1.
TWEETING #FERGUSON:
MEDIATIZED FIELDS AND
THE NEW ACTIVIST JOURNALIST
Stephen Barnard
St. Lawrence University
@socsavvy

2.
Ferguson
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
Flickr user ep_jhu
Source
Source
Source

3.
Twitter & #Ferguson
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

4.
Unrest and Arrest
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
Source

5.
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
Source
Professional journalists
also targeted
Source
 What happens when shared interests and experiences (i.e.
tear-gassing and arrest) are combined with differences in
practices and objectives?

6.
Conflict & Media Criticism
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
Source

7.
Amateur vs. Professional
Media
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
 Conflict at the
intersection of (citizen)
journalism and activism
 “Whose side are you on?”
(Araiza, Sturm, Istek and
Bock 2016)
 At the same time, there’s
a lot of cooperation and
hybridity
 Brian Stelter himself is a
blogger-turned-journalist

8.
Mediatization
 Mediatization emphasizes
the social significance of
the changes following
processes of mediation in
a networked society
 "Mediatization studies
move the focus of interest
from the particular
instances of mediated
communication to the
structural transformation
of the media in
contemporary culture and
society" (Hjarvard, 2013:2).
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
 Mediatized News
 Hermida (2010; 2012);
Barnard (2016)

9.
The Rise of Affective News
Objective & Affective News The Affective Domain
 Objectivity
 (Schudson 1978; Reese 1990).
 Affective News
 (Papacharissi andOliveira
2012)
 Affective Publics
 (Papacharissi 2014)
 Affective Labor
 (Thomas and Correa 2015)
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
Source

10.
Research Questions
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
1. What are the similarities and differences
between professional journalists and activists’
tweeting of #Ferguson?
2. What is the structural composition of the field
of activists and journalists tweeting
#Ferguson?
3. What formats and discursive approaches are
apparent in the #Ferguson tweets? What does
this reveal about the mediatized field of
journo-activism?
4. What themes and frames are found in the
#Ferguson tweets?

11.
Methods & Sampling
 Digital ethnographic content analysis (DECA)
 “hashtags offer a window to peep through, but it is
only by stepping through that window and
‘following’ (in bothTwitter and non-Twitter terms)
individual users that we can begin to place tweets
within a broader context” (Bonilla and Rosa 2015:7).
 Lists of influential journo-activists (46) and
j-tweeters (46)
 Keyword search (#Ferguson OR “Ferguson”)
during four key periods in Ferguson
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

12.
Begin End Data Plot Total
Tweets
Peak
Aug. 9, 2014
(Michael
Brown shot)
Aug. 21, 2014
(calm returns;
grand jury
begins) 22,528
3,043
(Aug. 19)
Sept. 25,
2014 (police
chief
Dotson
apologizes
to Brown
family)
Sept. 30, 2014
(police officer
shot on Sept.
27 in unrelated
event;
sporadic
actions)
8,222
1,448
(Sept. 30)
Oct. 14,
2014 (police
arrest
dozens of
protesters)
Oct. 23, 2014
(leaked
autopsy report
on Oct. 22)
6,052
663 (Oct.
23)
Nov. 17,
2014 (state
of
emergency
declared)
Nov. 27, 2014
(Grand Jury
announcement
Nov. 24) 13,830
3,056
(Nov. 25)
Dark blue = all posts
Light blue = reactions (RT & @reply) 50,632
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

13.
Coding Scheme
 Format
 the manner in which information is
presented
 tweet; link; image; conversation
 Frames
 ‘focus on what will be discussed, how it
will be discussed, and, above all, how it
will not be discussed’
 Context; perspective; focus
 Themes
 ‘recurring typical theses’ that span
multiple texts within a broader
discourse
 Patterns in the text
 Discourse
 “the parameters [or field] of relevant
meaning that one uses to talk about
things”
 Direction and meaning; topic and
audience Source: Altheide and Schneider, 2013: 51–53
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

14.
Codes/Concepts
 Objective
 Factual reporting; avoidance of opinion, emotion, or
loaded language
 Affective
 Emotional and reactive; Often stream-of-
consciousness, opinion, using natural language
 Media criticism
 Observations or critiques about mainstream media
 Could include biases in coverage, practices, etc.
 Meta-discourse
 Reporting about reporting; tweeting about tweeting
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

15.
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
FINDINGS

16.
Network Map of Influencers
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

17.
Networks divided by group
Journalists Activists
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

18.
Format: Tweet Type
Journalists Activists
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
 On average, activists are a little more reactive or conversational (@replys and RTs)
 Journalists are a little more authorial

19.
Format: Media
Journalists Activists
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
 On average, journalists are a little more likely to link and share photos;
 Activists are a little more likely to tweet videos and text-only
 BUT, this might have something to do with how much activists tweet
(70% of dataset)

20.
Discourse: #Ferguson vs.
Ferguson
Journalists Activists
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
 Journalists are a little less likely to use the hashtag and a little more likely to use the keyword

21.
Discourse: Top Domain Links
JOURNALISTS ACTIVISTS
Domain Count Domain Count
vine.co 786 vine.co 1734
instagram.com 281 instagram.com 1252
washingtonpost.co
m 213 youtube.com 469
buzzfeed.com 195 twitter.com 236
latimes.com 180 stltoday.com 221
stltoday.com 174 huffingtonpost.com 202
youtube.com 153 ustream.tv 199
huffingtonpost.co
m 134
thisisthemovement.launchrock.co
m 150
googleweblight.co
m 105 scribd.com 130
twitter.com 88 washingtonpost.com 126
ksdk.com 86 livestream.com 107
msnbc.com 85 latimes.com 93
kmov.com 73 us5.campaign-archive2.com 91
edition.cnn.com 67 googleweblight.com 85
wsj.com 67 storify.com 83
usatoday.com 64 facebook.com 79
news.vice.com 52 ksdk.com 77
theguardian.com 52 secure.piryx.com 75
livestream.com 42 bambuser.com 74
riverfronttimes.co
m 42 msnbc.com 73
 Similarities
 Top = Vine & Instagram
 (popular video and photo apps
in 2014)
 Some combination of MSM
and social media
 Top 10: STLtoday; HuffPo;
Twitter;YouTube
 Shared linking
 Differences
 Journalists: more mainstream
 WaPo; Buzzfeed;
 Activists: more social
 Twitter; Ustream; Livestream
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

22.
Frame: Objective vs.
Affective News
Journalists Activists
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

23.
Theme: Media Criticism
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

24.
Theme: Police Criticism
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

25.
Theme: Shared Experience
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

26.
Conclusions
 Connection & Hybridity
 Networks
 Themes & practices
 Networked Habitus & Capital
 Like many journalists (Barnard 2016), some activists have used
theirTwitter participation as a launch-pad
 Deray McKesson; BLM
 Difference & Distinction
 Frames
 Journalists mostly objective
 Activists mostly affective
 Discourse
 Journalists mostly mainstream
 Activists mostly social and alternative
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University

27.
Stephen Barnard | @socsavvy | St. Lawrence University
THANK YOU…
I look forward to comments
and questions