Affec&ve  Publics:    

Affec&ve  News  Streams  and  News  Storytelling  on  Twi<er  

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. (2013). Broadcasting and Listening Practices on #egypt: Networked Gatekeeping and Networked Framing. International Journal of Press and Politics Papacharissi, Z. & Meraz, S. (2013).The Rhythms of Occupy: Broadcasting and Listening Practices on #ows Meraz, S. & Papacharissi, Z. (2012). Networked framing and gatekeeping on #ows – forthcoming Papacharissi, Z. (2014). Affective Publics. Oxford University Press.

premise  

•  Twi<er  and  news  storytelling  

•  Collec&vely  prodused  news  feeds  and  the  news  economy  

•  Twi<er  as  alterna&ve/primary  channel  for  informa&on  

 

•  Twi<er  as  news  repor&ng  mechanism  –  Established  news  values  guide  use  of  Twi<er  

–  News  breaking/premedia&on/instantaneity  

–  Homophily,  peripheral  awareness  and  ambient  news  environments,  hybridity    

•  Twi<er  as  news  sharing  mechanism  during  uprisings  –  Electronic  word  of  mouth  –  Broadcas&ng  and  ‘listening  in’  on  uprisings  

–  Homophily  and  group  iden&ty    

News  values  and  the  form  of  news  on  #egypt  

•  News  values  •  The  form  of  news  as  specific  to  socio-­‐cultural  context    RQ1:  What  news  values  were  prevalent  in  the  Twi<er  news  streams  capturing  the  events  of  the  2011  Egyp&an  uprising?  RQ2:  What  form  did  news  storytelling  on  Twi<er    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]  •  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  

Hybridity  of  old  +  new  news  values  

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  

   

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networked  gatekeeping:  connec&vity  

Affec&ve-­‐resigna&on  

Affec&ve-­‐most  

The  Form  of  Affec&ve  News  

Affect:  pre-­‐emo&ve  intensity  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    set  the  pace/  fueled  intensity  •  Oral  and  print  cultures  of  storytelling  combine    News,  fact,  drama,  opinion,  emo&on  blend  into  one  =  affect    

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  

 Networked  Gatekeeping  

a  process  through  which  actors  are  crowdsourced  to  prominence  via  the  use  of  conversa&onal,  social  prac&ces  that  symbio&cally  connect  elite  and  crowd  

in  the  determina&on  of  informa&on  relevancy    Networked  Framing  

Process  through  which  a  par&cular  problem  defini&on,  causal  interpreta&on,  moral  evalua&on,  and/or  treatment  recommenda&on  a<ain  prominence  

through  crowdsourcing  prac&ces    

[affec&ve  publics]  Streams  sustain  publics  convened  around  affec&ve  commonali&es-­‐  Impact  is  symbolic,  agency  claimed  seman5c,  power  liminal.    

::affec&ve  publics::  

   •  Materialize  uniquely  and  leave  dis&nct  digital  footprints  

•  Support  connec&ve,  yet  not  necessarily  collec&ve  ac&on  

•  Are  powered  by  affec&ve  statements  of  opinion,  fact,  or  a  blend  of  both,  which  in  turn  produce  ambient,  always  on  feeds  further  connec&ng  and  pluralizing  expression  in  regimes  democra&c  and  non.  

•  Typically  produce  disrup&ons/interrup&ons  of  dominant  poli&cal  narra&ves  by  presencing  underrepresented  viewpoints.    

•  Streams  sustain  publics  convened  around  affec&ve  commonali&es-­‐  Impact  is  symbolic,  agency  claimed  seman5c,  power  liminal.    

uic.edu/~zizi  ::    @zizip  ::    zizi@uic.edu        

thank  you!  

TECHNOLOGIES  NETWORK  US  BUT  IT  IS  OUR  STORIES  THAT  CONNECT  US