Social Media News in Mainstream Media Reports

Social Media News in Mainstream Media Reports

            Social media have long been considered an alternative media source representing a deviation from the mainstream media. However, mainstream media have been using social media for news for a long time. How do mainstream media incorporate “rebellious” social media in their reports on major news events? We might get a sense of this by looking at how mainstream news agencies used tweets in reporting the Jan. 28^th Occupy Oakland Protest.

On Jan. 28^th, Occupy Oakland called for a Move-In day Action to occupy an unidentified vacant building and to turn it into a community center. It was the largest event for Occupy Oakland since last November’s eviction and more than 1000 people participated according to NBC Bay Area (Anderson, 2012, para. 1). Although the action day ended with more than 400 arrests and Oakland occupiers failed to claim any vacant building, they revitalized the fading Occupy Wall Street movement. A variety of news agencies covered this protest and many of their reports incorporated tweet updates of the event. In this blog, I look at different ways the mainstream media use tweets.

The most intuitive way in which mainstream media treat twitter is to use it just as another news source, maybe a more convenient one. For example, on January 30, CNN journalist Chelsea J. Carter reported that after Saturday Occupy Oakland’s action, “statements of solidarity were issued by Occupy groups in Olso, Norway, and in Vancouver, British Columbia, according to Twitter and website posts late Sunday” (Carter, 2012, p. 1). Without bothering to interview any of these Occupy groups, the CNN journalist was able to report solidarity for Occupy Oakland simply by scanning Occupy groups’ twitter updates. Moreover, tweets along with authority’s statements are perfect for the “Wire Staff” to reconstruct an event remotely. In CNN January 28^th’s report on the Occupy Oakland protest written by its wire staff, the narration started with “police said” in the fifth paragraph, and moved on with “the statement said”, “twitter feed”, “the group’s twitter feed”, “the group tweeted”, and “posts on Occupy Oakland’s Twitter claim” (the CNN Wire Staff, 2012, p. 1). After another round of “police said”, the report of the event wound up with “Occupy Oakland’s Twitter feed indicated” (the CNN Wire Staff, 2012, p. 2). With all these second-hand or twitter-based reports, the CNN wire staff quite successfully reconstructed the event, although the report’s accuracy might not stand up to scrutiny. It seems when the details of news events are not clear yet and a great number of readers are eager to know what happened, tweets serve as an important news source for mainstream media to retell the stories remotely and quickly. In this sense, mainstream media and social media benefit from each other: the latter provide valuable news for the former while the former amplify the voice of the latter.     

            In addition to using the news value of tweets, mainstream media also dramatize their reports with tweets’ emotions and feelings. It is well known that mainstream media honor a tradition of being objective and unbiased, which materializes in their fact-reporting style and their practice of taking no (explicit) stance. However, not many people crave a cold, dry and emotion-free report of an otherwise exciting and interesting news event. In contrast to mainstream media reports, tweets tend to be extremely personal and are usually packed with tremendous emotion. One reason is that twitter users do not have to take responsibility for what they say. Their business is just to write a tweet, and it is up to you to believe or not. No identity disclosure. No follow up questions. No need to prove what they say. Twitter users tweet anything they are concerned about at the moment and take off the next second. As a result, tweets are much more radical and more likely to take a stance. The nature of Twitter is another reason. Most people do not use twitter as a more detailed diary that they write secretly; far from that, they tweet because they want to draw other people’s attention. Hence, Twitter users try their best to dramatize their tweets and appeal to their followers as emotionally as possible. Packed with tremendous emotion, tweets are the perfect match for mainstream media to strike a balance between (supposed) objectivity and vividness.

For example, one BBC News report on the Saturday Occupy Oakland action incorporated a tweet in such a way:

Demonstrators also broke into City Hall and a nearby YMCA building in the centre of Oakland, police said.

One post on Occupy Oakland's Twitter feed later read: "We didn't get in the building, but fought like our future depended on it."

Oakland police said in a statement that, while the city "welcomes peaceful forms of assembly and freedom of speech... acts of violence, property destruction and overnight lodging will not be tolerated". (BBC, 2012, para. 10-12)

Both before and after the Occupy Oakland’s tweet, the reporter used the police’s statements, which are dry and boring. However, the tweet in the middle effectively invigorates this report. First of all, this tweet uses first person voice, “we” (BBC, 2012, para. 11), instead of narrating from a cold third person voice, which reduces the distance between occupiers and readers and elicits great amount of empathy. Furthermore, although Oakland occupiers were just protesting as they had done two months ago and probably would protest again in the future, by saying “[we] fought like our future depended on it” (BBC, 2012, para. 11), occupiers lifted this specific protest to the level of a revolution and conveyed a feeling of heroism, which makes their tweet idealistic and emotional. Incorporated in the BBC report, the tweet helps dramatize the news and makes it more appealing to demanding readers.

Another such example is from CNN. Its report on Saturday’s Occupy Oakland protest features a tweet from Oakland occupiers who “claim that police met the protesters ‘with munitions and violence’” (the CNN Wire Staff, 2012, p. 1). The connotation in the word “munitions” reminds us of a battle field in which fearless protesters are gunned down by the brutal police—and we know no live bullets were ever fired in Saturday’s protest (the CNN Wire Staff, 2012, p. 1). Hence, the drama in this tweet gives the CNN report a little warzone feeling.

Interestingly, this emotional feature of tweets also applies to Oakland Police Department’s twitter: “Area of Oakland Museum and Kaiser Center severely impacted. Persons cutting and tearing fences for entry. Bottles and objects thrown at OPD” (Anderson, 2012, subtitle). In this tweet incorporated in NBC Bay Area’s report, OPD depicts the protesters as wild monsters “cutting and tearing fences” (Lam, 2012, para. 4), while making the police seem victimized. Follow OPD’s plot, with little effort we can come up with a picture where violent mobs are beating up the police. Overall, both OPD’s and Oakland occupiers’ tweets are used to enliven the mainstream media’s boring reports.

            Although we generally think the social media is firmly in the hands of ordinary people, authorities from President Barack Obama to Oakland Police Department have wiggled their way in the social media world. And it is not surprising that in the January 28^th Occupy Oakland’s protest, OPD instant updated the protest through their twitter account @OaklandPoliceCA. While both ordinary people’s tweets and the authority’s tweets are taken into account, mainstream media impose their frame of interpretation on news generated from social media. In a CNN report on the protest, CNN wire staff wrote that: “aerial video footage showed them later on the move and a post on Occupy Oakland’s Twitter feed indicated they were planning to march to a second building—an apparent reference to the YMCA” (2012, p. 2). In this case, occupiers’ tweet is not assigned great weight and is used to double check the “fact” showed by the aerial video. In contrast, Oakland Police Department’s tweets are treated much more seriously—one of its tweets made the subtitle of NBC Bay Area’s news report—

Occupy Oakland Protesters Clash with Police During Building Takeover Attempt

'Area of Oakland Museum and Kaiser Center severely impacted. Persons cutting and tearing fences for entry. Bottles and objects thrown at OPD,' OPD tweeted.

—despite the fact that Oakland Police Department is no less inclined to be biased against Oakland occupiers than the other way around (Anderson, 2012, subtitle).

            Sometimes, it is baffling to see how the mainstream media use tweets to highlight their tradition of evenhandedness. Still use the example from BBC:

Demonstrators also broke into City Hall and a nearby YMCA building in the centre of Oakland, police said.

One post on Occupy Oakland's Twitter feed later read: "We didn't get in the building, but fought like our future depended on it."

Oakland police said in a statement that, while the city "welcomes peaceful forms of assembly and freedom of speech... acts of violence, property destruction and overnight lodging will not be tolerated". (BBC, 2012, para. 10-12)

In this report, BBC News follows the journalist routine of giving out two sides of the story and hence features both the police statement and an occupier’s tweet. I can imagine how the editor handpicked this tweet out of numerous tweet updates in order to contradict the police statement. Tweets not only allow the media to show both sides of the story but also to show the same story from both sides as differently as possible! While readers are puzzled about whether or not the occupiers broke into the City Hall, the editor is ready to credit himself for being more evenhanded. As usual, the media is not willing to put more efforts into figuring out what happened exactly.

            Overall, mainstream media are utilizing social media to make their reports much more interesting and lively, but social media are far from revolutionizing the mainstream media. What do you think?

References

Anderson, M. (2012, January 29). Occupy Oakland Protesters Clash with Police During Building Takeover Attempt. In NBC BAY AREA. Retrieved March 19, 2012, from http://goo.gl/K6nMQ

Carter, C. (2012, January 30). Occupy Oakland demonstrations, arrests inject new life into movement. In CNN U.S. Retrieved March 19, 2012, from http://goo.gl/lwNIY

Occupy Protests: Clashes at march in US city of Oakland. (2012, January 29). In BBC News US & Canada. Retrieved March 19, 2012, from http://goo.gl/Je5MP

the CNN Wire Staff. (2012, January 28). More than 100 Occupy activists arrested in Oakland after clashing with police. In CNN U.S. Retrieved March 19, 2012, from http://goo.gl/k6pTD