Towards Politicized Tabloid News Online? : A Methodological Assessment of the Spreading of Online News

• Sharing has emerged as a keyword in the contemporary media landscape in the last decade. For journalism and the news industry sharing is viewed as both a threat and possibility as it enables greater reach but also less control. So far research has not to a great extent been able to show what kind of news stories that goes viral and there is also a lack of methodological discussions about how to measure shared news and what results different approaches provide. Results from this study show that politics is the most commonly spread news topic and that news sites with a tabloid background are the most successful media forms in encouraging spreading and interaction of news stories. The study also shows that different methodological starting points – starting at the news sites themselves or an aggregator – provides results that both overlap and differentiate.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications (hsv//eng)

Keyword

sharing

quantitative content analysis

social media

viral news

Sweden

Media and Communication Studies

Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)