Information flows in events of political unrest

Abstract

Social media, as the set of tools typified by blogs and other social networking platforms, is creating a user-generated dynamic, complex information ecosystem. The flow of information across multiple platforms means that traditional media gatekeepers (newspapers and other ‘mainstream media’) become just one of many pathways by which we learn about and make sense of new information. This research note reports preliminary results of a study based on a dataset of more than 65 million tweets related to the Occupy Wall Street movement, coupled with searches of LexisNexis, to examine information about six events related to Occupy sites in Maine, New York City, Oakland, and the University of California - Davis. The study seeks to understand the relationships among newspapers, blogs, and Twitter as users of each platform report and comment on these events. The preliminary results suggest that the platforms perform distinct but overlapping roles at different periods in the information diffusion life cycle.

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