#Trending: a reevaluation of traditional news values given twitter through a mixed methods approach

Abstract

Over the years, social media have catered for faster and perhaps more efficient delivery of news. Twitter, one of the most popular micro-blogging sites, is now being used by journalists in spreading and gathering news. And since Twitter takes note of what topics are trending, journalists now have an idea on what their audience would like to know and talk about. However, topics trending on Twitter often do not reflect the dominant news values presented by the journalists in the traditional news media, thus creating a gap between the perceptions of the audience and of the journalist on what are considered to be newsworthy especially on Twitter. This also creates an impression that news and news values are evolving. This exploratory mixed methods research re-evaluates the traditional news values in the age of Twitter. It seeks to determine if such values have evolved and if they remain relevant for journalists in the delivery of news in this entirely new platform. Four news values were identified given a phenomenological approach employed in qualitative interviews. These identified news values were then tested using a survey (N=300) as structural equation modelling was employed to test if these four news values are correlated to newsworthiness, news consumption and news distribution. It was found that the traditional news values relevant in journalists' practice of news judgment and in audience' interaction on Twitter. This study contributes to discourses on news values which are currently being reviewed given how the Internet and social media have influenced journalism.