ISOJ 2015

1. Live Tweeting a Presidential
Primary Debate:
Kyle Heim
Assistant Professor
Seton Hall University
Email: krheim@gmail.com
International Symposium
on Online Journalism
April 18, 2015
Comparing the Content of Twitter
Posts and News Coverage

3. News coverage
of presidential politics
Three stages of news coverage:
 1960s: Emphasis on candidates’ policy
statements
 1970s: “Strategy” coverage
 1988 onward: Media-focused “metacoverage”
Shift toward strategy, metacoverage blamed for
increasing political cynicism

4. Research questions
 How did the Twitter stream from the Iowa
primary debate compare with news coverage
and the debate itself in the discussion of policy
and character?
 How did the Twitter stream from the Iowa
primary debate compare with news coverage in
the use of strategy coverage and media-
focused metacoverage?

5. Dec. 10, 2011, Iowa GOP
primary debate
Sample of texts:
 Debate transcript
 Newspaper, wire
service coverage
 3,032 tweets
Methods:
 Quantitative centering resonance analysis (CRA) to
identify most influential words
 Qualitative textual analysis

6. Debate transcript
Most influential
words included …
Policy-oriented
words:
 issue
 Palestinian
 money
 tax

7. News coverage
Most influential words
included …
Strategy-oriented words:
 poll
 rival
 attack
Policy-oriented words:
 health, care
 Palestinian, Israel
 economy

8. Twitter discussion
Most influential words
included …
References to Mitt
Romney’s bet offer:
 tenthousand
 dollar
Media-oriented words:
 Diane, Sawyer
 ABC, #ABCdebate

9. Results
Discussion of policy:
 Policy was central to the debate and news
coverage but NOT on Twitter.
 However, Twitter users tried to raise policy
issues not being addressed in the debate.

10. Results
Discussion of character:
 Twitter discussion was dominated by Mitt
Romney’s $10,000 bet offer and what it said
about Romney’s character.

11. Results
Use of strategy coverage:
 Twitter discussion was dominated by strategy.
 Debate was framed as a boxing match, circus,
pageant.

12. Results
Use of media-focused metacoverage:
 Twitter discussion focused heavily on the role of
the ABC moderators.

13. Implications
 Twitter less substantive than news coverage
(emphasis on strategy over policy)
 Reliance on Twitter could increase political
cynicism
 Twitter not a substitute for news coverage;
“gatekeepers” and “curators” needed

14. Implications
 Twitter discussion as a critique of the staged,
artificial nature of political debates
 Twitter discussion as backlash against political
agenda driven by candidates, news media

15. Kyle Heim, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication and the Arts
Seton Hall University
Email: krheim@gmail.com
Twitter: @krheim