INTERACTIVITY,SOCIAL

PRESENCE,AND

JOURNALISTICUSE OF TWITTER

Jeremy J. LittauLehigh University

Mi Rosie JahngHope College

BACKGROUND

INTERACTIVITY➤ Replies➤ Public replies➤ Retweets➤ Quote tweets

HIGHSOCIALCUE

LOWSOCIALCUE

INTERACTIVITY & CREDIBILITY➤ When users assess

journalists they don’t know via search or retweets:➤ Interactivity is good! In

fact, it mitigates problems such as gender effects.

➤ Social disclosure creates positive impressions, but doesn’t affect credibility.

Jahng, M., Littau, J. (2016). Interacting is believing: Interactivity, social cue, and perceptions of journalistic credibility on Twitter. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 93(1), 38-58.

OUR PURPOSE

SNAP JUDGEMENTS➤ PREVIOUS STUDY:

➤ How do users assess the credibility of a source when they run into news online?

➤ CURRENT STUDY:➤ How interactive are

journalists, and is there some relationship with social presence?

STUDY SCOPE➤ Content analysis of 555

journalist profiles➤ Scored on:

➤ Coverage area (lifestyle, business, civic issues, science/tech, media, politics, opinion, sports)

➤ Interactivity ratio (20 most recent tweets)

➤ Social cue ratio

FINDINGS

43.9% OF PROFILES EXHIBITED HIGH SOCIAL CUE➤ Lifestyle, technology only categories to reverse

high/low split➤ Sports, civics, media more severe versions of split

40.8% OF PROFILES EXHIBITED HIGH INTERACTIVITY➤ Lifestyle, technology, media only categories to reverse

high/low split➤ Most lower categories closer to mean than on social

cue

A CLOSER LOOK1. High amounts of social presence were a strong

predictor of high interactivity.2. Job, not topic area, is mostly driving interactivity

1. Content creators are likely to interact2. Editors and executives less likely to interact.

IMPLICATIONS

➤ Social presence is a bridge to interactivity. This has training implications.

➤ How open should we be? Where is the line for professionalism?

➤ Interactivity is not monolithic across the professions. Role matters. So does coverage topic.

➤ Bring out the trolls: Is passion/fandom in follower base driving less engagement?