Affective News and Networked Publics: The Rhythms of News Storytelling on #Egypt

TLDR

This study traces the rhythms of news storytelling on Twitter via the #egypt hashtag and offers a theory of affective news to explain the distinctive character of content produced by networked publics in times of political crisis. Using computational discourse analysis, we examine news values and the form of news exhibited in #egypt from January 25 to February 25, 2011, pre‑ and post‑resignation of Hosni Mubarak. Results show a hybridity of old and newer news values, emphasizing instantaneity, crowdsourcing of elites, solidarity, and ambience, and reveal that the news stream blends news, opinion, and emotion so that distinguishing them is difficult and misses the point.

Abstract

This study traces the rhythms of news storytelling on Twitter via the #egypt hashtag. Using computational discourse analysis, we examine news values and the form of news exhibited in #egypt from January 25 to February 25, 2011, pre- and post-resignation of Hosni Mubarak. Results point to a hybridity of old and newer news values, with emphasis on the drama of instantaneity, the crowdsourcing of elites, solidarity, and ambience. The resulting stream of news combines news, opinion, and emotion to the point where discerning one from the other is difficult and doing so misses the point. We offer a theory of affective news to explain the distinctive character of content produced by networked publics in times of political crisis.