read, not dead: a case study of # redanddead viral news spread

04/19/2013. 14th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread

Read, Not Dead: A Case Study of #redanddead Viral News Spread

Geoffrey M. Graybeal, Jiran Hou, and Carmen Hernández-Ojeda

14th International Symposium on Online Journalism. University of Texas, Austin.

04/19/2013


Intro

• August 2012, The Red & Black shifts control from student editors to hired professionals.

• Students resign; form digital-only publication, The Red & Dead.• Twitter account: @redanddead815;

#redanddead Facebook Page: Red & Dead.


Literature Review

• News content on Twitter Networks. – Few studies on journalism/breaking news (Brown-Smith, 2012).

– Traditional news orgs primary source of info (Lariscy, Avery, Sweetser, &Howes, 2009).

• Online Influences (Cha, Haddadi, Benevenuto & Gummadi, 2010).

– User influence-content based (news)/conversational based (celebrities).

– Topical influence.• Information flow and Twitter/Preferential Attachment

(Himelboim, McCreery & Smith, 2011; Himelboim & Han, 2012).


Research Questions

• RQ1: What role did social media play in spreading news of Red & Dead?

• RQ2: How did news of The Red & Black editors’ resignation spread through Twitter so quickly?

• RQ3: How were the Red & Black editors able to build a sizable audience for a digital-only publication?


Methods

• Content analysis.– 500 tweets from the @redanddead815 between

Aug 15 to Aug 21, 2012.– 111 articles pulled from the Internet.

• Social network analysis. – A Twitter-topic network of The Red and Dead.• 304 Twitter users and 840 user relationships were

captured.


RQ 1. What role did social media play in spreading news of Red & Dead?

• 80% of @redanddead815 tweets were posted during the account’s first three days.

• Red & Dead asked for followers and influencers to spread the news.– Half of Aug. 15 tweets fell into the request and

outsider influence categories.


Red & Dead Timeline8/15. 3:58 PM. First Actions:

Twitter, Facebook, Website

8/15. 5:00 PM Influential

Tweets: Huffington Post and USA Today

8/15. 6:30 PM.

Twitter Impact: 1000 followers

8/15. Local Coverage

8/16. National Coverage

8/16. 125,000 website views

8/20 Reinstatements

8/21 Back to Red & Black. 4:38 PM. “-

30-”

RQ 1. What role did social media play in spreading news of Red & Dead?


RQ 2. How did news of The Red & Black editors’ resignation spread through Twitter so quickly?

Red & Black alumni, ties. •Journalism. –Influential journalists first tweeted.–Professional organizations and advocacy groups. –Student journalists.

•Red & Dead specific strategy. – Targeted influential people and organizations.


RQ 2. Findings


RQ 2. Findings

“We worked hard to make sure the right people knew about our

situation.” Lindsey Cook (@lindzcook)

950,000 followers

100,000 followers


RQ 2. Findings


RQ 3. How were the Red & Black editors able to build a sizable audience for a digital-only publication?

126,000 page views w/in 36 hrs.• News coverage.– Viral nature.

• Social media.– Tweets drove traffic.

• Key document.– Stories covering the incident referenced the blog

publication.• Name recognition.


RQ 3. Findings


Discussion

• Traditional news still matters. – Key players spreading content through SNSs.– News coverage audience. – Journalists pivotal in enabling story to “go viral.”

• Ambient journalism. • Topical influencers spread info (resonated

beyond Georgia). – Student Press Freedom, college media, journalism.

read, not dead: a case study of # redanddead viral news spread

Documents

news of red dead

online journalism

case study

international symposium

redanddead viral news

red dead specific strategy

red black alumni

red black editors resignation