all three cases, the media represented a crucial role during events like these to mobilise information about what is happening, mobilising information means is content outside the spectrum outside politics and political actors and in other words integrate crisis’s and conflicts into the wider scope of the community. Arguably social media has allowed users to fulfil their political participatory needs by engaging and discussing these types current events on Twitter (Ping Yu, 2016; Oser, 2017). Much of communications research focuses on the way that social media and the experience of users is important to democratic engagement and focuses on the user’s involvement and engagement with politics (Theocharis & Quintelier, 2014; Ostman, 2012). However, a major gap in the literature is this lack of understanding how audiences on social media influence the news cycle by showing support and raising awareness of issues that concern them on social media.
Research has begun showing that users, or often called sources, are being able increasingly manage the news, with 62% of US citizens receiving their news from social media it is becoming crucial for news organisation to have a presence on social networking sites (Carlsson, 2018). The power of the user is granted by the economic decline of news organisations, the increased prevalence of news management, as well as the possibility for users to selectively bypass news all together – factors that have all contributed to shifting the advantage of power (Brorersama et. al., 20132; Cushion et. al., 2014, Cherubi & Nielsen, 2016). However, there are different perspectives on this power relationship with some arguing that journalists are still in power (Johansson & Oden, 2017). Arguably however, no matter where the power in this relationship lies, there is evidence that social media (Twitter) is still a power is a powerful platform for breaking news. This has been illustrated by several instances news broke on Twitter before they even reach mainstream media hours later, e.g. Michael Jackssons death was reported on Twitter within 30 min after the 911 call, (Ju, Jeong & Chyi. 2013). Despite this, not all research agrees with this view as Jordan’s (2013) research reached a conclusion that tried to disprove social media’s influence on mainstream news.
One of the most researched consequences related to the growth of social media is audience fragmentation – because of the over saturation of news sources, digital media and general width of choices user patterns are
17 widely distributed (Webster, 2014a.). Because of this this paper will investigate this relationship and see if social media influences what type of stories news organisations publish to focus on their audience’s desires. However, it is important to distinguish between what is reported and to what extent is being reported, while social media users may not be able to actively influence the content of the news, but by bringing certain topics on Twitter to trending users are able to influence the news selection when it comes to publishing (Johansson & Oden, 2017). Nevertheless, the fact remains that a lot of research has proved that official information from non-governmental organisations and public authorities still carry the strongest influence across social media when it comes to influence in the news.
TRADITIONAL ONLINE MEDIA JOURNALISTIC PRACTICES
Modern journalism research on Twitter tends to focus on the relationship between the established norms and practices of professional news practices and the SNS, and it has grown to become a major focus of research (Hermina, 2013). Significant transformations to the journalist field is seen to be the result of different factors; the increased speed at which communication and breaking news travel, the shifting role of social media as an audience, and the changing expectations of the audience, as well as stakeholders, to receive news instantaneously (Johansson & Odén, 2017; Nielsen & Schroder, 2014).
There is a growing body of research that focuses on the transformation of the traditional ‘news beat’ through the incorporation of social media. A traditional ‘beat’ takes on two forms, a social form and a physical form in which reporters are assigned to specific beats depending on the needs of the paper5. With the spread of
Twitter this ‘beat’ has evolved from a physical to a digital space, and the site has become an efficient, and convenient accessible ‘beat’ for journalists when locating information and stories to cover, hence journalists are increasingly sourcing information online to include in their journalism discourse (Broersama & Marcell, 2013; Kalsnes & Larsson, 2017). In their digital news project (2016) Cherubini and Nielsen suggest that social media indeed can influence editorial news selection, along with Kalsnes and Larsson (2017) who suggests that the distribution of news across social media can impact what is published in the news.
One of the research areas which is facing the most tension is that of ‘gatekeeping’ which has enabled the journalists to determine what qualifies as news and to publish credible information. The term was defined early by communication researcher McQuail who stated; “'the process by which selections are made in media work, especially decisions whether or not to admit a particular news story to pass through the "gates" of a news medium into the news channels” (as cited in Bruns, 2003). This participatory style of journalism has also been researched to show that journalists and their editors want to keep this role regardless of them inviting
18 the audience to participate (Hermida, 2013). However, building on this research of gatekeeping practices is the emerging literature of ‘gatewatching’ which questions the effectiveness of the practice of gatekeeping. Bruns (2003) argues that the vastness and the ability of the internet allows users to home in on their desired news and go directly to the source, rather than relying on sub-par coverage from large mass media organisations. So rather than deciding what should be published, journalists are watching what their audiences are reading, and want to read (Paulussen & Harder, 2014; Hermida et. Al, 2012).
To conclude, the means of traditional news delivery has thus evolved to reach mass audiences, as such the role of the audience has also evolved and is now plays a crucial role is distributing news within their contact networks (Carlsson,2018). Twitter as a SNS is being utilised by journalists in four ways:
1. Locating new stories
2. Finding sources and information 3. Acquiring quotes
4. “-Verifying information by using the wisdom of the crowd” (Brorersama & Graham, 2013: 448). This said, agreeing with the ‘active users’ theory García-Perdomo et. al. (2017) argues that social media is crucial for news organisations to connect with their increasingly active audiences and granted them a gatekeeping power, similar to what journalists have been enjoying for decades. By sharing stories to their networks audiences are indicating to their family and friends what they find important and therefore increase the audience reach for certain stories - influencing what news aim to publish (Edson & Vos, 2016).
NATURALISING TWITTER
Most news organisations have established social media presences on multiple SNS platforms, and through these channels they are able to deliver weather updates, be quick on reporting breaking news, live tweet sport events, and reach out to their audiences – all with the possibility of hyperlinking their audiences back to their websites (Ju, Jeong, & Chyi, 2013). However, Twitter is still only used by a minority of internet users, with only 11% of Americans using the platform, nonetheless, these individuals are more like to be interested and engage with the news (Hermida, 2010). Moreover, research has been done on what is termed ‘The Twitter Effect’, where the platforms users provide live news updates on breaking stories without reporters at the scene (Vis, 2013).
Eyeing the potential of SNS’s, most news organizations have established their own social media presence on Facebook and Twitter (Kiesler and Eaton 2009; Chew 2007; Seward 2008). Through social media channels, newspapers deliver news or weather updates, promote specific events, and collect user-generated content
19 (Treadaway 2010; Lewis 2009; Martire 2008). The most common practice is to share hyperlinks to stories hosted on the newspaper’s website, were the goal is to drive traffic from SNS’s to the newspaper site. As such, several newspapers have devoted substantial resources and hired social media specialists to cultivate their social media audience (Parr 2009).
Because of the increased influence of Twitter and the transformation it has caused to traditional news practices there is a growing body of literature which discussed the ‘normalisation of Twitter’ (Hermida, 2013). This field of research aims to discuss and research how Twitter has become a norm for modern journalists, and focuses on how journalists are now utilising it as a tool to support their practices. Pauluseen & Harder (2014) suggests that the website even has become an essential tool when reporting on certain news. However, Twitter is no longer just a SNS, it has grown to become a semi authoritative medium for audiences to access their news by following, retweeting and reacting to news shared by journalists that they follow – in other words creating User Generated Content (USG) (Williams, Wardle, & Wahl-Jorgensen. 2010; Lasorsa, Lewis & Holton, 2012). Moreover, there is a difference in what editors believe to be of public interest and what the public desire, by incorporating Twitter into their practices journalists and editors can understand their audience’s (Bastos, 2014). Even though Jordaan’s (2013) research showed that there is no major influence of social media on news selection the author concluded that journalists are not immune to the effects of social media and that it is increasingly becoming part of the routine.
Twitter can be seen as an awareness system that allows news organisations to keep track of their audiences as it notifies journalists about early news trends, interesting people and rising issues that might have bypassed the news radar. Considering that in 2017, two-thirds of Americans get their news through social media, and journalist who have normalised Twitter into their practices are bound to be influenced by their audience’s agency (Shearer & Gottfried, 2017; Bastos, 2014). Because of the vast number of alternative sources of information that is available to users today, newsrooms are noting audience preferences and habits to prevent them from drifting to other sources, leading editors caught between audience desires and their own editorial judgement (Edson & Vos, 2016; Schroder, 2014).
In summary, much of the literature suggests that there are indications of a relationship between social media whether that is audience participation, gatewatching, audience fragmentation, or the pressure of commercialisation that forces editors to reconsider what news should be published, but they disagree on the level of influence that this relationship carries.
20
ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK
This section of the thesis presents an overview of the analytical approach and position of the researcher. Through a bottom up approach the research question was decided, followed by a process of locating an appropriate research epistemology resulting in the study being conducted through a qualitative research method by adopting a critical approach. The reason being that knowledge is always evolving with new evidence, and the critical approach aims to questions the societal ‘truth’ and challenge them to improve the overall understanding of society (Siegel, 1989). This thesis aims to contribute to the current literature that is challenging the societal ‘truth’ that audiences do not have influence over what news are being published and critically analyse this notion.
STRUCTURE VERSUS AGENCY
The structure versus agency debate can be understood as a theoretical framework that debates to what extent individual action is affect by societal structures and personal autonomy – in other words, if an individual is free to make their own choices or if these choices are dictated by society. Structure may refer to several things, such as material, societal, cultural or economic factors – all which may impact an individual’s choice. Agency on the other hand is an individual’s capacity to act on free will, without intervening structural factors such as class, religions, education, or gender impacting the decision (Elder-Vass, 2010a; Elder-Vass, 2010b). This thesis will take a constructivist approach to the debate and focus on cultural factors affecting agency, as this includes the norms and customs affecting an individual and in turn, relate to the news practices of modern society. There have been many scholars and theorist who have presented notable work on the structure agency debate, all with their own way of looking at individual agency. Traditional theorist argue that laws of social organisation govern societal institution, and that these laws eventually limit human freedom (Pratten, 1993). Because thesis adopts a constructivist approach to the structure agency debate, the realist arguments of traditional theorists, such as Marx, fail to fully explain the relationship that has emerged between news organisations and social media. However, theorists such as Roberto Unger, view the structure agency debate through a different lens and illuminate the individual’s ability to resist the structural constraints imposed upon them. Unger acknowledges, rather than denying its power, that structure indeed does govern and limit human freedom, but his theory of negative capability argues that individuals can rise above their social context and resist these limitations to their freedom (Unger, 2004).
Within the scope of this thesis, structure is seen as the editorial selection of published news which dictates what audiences can read. Before web 2.0 and the internet, audiences had limited choice in news selection, tv channels and radio stations – meaning that most of audiences received news that editors had deemed to be
21 interesting to their audiences. Because of these selective editorial decisions audience actions were firmly dictated by societal structures – their news where decided for them, not by them. However, with the explosion of websites, and the increased influence of SNSs, audience are no longer left without choice. Rather than being told what to read from a few news outlets, audiences can now selectively choose what news they wish to consume by actively deciding what news outlets publish articles that they are interested in. Thus, the abundance of choice has allowed the audience to have agency in their news consumption. Through Twitter users can curate their news flow by following accounts and organisations that fulfil their interests and to keep them updated.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS PRODUCTION
During the early stages of news production journalists are expected to evaluate and research their specific areas6 to gather potential stories. Thus, with the internet becoming an integral part of journalism more and
more stories are gathered through social media and put forward as potential stories (Robinson, 2009). The second stage in news production is the editorial selection of potential stories to determine what goes to press and what is to be published online. The editorial department makes the active decision to select what articles and stories that they deem newsworthy and believe will have the largest impact and will appeal to a wide audience (Harcup & O’Neill, 2017). One factor of the editorial decision that needs to be factored in is to attract as many readers as possible as it will bring in larger advertisement revenues for the news organisation. To appeal to wide audience’s, news are put in hierarchical order and in turn niche stories are excluded as well as stories that are predicted to bring in low audience counts – which has been the case with the Rohingya until September 2017 when it became the main news story (Lima, 2008). These news are then filtered further by smaller news organisations and further condensed to suit specific markets – dictating the global news flows and what the general public access through different mediums. This is important because through this act of gatekeeping journalists actively decide what news their readers will access. However, social media has the ability to completely bypass this traditional gate and allow users to utilise their personal agency to read global news stories that are not widely covered by mainstream media.
The web 2.0 era has enabled instantaneous and multi-directional communication pathways which has transformed the modern understanding of news production, and increasingly blurring the lines between senders and receivers. And just as the individual is the central focal point of the internet, journalism has become less institutional and more individual – journalism can be carried out anywhere as long as there is internet access and a reporter. Along these lines Schudson (2011) argues that the field of journalism has been
6 These areas are often called a ‘beat’ and are focused on specialised areas such as government politics, sports teams and entertainment to name a
22 fundamentally changed in six different areas; a) there no longer is a clear distinction between senders and receivers, b) the division between different mediums is no longer clear cut, c) the emergence of citizen journalism has blurred the line between amateur and professional journalist, d) the definition between different financial models has changed, e) news corporations have a clear lean towards bureaucratic business models, and f) old media has almost completely transformed into new media. Factors a), e), and f) are featured throughout this research as important factors for explaining the emergence of audience agency through twitter.
Another important ramification associated with web 2.0 is the geographical reach of modern news, as it has drastically expanded the reach of journalism, thus diffusing the traditional city-by-city readership and giving it an international scope. However, this goes against the media logic of traditional news where readers are believed to be more inclined to read news that are in close geographic proximity to them (Golan, 2009). This global scope is also further enhanced with the access to social media which has changed the news consumption patter for readers, where they now can get instantaneous news about everything through their smartphone devices. While web 2.0 fundamentally changed the journalism field it also affected the scope of which news can travel. The changing form of global journalism influences news selection as large news sites, like those included in this paper, now have global readerships thanks to globalisation and the expansion of the internet. This expanded of reader markets force journalists to adhere to more global perspectives when reporting as well as observing international and cultural differences (Nolan, et al., 2009).
Research has been made to understand what the determinants of international news’ newsworthiness, and three event-oriented variables has emerged in the last three decades of research on the topic; normative deviance, potential for social change deviance, and relevance to the United states (Golan, 2009). Normative deviance is the extent a crisis or event is violating then norms of US society, in context; the deprivation of the Rohingya’s human rights is violating the US norm of universal human rights. Social deviance is conceptualised as the extent to which an event is challenging the status quo in the country where the event is taking place; for instance, the attack on the Rohingya in what was assumed to be a just and democratic state under the rule of Aung San Suu Kyi. Relevance to the US could be in terms of trade relations, humanitarian interactions, international relations etc. However, Golan (2009) has suggested that these three factors are not exhaustive and need to be expanded upon with other factors such as cultural affinity, location in the world system, and geographical variables. Each of these variables are important as they could potentially explain why the Rohingya crisis was deemed newsworthy by international news organisations. Events that occur in countries with similar cultural values and norms to that of the US, countries with cultural affinity, are more likely to get wider press coverage in international news, which is west-centric. The reasoning behind these arguments lies in social identiy theory which argues that individuals that humans are more attached to their group
23 membership. A country’s position in the hierarchy of nations also affects its crisis cover, for a country like Myanmar which is far down the ladder international news coverage tends to be sporadic, unlike the hegemonic power the United States which dominates world news. Finally, the geographic proximity also affect the extent of news reporting, the further away a country is away from the origin country of the event, it is less likely to actually cover the news story.
USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY
In Stuart Halls’ 1973 work ‘Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse’, the term active audience was introduced for the first time; stating that audience are not passive audiences but rather active consumers which interpret messages received depending on their social backgrounds, and even changing the message through collective action. Within this field of audience studies, the ‘Uses and Gratification theory’7 builds upon
Halls’ theory of active audiences and emphasises how through active use of media, (along with positive motivation), specific gratification is created that suits an individual’s needs (Tanta et. al., 2014). In this regard, the theory emphasises the importance of the individual and their habits of using media. Thus, rather than focusing on what media does to people, this approach focuses on what people do with media8 (Raacke &
Bonds-Raacke, 2008).
In accordance with Blumer and Katz, gratification theory is concerned with the social and psychological origins of needs, which generates expectations within mass media or other sources leading to differential patterns of media exposure (or engagement in other activities), in order to meet needs of gratifications (Blumer & Katz, 1974). Thus, research within this theory argues that users already know their needs and interests, and therefore evaluates which median and media sources will satisfy those needs for news consumption (Tewsbuty, Hals, & Bibart, 2008; Webster, 2014b). The modern news consumer falls within one of two categories when satisfying their need for news; ‘browsers’ or ‘selectors’. Within the first category audiences skim through news media to cover a large range of topics, and in turn is not likely to read deeply into current events and across several platforms – often viewed to be the regular newspaper reader. Contrasty, selectors had to confine majority of their news exposure to specific topics – the most common behaviour of modern news consumers (Tewsbury, Hals, & Bibart, 2008; Edgerly et. al., 2017). This selective consumption behaviour was first researched by Heeter in 1985 who noted that television viewers only tune into specific channels. Rubin (1984) argues that there are three alternatives of what motivates users in their news media
7 While the theory was developed mid-20th century it regained prominence and momentum in the last decade because of the advances in social
media.
24 consumption categories –one being general motivation which triggers a browsing behaviour which is fuelled by users desired to be attune with their social environment.
Hence, through choosing who and what to follow on Twitter users are personally curating what updates will satisfy their news needs, they can either follow a broad range of accounts (browsers) or follow very specific accounts (selectors). Twitter users are more likely to get their news through a two-step flow through so called “elite opinion leaders” which concise of 0.05% of all accounts, and roughly half of Twitter users get their information from these accounts (Webster, 2014b). However, despite the role of personal curation in the new media environments, not all media exposure should be attributed to personal choice since Twitter and social media still account for a very small part of the total consumption of news worldwide.
AUDIENCE RESEARCH
When studying audience behaviours as causes for the increased number of published article by international news this study focused on three factors; audience fragmentation, audience dissemination and audience feedback. These factors are separate but not mutually exclusive of one another and they all are centred around how audience agency can affect how editorial decision are made. This agency is granted through social media which grants a user the ability to influence the news subconsciously through their actions. So, through audience fragmentation, dissemination and feedback online audience are now able to assert influence through agency.
AUDIENCE FRAGMENTATION
Audiences on social media are now able to influence the news through their actions on social network, and there are several levels for audience behaviour regarding news consumption online. The modern news market is in decline and news organisations, which are commercially driven, are struggling to remain relevant and economically successful. The key to this business model has always been to attract and maintain large audiences as revenue is gained from sponsorship and ad deals through print and online media (Banville, 2016). This wide selection of mediums and sources from which an individual can access news means that audiences are now spread thin across a wide spectrum of diverse sources – and that they are selectively choosing what sources they want to read. This phenomenon is called audience fragmentation and it is affecting the way that news considers what news they want to publish. The internet offers unlimited for audiences around the world but also increased the difficulty for the news industry to maintain their audiences. As a result, news
25 organisations are now more inclined to publish articles on their social media which they know will increase their view counts on their websites (King, 2010).
AUDIENCE DISSEMINATION
Another important aspect in modern journalism is the importance of audience dissemination, the distribution of media through audiences themselves. Dissemination is not a new practice, but the spread of articles through social networks is important to regain audiences lost to fragmentation. Articles that are shared on Twitter by news organisations are summarised in such a way to maximise the chances of users to share the article within their social networks. This act of sharing exponentially increases the chances of news organisations gaining more traffic resulting from a single article. Previous research has shown that some of the most retweeted tweets are news, and that negative news are more likely to be shared than positive news (Rudat & Buder, 2015). Research has also been made to understand what factors influence users to retweet certain news, and reaching new audiences, entertainment purposes and validation seeking have been found to be some of the most influential factors (Boyd et. al. 2015). However, no matter what factors that are influencing social media users to decide to retweet a story the fact remains that; by retweeting a tweet linked to a news article, audience are exerting their agency on news organisations by acting as opinion leaders (Oeldorf-Hirsch & Shyam, 2015).
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
Due to the growing importance of social media for the news industry, news corporations have started to incorporate analytical tools such as google analytics which presents quantifiable audience feedback. This feedback can then help journalists to understand what topics to cover, and what could be interesting for their readers (Edson, Ferrucci, 2017). It should be noted, this type of feedback is only a small part in the editorial decision when publishing news. When a topic is subjected to large amount of attention it indicates that this topic is interesting, or important for audiences. One factor of audience feedback that could present to be influential is the number of likes each news story receives as it indicates audience trends over time.
METHODOLOGY, METHOD AND SCOPE OF EMPIRICAL DATA
In order to focus on understanding the context that was presented within this research, qualitative methods were used to determine both the scope of the research and also explore the interlinked relationship between social media and news production. To achieve this, both qualitative and quantitative research methods for data accumulation were employed. These methods were chosen on the basis that they known to be reliable and more importantly replicable. As such, the researchers associated with this project and future projects would also be able to replicate the results of the study within future academic undertakings (Krippendorff,
26 2013). Thus, this research adopted a qualitative approach, content analysis, for researching what caused the sudden increase in published articles relating to the Rohingya. Quantitative research methods where incorporated for audience research purposes and to analyses the effects of said causes.
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
Prior to content analysis, a preliminary hypothesis [theory] was designed for the purposes of the report to shape how content analysis is conducted. This theory is subject to a ‘emergent design’ in which the project construction/ construction of theory will be subject to change dependant on the insights and understandings made via the analysis of the semi-randomly selected works. Thus through a ongoing interpretation of the data collected via content analysis, a finalised comprehensive theory will be created.
Combining the results of the content analysis in accordance with certain determinants of what becomes international news this paper aims to understand why the Rohingya Crisis reached prominence as a topic. The major overarching themes that emerge through content analysis will be compared against the hypothesised potential determinants to gain an understanding why this became a primary story of interest to international audiences.
For the purposes of this research, the methodology in regard to research questions one and two presented in this thesis will be concurrent, content analysis will be labelled as ‘Methodology 1’ within the report. This methodology will be relational content analysis because it allows for locating common themes and concepts across the sampled articles to further a discussion on the determinants of international news. This is detailed further in section 6.1.
This said, in regard to questions three and four, a different approach to the methodology will be undertaken, a qualitative research approach which will be labelled as methodology 2 within this report. This approach was chosen because it would allow for a visual representation how news publishing and perspectives evolve and further the theoretical understanding how audience research in relation to the conflict.
In accordance with this research thesis requiring two different types of methodologies in order to attain a comprehensive final theory, relational content analysis and qualitative analysis. It is recognised that there will be unprecedented variables that cannot be accounted for priory as caused by the two different approaches to data analysis as listed above. This said, two sets of variables have been identified primarily: Within ‘Methodology 1’, the controlled variables will be the time period in which research will be conducted,
27 determined through a small preliminary quantitative study to be first two weeks of September 2017 as illustrated by graphs 1-3 which illustrates how the sample period was determined. The independent variables that are being analysed are the themes located in the sampled articles as explained in ‘articles for content analysis’.
In ‘Methodology 2’, the controlled variables will be first two weeks of September 2017, and the Twitter accounts (as explained in sample determination). Independent variables to be researched include; number of tweets, average number of retweets, average number of likes, average number of subtweets, themes within the tweets as it provides data and depth to analysing audience behaviour in relation to publishing behaviour of international news organisations.
This said, this research has considered the variables that it has created in utilising a multi-method design9 for the purposes of data accumulation. As such these variables has been identified as error or deviance due to data transcription between human and PC, the duration of the study impacting the results, that ongoing emergent design structure of the base research approach possibly allowing for interpretational use of data inclusive of issues over sampling methods congruence.
These variables were accommodated for by limiting the sample pool and the use of only select sources for semi-random selection. Notably, the original suggested data pool for the project was more expansive, however due to limited access to this data an emergent design approach accommodated a changed approach to data gathering, additionally this choice of ‘emergent design’ was selected in order to facilitate possible needs for change within the research questions themselves. Furthermore accommodations were made with data method leeway to allow for further academic expansion within the future to achieve further comprehensive results. As such, the data collected within this essay has accommodated for any possible data flaws within reasonable bounds, as such a comprehensive theory has been created within the final report.
RELATIONAL ANALYSIS
One of the main reasons for doing content analysis research is to understand links between causes and the effect, for example news content (cause) and audience sizes (effect). Content analysis is a two-step process, the first half is to measure and analyse the causes, and the second half is to evaluate the effects. Within this context, this paper will firstly perform a relational content analysis on ten international newspapers on three days during September 2017, with the aim to understand what type of news content is being published about
28 the Rohingya crisis. Following the results of this short analysis, this paper will evaluate the resulting effects on audience sizes and interest, with the aim to draw conclusions about the presumed influence that audiences have on published news.
CONTENT ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK
Content analysis is a widely used qualitative method of research that is used to interpret context from text by deriving it down to interpretable data points. In the context of this research, the definition of qualitative content analysis by Hsieh and Shannon will be adopted; ‘a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns’ (2005: 1279). The research method is applicable in all fields of research, and there are currently three distinct styles: conventional, directed, and summative. According to Hsieh and Shannon the only thing that separates the three approaches are ‘coding schemes; the origin of code and threats to trustworthiness’ (2005:1277). By adopting a conventional approach this report aims to highlight the relationship between the content analysis variables gathered from the quantitative approach and the qualitative approach, with the aim to construct improved validity to the overall analysis in this paper.
There are two main categories of content analysis; conceptual and relational analysis. While similar there are some major differences between the two, such as conceptual analysis focuses on identifying the number of time a chosen concept occurs within the selected text(s) and that relational analysis focuses on analysing the relationship between concepts in the text(s). Because of the focus on one concept with the conceptual analysis framework it is unsuitable for this research paper. To answer the above research questions multiple concepts, need to be analysed to understand the determinants of the Rohingya crisis as international news, thus validating conceptual analysis as an approach. This paper will detail below how relational content analysis is adopted as a research method.
When deciding what approach to relational analysis this thesis would adopt, this thesis opted for a conventional approach with human coding as its mode of operationalisation. A conventional approach to coding schemes is suitable when there is limited existing literature surrounding a research subject, because it refrains from imposing categorical systems on the data and instead let the categorical system come naturally through the data (Fox et. al. 2015). A direct approach on the other hand is more suitable for research on existing phenomenon that need further clarification. The last approach to content analysis coding schemes, summative analysis, is used for understanding how specific words or content are being used in a text (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). The implementation of a conventional coding approach for this research has been deemed suitable on the basis for describing the phenomenon of this thesis due to of the lack of prior academic
29 coverage. Additionally, human coding was preferred as it integrated well with the conventional approach contra to computer coding which would not allow for the same organic growth of coding schemes. Whilst a more reliable result would have been granted by involving two different coders, (which would establish intercoder reliability), this study exclusively involves the author as a coder, and therefore have to account for possible bias and margins of error. The coding schemes are available for view in the appendix. To summarise, this paper has adopted a conceptual content analysis approach with a conventional coding approach to emphasise analysis of multiple concepts with an organic growth of coding schemes.
This paper incorporates the framework found in Krippendorff (2013) and the process of design from Neuendorf (2002) for designing the methodology. By analysing the 30 semi-randomly selected articles this content analysis aims to further clarify the interrelations between modern journalism and audiences on social media. Krippendorff (2013) suggests a content analysis framework based on six conceptual components:
1. The body of text 2. A research question 3. A context
4. An analytical construct
5. Inferences that are intended to answer the research question
6. Validating evidence. (These six components are visualised in figure 1). The process for designing the analysis method is based on Neuendorf’s (2002) flowchart of content analysis research which details a nine-step process in how to properly design an analysis method. The variables that will be most important for this study include response to the article on Twitter, what type of textual content the article focuses on, if this content was derived from crowdsourcing. The unit of sampling will be news stories, the unit of data collection will also be news stories, and the unit of analysis will be numbers of articles posted in a day.
30 CODING CATEGORIES
The coding scheme consisted topics of each news article being identified, with the individual article being the unit of analysis. To identify patterns across the articles, the topics where categorised into eight categories which included:
1. Human Migration 2. International Relations 3. Terrorism,
4. Human Rights/ Civil Liberty
5. Political/General News 6. Crime/ Legal Action 7. Development
8. State Security Measures
The tweets featured on the news organisations verified twitter accounts where coded for 7 variables. The unit of analysis was the highest retweeted tweet and the context unit of analysis was the content of the tweet itself. Tweets where coded similarly as the articles with 7 categories:
1. Human Migration 2. International Relations 3. Terrorism
4. Human Rights/ Civil Liberty,
5. Political/General News 6. Crime/ Legal Action 7. Image Included.
ARTICLES FOR CONTENT ANALYSIS
After determining the level of interest surrounding the Rohingya crisis from tweets and published articles, an accumulated sample for content analysis was created. This was achieved via 3 steps:
Firstly: To limit the sample size only articles from the top ten news organisations with the highest number of published articles during the period where included. These being, in order of published articles from highest to lowest: Times of India (197), CNN (109), The Times (79), The New York Times (69), The Independent (68), Dawn (65), Wall Street Journal (62), Washington Post (40), Daily Mail (36), and Financial Times (24).
Secondly: The articles chosen to be included as research material for the content analysis were then determined based on two aspects; the article had been featured on the news organisations main twitter feed within the two-week period and contained a hyperlink to the website itself. Three articles were taken from each twitter accounts: one on the 1/9, one on the 7/9 and finally on the 14/9.
Lastly: Each article was sourced by using Twitter’s advanced search function by searching the archive by mentions of ‘Rohingya’, from the specific account, in English and on the specific day. For example, a search function looked like this: ‘Rohingya’, @timesofindia, only in English, from 1/9/17 to 1/9/17. To limit potential
