Following the Leader: An Exploratory Analysis of Twitter Adoption and Use Among Newspaper Editors
Keywords:
Twitter, editors, newspapers, diffusion of innovationsAbstract
Some media critics say Twitter use by newsroom leaders sends a strong innovation message to the rest of the newsroom. This exploratory study examined Twitter use among 74 editors at top U.S. newspapers to evaluate their adoption and use of the social media tool. A content analysis of Twitter accounts revealed many of them were not frequent users. Those who do are primarily using it as a tool to promote content from their own publications. The similarities between this analysis and similar studies would suggest that if newspapers hope to more effectively use Twitter, their leaders need to be willing to do so as well.
References
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Massey, B.L. & Ewart, J. (2012). Sustainability of organizational change in the newsroom: A case study of Australian newspapers. International Journal of Media Management, 14, 207-225. doi: 10.1080/14241277.2012.657283
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Nah, S. & Saxton, G.D. (2012). Modeling the adoption and use of social media by nonprofit organizations. New Media & Society, 15, 294-313. doi: 10.1177/1461444812452411
Niebauer, W.E., Abbott, E., Corbin, L., & Neibergall, J. (2000). Computer adoption levels of Iowa dailies and weeklies. Newspaper Research Journal, 21, 84-94.
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Parmelee, J. H. (2013). Political journalists and Twitter: Influences on norms and practices. Journal of Media Practice, 14(4), 291-305. doi: 10.1386/jmpr.14.4.291_1.
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Pew Research Journalism Project. (2013). State of the News Media. Retrieved from http://stateofthemedia.org/2013/overview-5.
Rindfuss, A. (2009, December 17). The use of Twitter by America’s newspapers. The Bivings Report. Retrieved from http://www.bivingsreport.com/2009/the-use-of-twitter-by-americas-newspapers/.
Rogers, E. (1995). Diffusion of innovations. (4th ed.). New York: Free Press.
Rosen, J. (2009, May 19). Mindcasting: defining the form, spreading the meme. Quote and Comment. Retrieved from http://jayrosen.tumblr.com/post/110043432/mindcasting-defining-the-form-spreading-the-meme.
Salaman, G. & Storey, J. (2002). Managers’ theories about the process of innovation. Journal of Management Studies, 39(2), 147-165.
Saldana, M. (2013). Reshaping the journalist-audience relationship: National survey of journalists and their use of Twitter. Conference paper presented at AEJMC Washington, D.C., August 8-11, 2013.
Singer, J.B. (2004). Strange bedfellows? The diffusion of convergence in four news organizations. Journalism Studies, 5(1), 3-18. doi: 10.1080/1461670032000174701
Stassen, W. (2010). Your news in 140 characters: Exploring the role of social media in journalism. Global Media Journal, 4(1), 116-131. Retrieved from http://reference.sabinet.co.za/webx/access/electronic_journals/glomed_africa/glomed_africa_v4_n1_a7.pdf.
Stetler, B. (2012, January 22). Mistaken early report on Paterno roiled Web. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/business/media/premature-reports-of-joe-paternos-death-roiled-web.html.
Stelter, B. & Preston, J. (2011, May 2). Turning to social networks for news. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/business/media/03media.html.
Tajeddini, K., Trueman, M., & Larsen, G. (2009). Examining the effect of market orientation on innovativeness. Journal of Market Management, 22, 529-551. doi: 10.1362/026725706777978640
Warzel, C. (2014). A quick tour of the New York Times’ Twitter graveyard. Buzzfeed.com. Retrieved from http://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/a-quick-tour-of-the-new-york-times-twitter-graveyard - 39l5riw
Wood, M. (2013, April 19). Social media as breaking-news feed: Worse information, faster. Cnet. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-57580464-256/social-media-as-breaking-news-feed-worse-information-faster/.
Anderson, C.W., Bell, E. & Shirky, C. (2012). Post-Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present. Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Retrieved from http://towcenter.org/research/post-industrial-journalism-adapting-to-the-present-2.
Barbera, P. & Metzger, M. (2014, February 21). Tweeting the revolution: Social media use and the #Euromaidan protests. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pablo-barbera/tweeting-the-revolution-s_b_4831104.html.
Barbera, P. & Metzger, M. (2013, June 1). A breakout role for Twitter in the Taksim Square protests? Aljazeera. Retrieved from http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/06/201361212350593971.html.
Bastos, M. T. & Zago, G. (2013). Tweeting news articles: Readership and news sections in Europe and the Americas. SAGE Open, 3(3), 1-10. doi: 10.1177/2158244013502496
Boyle, K., & Zuegner, C. (2012). News staffs use twitter to interact with readers. Newspaper Research Journal, 33(4), 6-19. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1243546212?accountid=4488.
Bruns, A. & Burgess, J. (2012). Researching News Discussion on Twitter. Journalism Studies 13 (5/6), 801-814. doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2012.664428
Buttry, S. (2011, August 2). Why editors should be active on Twitter. The Buttry Diary. Retrieved from http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/why-editors-should-be-active-on-twitter.
Carr, D. (2014, March 24). Risks abound as reporters play in traffic. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/business/media/risks-abound-as-reporters-play-in-traffic.html.
Caulfield, B. & Karmali, N. (2008, November 28). Mumbai: Twitter’s moment. Forbes.com. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/28/mumbai-twitter-sms-tech-internet-cx_bc_kn_1128mumbai.html.
Easy Media List. (2014). Top 100 USA Newspapers. Retrieved from http://www.easymedialist.com/usa/top100news.html.
English, P. (2014). Twitter’s diffusion in sports journalism: Role models, laggards and followers of the social media innovation. New Media & Society. doi: 10.1177/1461444814544886
Frambauch, R.T. & Schillewaert, N. (2002). Organizational innovation adoption: A multi-level framework of determinants and opportunities for future research. Journal of Business Research, 55(2), 163-76. doi: 10.1016/S0148-2963(00)00152-1
Hermida, A. (2010) Twittering the news: The emergence of ambient journalism, Journalism Practice, 4; 297-308. doi: 10.1080/17512781003640703
Hitlin, P. & Vogt, N. (2014, August 20). Cable, Twitter picked up Ferguson story at a similar clip. Fact Tank: News in the numbers. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/20/cable-twitter-picked-up-ferguson-story-at-a-similar-clip/.
Holcomb, J., Gottfried, J., & Mitchell, A. (2013, November 14). News use across social media platforms. Pew Research Journalism Project. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org/2013/11/14/news-use-across-social-media-platforms.
Holsti, O. R. (1969). Content analysis for the social sciences and humanities. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.
Honan, M. (2014, March 12). Why Twitter can’t keep crashing. Wired. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2014/03/twitter-big-fail-whale-now.
Hong, S. (2012). Online news on Twitter: Newspapers’ social media adoption and their online readership. Information Economics and Policy, 24, 69-74. doi: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2012.01.004
Howell, J.M. & Higgins, C.A. (1990). Champions of technological innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, 317-341. doi: 10.2307/2393393
Ingram, M. (2014). Does it matter that some New York Times editors and writers don’t tweet? Yes and No. Gigaom.com. Retrieved from https://gigaom.com/2014/09/29/does-it-matter-that-some-new-york-times-editors-and-writers-dont-tweet-yes-and-no/
Laird, S. (2012, January 27). Sports blogger ousted over false Paterno tweet. Mashable.com. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2012/01/27/cbs-fires-paterno-tweeter.
Lariscy, R.W., Avery, E.J., Sweetster, K.D., & Howes, P. (2009). An examination of the role of online social media in journalists’ source mix. Public Relations Review, 35, 314-6. doi: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2009.05.008
Li, X. (2006). Web page design and news retrieval efficiency: A content analysis of five U.S. Internet newspapers, in X. Li (ed.) Internet newspapers: The making of a mainstream media. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Massey, B.L. & Ewart, J. (2012). Sustainability of organizational change in the newsroom: A case study of Australian newspapers. International Journal of Media Management, 14, 207-225. doi: 10.1080/14241277.2012.657283
Mataconis, D. (2011, May 6). Twitter as a breaking news source. Outside the Beltway. Retrieved on from www.outsidethebeltway.com/twitter-as-breaking-news-source.
McCoy, T. (2014, March 21). Turkey bans Twitter – and Twitter explodes. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/03/21/turkey-bans-twitter-and-twitter-explodes/?tid=pm_pop.
Mehrtens, J., Cragg, P.B., & Mills, A.M. (2001). A model of Internet adoption by SMEs. Information & Management, 39(3), 165-76. doi: 10.1016/S0378-7206(01)00086-6
Nah, S. & Saxton, G.D. (2012). Modeling the adoption and use of social media by nonprofit organizations. New Media & Society, 15, 294-313. doi: 10.1177/1461444812452411
Niebauer, W.E., Abbott, E., Corbin, L., & Neibergall, J. (2000). Computer adoption levels of Iowa dailies and weeklies. Newspaper Research Journal, 21, 84-94.
Oriella PR Network Global Digital Journalism Study. (2013). The new normal for news: Have global media changed forever. Retrieved from http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/journalists-twitter_b45416.
Parmelee, J. H. (2013). Political journalists and Twitter: Influences on norms and practices. Journal of Media Practice, 14(4), 291-305. doi: 10.1386/jmpr.14.4.291_1.
Pew Research Journalism Project. (2014). State of the News Media. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org/packages/state-of-the-news-media-2014.
Pew Research Journalism Project. (2013). State of the News Media. Retrieved from http://stateofthemedia.org/2013/overview-5.
Rindfuss, A. (2009, December 17). The use of Twitter by America’s newspapers. The Bivings Report. Retrieved from http://www.bivingsreport.com/2009/the-use-of-twitter-by-americas-newspapers/.
Rogers, E. (1995). Diffusion of innovations. (4th ed.). New York: Free Press.
Rosen, J. (2009, May 19). Mindcasting: defining the form, spreading the meme. Quote and Comment. Retrieved from http://jayrosen.tumblr.com/post/110043432/mindcasting-defining-the-form-spreading-the-meme.
Salaman, G. & Storey, J. (2002). Managers’ theories about the process of innovation. Journal of Management Studies, 39(2), 147-165.
Saldana, M. (2013). Reshaping the journalist-audience relationship: National survey of journalists and their use of Twitter. Conference paper presented at AEJMC Washington, D.C., August 8-11, 2013.
Singer, J.B. (2004). Strange bedfellows? The diffusion of convergence in four news organizations. Journalism Studies, 5(1), 3-18. doi: 10.1080/1461670032000174701
Stassen, W. (2010). Your news in 140 characters: Exploring the role of social media in journalism. Global Media Journal, 4(1), 116-131. Retrieved from http://reference.sabinet.co.za/webx/access/electronic_journals/glomed_africa/glomed_africa_v4_n1_a7.pdf.
Stetler, B. (2012, January 22). Mistaken early report on Paterno roiled Web. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/business/media/premature-reports-of-joe-paternos-death-roiled-web.html.
Stelter, B. & Preston, J. (2011, May 2). Turning to social networks for news. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/business/media/03media.html.
Tajeddini, K., Trueman, M., & Larsen, G. (2009). Examining the effect of market orientation on innovativeness. Journal of Market Management, 22, 529-551. doi: 10.1362/026725706777978640
Warzel, C. (2014). A quick tour of the New York Times’ Twitter graveyard. Buzzfeed.com. Retrieved from http://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/a-quick-tour-of-the-new-york-times-twitter-graveyard - 39l5riw
Wood, M. (2013, April 19). Social media as breaking-news feed: Worse information, faster. Cnet. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-57580464-256/social-media-as-breaking-news-feed-worse-information-faster/.
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