This document summarizes a study examining how alternative news sources on Twitter may have influenced the social media agenda around the Morgan Harrington case. The study analyzed over 1,000 tweets about the case from the 48 hours after her disappearance was reported. It found support for the hypotheses that tweets about the case were more likely to link to alternative news sources rather than mainstream media, retweet messages from alternative sources more, and retweet messages containing links to alternative content over mainstream content. This suggests alternative sources may have played a role in setting the social media agenda regarding the case.

1. Body found on Twitter:
The role of alternative sources in social media agenda setting
Claudette G. Artwick, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Washington and Lee University
ICA 2012 Conference, 5/26/12
artwickc@wlu.edu
On Twitter @artwickc

2. Morgan Harrington disappears
From: findmorgan.com

3. Harrington case in the public agenda
Website screen shots & AP photo

4. Harrington body found

5. Testing agenda setting on social media
Examined 48 hours of tweets

6. Literature
• McCombs & Shaw (1972)
• Coleman, McCombs, Shaw, & Weaver (2009)
• Leavitt, Burchard, Fisher, & Gilbert (2009)
• Sayre, Bode, Shah, Wilcox, & Shah (2010)
• Kwak, Lee, Park, & Moon (2010)
• Meraz (2009)

7. Social media concepts
• ‘Networked audience’
Marwick & boyd (2010)
• Links as ‘external marker of source influence’
Meraz (2009)
• Retweets and potential reach
Kwak et al. (2010)

10. H1
A significantly higher number of tweets about
the Morgan Harrington case will link to
alternative content than to mainstream news
media content.

11. H2
A significantly higher number of retweeted
messages about the Morgan Harrington case
will come from alternative sources than from
mainstream news sources.

12. H3
A significantly higher number of retweeted
messages about the Morgan Harrington case
will contain links to alternative content than
to mainstream news content.

13. Measuring agenda setting
Traditional media Twitter
Analyze media content Analyze tweets
Survey public to determine Tweets indicate issue salience
salient issues
Determine relationship Links & retweets as indicators
between media coverage and of influence
public agenda

14. Collecting & coding tweets
• Twitter search for ‘Morgan Harrington’
• January 26-28, 2010
• Hand-coded 1,385 tweets
• Yielded 1,261 valid tweets

15. Variables: Link to
Mainstream news Alternative source

16. Variables
• Retweets
• Twitter member type
• Tweet focus

17. Findings
• Support for alternative source agenda setting
in the Morgan Harrington case

18. H1: Links to external content

19. H2: Retweets

20. H3: RT with links to external content

21. Conclusions
• Support for alternative-source agenda setting

22. • “We are profoundly saddened by the news of
the discovery of Morgan Dana Harrington’s
body.” Metallica Death Magnetic (2010)