Abstract
Mainstream news organizations have long held the power to control what information gets into the news, and according to what frames. Nevertheless, online publishing platforms have altered traditional gatekeeping and agenda-setting processes, permitting networked publics with greater access to the journalistic field. But to what extent does this access translate to journalistic influence? This chapter considers a controversy in cable news: the spectacle surrounding MSNBC’s cancellation of the Melissa Harris-Perry show. When considered as part of a temporal order, trends in the Twittersphere are shown to contribute to the flows and frames of news stories published by legacy and digital news organizations. Findings suggest a two-way process of networked gatekeeping and agenda-setting—top-down and bottom-up—operating at the intersection of the political and journalistic fields.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Altheide, D. L., & Schneider, C. J. (2012). Qualitative media analysis. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Bae, H. S. (1999). Product differentiation in cable programming: The case in the cable national all-news networks. Journal of Media Economics, 12(4), 265–277.
Barnard, S. R. (2016). Spectacles of self(ie) empowerment? Networked individualism and the logic of the (post)feminist selfie. In L. Robinson, J. Schulz, S. R. Cotten, et al. (Eds.), Communication and information technologies annual, studies in media and communications (pp. 63–88). Bingley: Emerald Group. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/S2050-206020160000011014.
Bennett, D. (2016). Sourcing the BBC’s live online coverage of terror attacks. Digital Journalism, 4(7), 861–874.
Benson, R., & Neveu, E. (Eds.). (2005). Bourdieu and the journalistic field. Malden, MA: Polity.
Boynton, G. R., & Richardson, G. W. (2015). Agenda setting in the twenty-first century. New Media & Society, 18(9), 1916–1934. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815616226.
Brock, A. (2012). From the blackhand side: Twitter as a cultural conversation. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 56(4), 529–549.
Broersma, M., & Graham, T. (2013). Twitter as a news source. Journalism Practice, 7(4), 446–464.
Bruns, A. (2014). Gatekeeping, gatewatching, real-time feedback: New challenges for journalism. Brazilian Journalism Research, 10(2 EN), 224–237.
Camaj, L. (2016). Blurring the boundaries between journalism and activism: A transparency agenda-building case study from Bulgaria. Journalism, Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916677757.
Carr, J. (2012). No laughing matter: The power of cyberspace to subvert conventional media gatekeepers. International Journal of Communication, 6, 2825–2845.
Christin, A. (2014, August 28). When it comes to chasing clicks, journalists say one thing but feel pressure to do another. Nieman Foundation at Harvard. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/08/when-it-comes-to-chasing-clicks-journalists-say-one-thing-but-feel-pressure-to-do-another/.
Christopher, T. (2013, March 21). CNN and MSNBC going in different directions on diversity. Mediaite. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-and-msnbc-going-in-different-directions-on-diversity/.
Christopher, T. (2014, February 5). Here are all of the black people on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. Mediaite. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.mediaite.com/tv/here-are-all-of-the-black-people-on-cnn-fox-news-and-msnbc/#150.
Cohen, B. C. (1963). The press and foreign policy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Conway, B. A., Kenski, K., & Wang, D. (2015). The rise of Twitter in the political campaign: Searching for intermedia agenda-setting effects in the presidential primary. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 20(4), 363–380.
Couldry, N. (2014). Mediatization and the future of field theory. In K. Lundby (Ed.), Mediatization of communication (pp. 227–245). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH.
Craft, S., Vos, T. P., & David Wolfgang, J. (2016). Reader comments as press criticism: Implications for the journalistic field. Journalism, 17(6), 677–693. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884915579332.
Cushion, S., Kilby, A., Thomas, R., Morani, M., & Sambrook, R. (2018). Newspapers, impartiality and television news. Journalism Studies, 19(2), 162–181.
Duggan, M. (2015, August 19). The demographics of social media users. Pew Research Center. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/.
Dutton, W. H. (2009). The fifth estate emerging through the network of networks. Prometheus, 27(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/08109020802657453.
Farhi, P. (2016a, February 28). MSNBC severs ties with Melissa Harris-Perry after host’s critical email. The Washington Post. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/msnbc-will-cut-ties-with-show-host-who-wrote-critical-email-to-colleagues/2016/02/27/bce30c8e-dd82-11e5-891a-4ed04f4213e8_story.html.
Farhi, P. (2016b, February 29). Is #MSNBCSoWhite? The departure of Melissa Harris-Perry raises the issue. The Washington Post. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/is-msnbcsowhite-the-departure-of-melissa-harris-perry-raises-the-issue/2016/02/29/8bc69096-df06-11e5-8d98-4b3d9215ade1_story.html.
Florini, S. (2014). Tweets, tweeps, and signifyin’ communication and cultural performance on ‘Black Twitter’. Television & New Media, 15(3), 223–237.
Florini, S. (2017). This week in blackness, the George Zimmerman acquittal, and the production of a networked collective identity. New Media & Society, 19(3), 439–454. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815606779.
Gitlin, T. (1980). The whole world is watching: Mass media in the making and unmaking of the new left. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Groshek, J., & Groshek, M. C. (2013). Agenda trending: Reciprocity and the predictive capacity of social networking sites in intermedia agenda setting across topics over time. Media and Communication, 1(1), 15–27.
Guo, L., & McCombs, M. E. (2016). The power of information networks: New directions for agenda setting. New York: Routledge.
Hellmueller, L. (2014). The Washington, DC media corps in the 21st century: The source-correspondent relationship. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jacobson, S. (2013). Does audience participation on facebook influence the news agenda? A case study of the Rachel Maddow show. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 57(3), 338–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2013.816706.
Kellner, D. (2009). Media spectacle and media events: Some critical reflections. In N. Couldry, A. Hepp, & F. Krotz (Eds.), Media events in a global age (pp. 76–91). New York: Routledge.
Kutz-Flamenbaum, R. V., Staggenborg, S., & Duncan, B. J. (2012). Media framing of the Pittsburgh G-20 protests. In P. G. Coy (Ed.), Media, movements, and political change (Research in social movements, conflicts and change) (Vol. 33, pp. 109–135). Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/S0163-786X%282012%290000033008.
Larsson, A. O. (2013). Tweeting the viewer—Use of Twitter in a talk show context. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 57(2), 135–152.
Lee, A. M., Lewis, S. C., & Powers, M. (2014). Audience clicks and news placement: A study of time-lagged influence in online journalism. Communication Research, 41(4), 505–530.
Lefky, T., Brewer, P. R., & Habegger, M. (2015). Tweets on television news: The nature and effects of campaign coverage of Twitter. Electronic News, 9(4), 257–269.
Marwick, A. E., & boyd, d. (2011). I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media & Society, 13(1), 114–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444810365313.
Maza, C. (2016, March 8). The whiteness of the media is a slow-motion train wreck. Media Matters for America. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from http://mediamatters.org/shows-and-publications/melissa-harris-perry.
Melissa Harris-Perry exit puts focus on MSNBC’s diversity record. (2016, March 3). Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ct-melissa-harris-perry-msnbc-diversity-minorities-20160304-story.html.
Meraz, S. (2011). Using time series analysis to measure intermedia agenda-setting influence in traditional media and political blog networks. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 88(1), 176–194.
Meraz, S. (2015). Quantifying partisan selective exposure through network text analysis of elite political blog networks during the U.S. 2012 presidential election. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 12(1), 37–53.
Parmelee, J. H. (2014). The agenda-building function of political tweets. New Media & Society, 16(3), 434–450.
Petre, C. (2015, May 7). The traffic factories: Metrics at Chartbeat, Gawker Media, and The New York Times. Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/the_traffic_factories_metrics_at_chartbeat_gawker_media_and_the_new_york_times.php.
Qin, J. (2015). Hero on Twitter, traitor on news: How social media and legacy news frame Snowden. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 20(2), 166–184.
Raeymaeckers, K., Deprez, A., De Vuyst, S., & De Dobbelaer, R. (2015). The journalist as a jack of all trades: Safeguarding the gates in a digitized news ecology. In T. Vos & F. Heinderyckx (Eds.), Gatekeeping in transition (pp. 104–119). New York: Routledge.
Rosen, J. (2006, June 27). The people formerly known as the audience. PressThink. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27/ppl_frmr.html.
Rosen, J. (2009, April 12). He said, she said journalism: Lame formula in the land of the active user. PressThink. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from http://archive.pressthink.org/2009/04/12/hesaid:shesaid.html.
Russell, F. M., Hendricks, M. A., Choi, H., & Stephens, E. C. (2015). Who sets the news agenda on Twitter? Digital Journalism, 3(6), 925–943.
Stearns, J. (2015a, January 20). Building journalism with community, not for it: Transactional versus transformational, close to the ground. Medium. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from https://medium.com/the-local-news-lab/building-journalism-with-community-not-for-it-5c319992aebf#.h2tolizi0.
Stearns, J. (2015b, October 8). In curiosity we trust: A new journalism collaboration is putting people’s questions first, Hearken believes. Medium. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from https://medium.com/the-local-news-lab/in-curiosity-we-trust-journalism-collaboration-puts-people-s-questions-first-1fb5a8e0d9fe#.1dkj869nn.
Sharma, S. (2013). Black Twitter? Racial hashtags, networks and contagion. New Formations, 78, 46–64.
Shoemaker, P. J., & Vos, T. (2009). Gatekeeping theory. New York: Routledge.
Smith, A. (2014, January 6). African Americans and technology use. Pew Research Center. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/01/06/african-americans-and-technology-use/.
Smith, J. (2016, February 26). Melissa Harris-Perry’s email to her #nerdland staff. Medium. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from https://medium.com/@JamilSmith/melissa-harris-perry-s-email-to-her-nerdland-staff-11292bdc27cb.
Sobieraj, S. (2011). Soundbitten: The perils of media-centered political activism. New York: NYU Press.
Tufekci, Z. (2017). Twitter and tear gas: The power and fragility of networked protest. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Vos, T., & Heinderyckx, F. (2015). Gatekeeping in transition. New York: Routledge.
Weller, K., Dröge, E., & Puschmann, C. (2011). Citation analysis in Twitter: Approaches for defining and measuring information flows within tweets during scientific conferences. In M. Rowe, M. Stankovic, A. S. Dadzie, & M. Hardey (Eds.), Making sense of microposts (#MSM2011) (pp. 1–12). Workshop at the Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2011). Heraklion, Greece: CEUR Workshop Proceedings Vol. 718. Retrieved November 28, 2017, from http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-718/paper_04.pdf.
Wurff, R. v. d., & Schönbach, K. (2014). Audience expectations of media accountability in the Netherlands. Journalism Studies, 15(2), 121–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2013.801679.
Zeldes, G. A., & Fico, F. (2005). Race and gender: An analysis of sources and reporters in the networks’ coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign. Mass Communication and Society, 8(4), 373–385.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Barnard, S.R. (2018). We Stand with #Nerdland: Gatewatching and Agenda-Building by the “People Formerly Known as the Audience”. In: Citizens at the Gates. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90446-7_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90446-7_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90445-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90446-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)