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The agenda-building function of political tweets

John Parmelee

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DOI: 10.1177/1461444813487955

nms.sagepub.com

The agenda-building function of political tweets

John H Parmelee University of North Florida, USA

Abstract

This article expands the scope of agenda-building research, which has traditionally

focused on the ability of press releases, press conferences, and political ads to influence

media coverage. In-depth interviews with political reporters and editors at US

newspapers during the 2012 campaign found that tweets from political leaders are used

by journalists in ways that suggest first- and second-level agenda building. Participants

gave examples of how political tweets have shaped their coverage in terms of the

events they cover, the sources they interview, the quotes they use, and the background

information they rely on to decide how to cover an issue. In addition, political tweets

that contribute the most to coverage tend to have several elements in common.

Keywords

2012 campaign, agenda building, in-depth interviews, political journalists, Twitter

Agenda-building research examines how certain groups, such as those in politics and

business, influence what issues journalists cover as well as how the public views issues

(Kiousis et al., 2006; Kiousis and Strömbäck, 2010; Lariscy et al., 2009). During the

agenda-building process, those who wish to shape journalists’ stories and public percep-

tion often disseminate information subsidies, which include speeches, videos, and press

releases. Many studies have shown that information subsidies are successful in affecting

news media coverage and public opinion (Kiousis et al., 2011; Kiousis and Strömbäck,

2010; Marland, 2012; Turk, 1986).

Corresponding author:

John H Parmelee, Department of Communication, University of North Florida, Building 14D, 1 UNF Drive,

Jacksonville, FL 32224-2645, USA.

Email: [email protected]

487955 NMS0010.1177/1461444813487955new media & societyParmelee 2013

Article

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With the increase in social media use by journalists and politicians, there has been a

call by researchers to explore how politicians use various forms of social media as infor-

mation subsidies to impact news coverage (Kiousis et al., 2009: 555–556; Lieber and

Golan, 2011: 61). The microblog Twitter is an especially significant aspect of social

media to focus on because research indicates that journalists are heavy users of Twitter

for their job (Farhi, 2009; Lasorsa et al., 2012; Sheffer and Schultz, 2010). Journalists

often find story ideas and sources from tweets they receive (O’Connor, 2009; Parmelee

and Bichard, 2012; Solis, 2009).

What has been lacking is a detailed understanding of the ways in which agenda build-

ing occurs between those in politics and the journalists who cover them. In other words,

how do political tweets shape which issues get covered and how those issues are cov-

ered? It would also be useful to find out the reasons why political tweets can have the

power to influence coverage. Those in politics and journalism would find it helpful to

know what makes some tweets more influential than others. To investigate the agenda-

building process on Twitter, this exploratory study uses in-depth interviews with news-

paper journalists across the United States who use Twitter to cover politics and

government. The study is a first step in understanding the many ways in which political

tweets shape media coverage as well as why such influence is possible.

Agenda building and politics

Agenda-building research is connected to agenda-setting theory, which argues that ‘the

public learns the relative importance of issues from the mass media’ (Wanta and Hu,

1994: 92). In other words, the choices made by journalists to cover some issues instead

of others can influence what issues the public views as important. Since media coverage

can be so influential on the public, agenda-building research seeks to find out who influ-

ences media coverage. Agenda-building studies examine the degree to which journal-

ists’ stories and public opinion can be shaped by outside forces. Agenda building

explores how coverage is influenced with regard to many types of objects, including

issues, candidates (Lancendorfer and Lee, 2010), foreign countries (Manheim and

Albritton, 1984), and corporate reputations (Kiousis et al., 2007). In politics, there are

many individuals who attempt to affect media coverage. Political leaders – such as

elected officials (Wanta and Foote, 1994), candidates for office (Kiousis et al., 2006),

political think tanks, interest groups (Huckins, 1999), foreign governments (Zhang and

Cameron, 2003), and political bloggers – often try to guide what issues media outlets

feature prominently. Of course, it is also true that political leaders often respond to

media coverage in ways that result in leaders and journalists influencing each other

(Wanta and Foote, 1994). The focus of the present study, however, concerns how lead-

ers influence journalists.

There are two levels where agenda building occurs. First-level agenda building hap-

pens when journalists are persuaded to cover issues and other objects they otherwise

might have ignored. Researchers at this level examine linkages between object salience

on the part of media coverage and those attempting to influence journalists. Agenda

building at the second level refers to journalists being influenced to use certain attributes

to portray issues and other objects (Lancendorfer and Lee, 2010). Second-level agenda

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Parmelee 3

building focuses on attribute salience links between coverage and influencers, with

attribute salience often examined in terms of substantive and affective dimensions.

Substantive attributes, such as conflict and human interest, provide structure to topics,

while affective attributes include the positive, negative, or neutral tone being used

(Kiousis et al., 2011). Frames also can be seen as attributes of objects, because salience

is a key aspect of framing theory (Chyi and McCombs, 2004).

Information subsidies are an important element in first- and second-level agenda

building. Some of the information subsidies political leaders send journalists include

press releases and digital handouts, such as photos and videos of pseudo-events (Marland,

2012). Information subsidies also come in the form of YouTube videos and Facebook

posts (Ragas and Kiousis, 2010; Wigley and Fontenot, 2009). Political leaders hope

information subsidies will lead journalists to focus on issues the leaders find desirable

and incorporate the leaders’ point of view concerning those issues.

There is compelling evidence that information subsidies, such as press releases,

often result in first- and second-level agenda building. Press releases helped the Speaker

of the House influence what issues The New York Times chose to focus on, as well as

how issues, such as government efficiency and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, were

portrayed (Kiousis et al., 2011). Candidates for office in states such as Florida and

Michigan have used press releases to shape news story content (Kiousis et al., 2006;

Lancendorfer and Lee, 2010). Press releases from state agencies in Louisiana were able

to influence the coverage of about half of the state’s newspaper articles about those

agencies (Turk, 1986).

However, agenda-building effects are not uniform across all types of media in every

circumstance. The ability of political leaders to shape news coverage seems to be more

pronounced at small news outlets rather than at large, nationally recognized news organi-

zations (Marland, 2012). Also, journalists who are geographically distant from political

centers of power, such as state capitols, tend to be the most influenced by information

subsidies from political leaders (Dunn, 2009). In addition, poor economic conditions can

lead newspapers to make more use of information subsidies, such as press releases

(Curtin, 1999).

Information subsidies also can vary in value depending on the perceived credibility of

the source and the availability of other information (Gandy, 1982). Also, some types of

information subsidies, such as press releases, seem most effective at first-level agenda

building, while other subsidies, such as candidates’ ads, produce more second-level

effects (Kiousis et al., 2009).

Reasons to study the agenda-building process

qualitatively

Much of the research done on agenda building has employed quantitative methods, such

as content analysis and surveys (Kiousis et al., 2006, 2011; Lancendorfer and Lee, 2010;

Lariscy et al., 2009). Conducting content analyses and surveys usually involves gather-

ing large, randomly drawn samples of information subsidies and journalists, then analyz-

ing the data with statistical tools to make inferences regarding the degree to which

political leaders and others can shape news coverage. While quantitative methods have

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4 new media & society 0(0)

greatly contributed to our understanding of the agenda-building relationship, there are

several limitations with these methods that qualitative research can help with. In terms of

surveys, the closed-ended nature of how participants answer questions can lead to par-

ticipants leaving out key information that was not specifically asked about (Kwansah-

Aidoo, 2001). In addition, agenda-building studies that use content analysis to measure

how much news stories mention content from press releases run the risk of equating

influence with mention frequency. Doing so may understate the totality of influence. It

may be that press release content that does not appear explicitly in news stories is instead

used by journalists as background information that guides how they understand, and later

cover, an issue (Vermeer, 1982).

The open-ended nature of in-depth interview questions allows researchers to create a

more exhaustive list of ways in which information subsidies influence media coverage.

Also, in-depth interviews tend to be the best method at uncovering the many reasons why

journalists can be influenced by information subsidies. Curtin, who interviewed US jour-

nalists as part of an agenda-building study, said in-depth interviews ‘yield the most infor-

mation concerning participants’ meaning and can uncover relational patterns and

concentrate on the processes involved’ (1999: 58). Kwansah-Aidoo, who interviewed

West African journalists in an agenda-setting study, noted in-depth interviews afford

participants ‘room to elaborate’ in ways that provide ‘a proper understanding of the con-

text within which respondents made their claims and enhances the validity of the conclu-

sions drawn’ (2001: 528).

Twitter use in politics and government

Tweets, the information subsidy examined in this study, are messages on Twitter of no

more than 140 characters that can be sent via traditional computers and mobile devices.

While only in existence since 2006, the microblog Twitter has about 200 million users

worldwide. In the US, Twitter is used by the president, a majority of members in

Congress, most governors and mayors, as well as candidates and political operatives

(Parmelee and Bichard, 2012). Millions of individuals, including journalists, ‘follow’

political leaders on Twitter, meaning they choose to receive leaders’ tweets. In-depth

interviews with political Twitter users found that Twitter is the most popular form of

social media for engaging in political persuasion (2012: 141–166). Issues that are empha-

sized in tweets often are subsequently discussed in blogs, talk radio, and news stories. As

one participant, a political insider, put it: ‘Twitter has the ability to drive traffic across all

platforms’ (2012: 163).

Because tweets have a track record of being persuasive, Democrats, Republicans, and

other politically active groups use tweets to try to shape public opinion. One analysis of

thousands of Congressional tweets found that tweets are used primarily ‘to disperse

information’ about issues politicians find important and as ‘vehicles for self-promotion’

(Golbeck et al., 2010: 1612). In addition, federal and state agencies also use Twitter to

promote their activities and raise public awareness of issues they deem important. For

example, the US Environmental Protection Agency tweets about public safety issues,

and the US Department of Agriculture tweets about actions it is taking to fight childhood

obesity (Howard, 2010).

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Parmelee 5

To increase how many Twitter users see political tweets, those in politics and govern-

ment often include hashtags in their tweets. A hashtag is a word or abbreviation that has

the ‘#’ sign in front of it. For example, those on the political left tend to use hashtags such

as #p2, which stands for Progressive 2.0. Those on the political right often use #tcot,

which means Top Conservatives on Twitter. The political value of using hashtags is that

all tweets that use a particular hashtag are grouped together on Twitter and can be

searched by anyone, including journalists. Hashtags allow political leaders to spread

their views beyond their followers.

Twitter and journalism

Twitter’s popularity with journalists has astonished even those inside Twitter. Co-founder

Biz Stone said, ‘The news applications [of Twitter] surprised us’, adding that news

organizations ‘jumped in and impressed us with how they engaged’ (quoted in O’Connor,

2009). Many media outlets encourage their staffs to open Twitter accounts to interact

with the public and promote stories (Gleason, 2010). Partly because of this, most major

news organizations have millions of followers.

Twitter has the potential to change the newsroom. Twitter gives journalists new

crowdsourcing abilities, access to real-time information from many types of sources, and

useful marketing capabilities to increase their readership (Ahmad, 2010). The asynchro-

nous and always-on nature of Twitter gives it an ‘ambient’ quality that offers ‘more

complex ways of understanding and reporting on the subtleties of public communication’

(Hermida, 2010: 1). Finally, Twitter is popular with journalists because it is free, and

economic pressures on newsrooms increasingly force journalists to look for cost-saving

alternatives for newsgathering and story promotion.

Despite journalists’ attraction to Twitter, it is not clear whether tweets can result in

agenda building. While many public relations executives believe Twitter can help them

shape media coverage (Evans et al., 2011), some studies suggest tweets have little to no

influence. A survey of business journalists found the tweets they received did not result

in agenda building (Lariscy et al., 2009). On the other hand, Broersma and Graham

found that political tweets that contributed to news coverage served three functions for

journalists: ‘They were either considered newsworthy as such, were a reason for further

reporting, or were used to illustrate a broader news story’ (2012: 403). In another study,

an interview with one newspaper journalist also found that tweets that were perceived to

have news value could shape coverage:

The best part is any inside information that comes out or when a politician like Sarah Palin or

someone else makes news with their comments. Because it’s on Twitter, it’s fair game to use for

the news media. … As a journalist, that’s what I look for in tweets: nuggets of interesting, new

and exclusive information. (Quoted in Parmelee and Bichard, 2012: 152)

Another reason to suspect that political tweets can influence journalists comes from a

survey of political Twitter users. It found that some political tweets can be as persuasive

as family members in terms of influencing one’s political beliefs (2012: 211). In addi-

tion, one analysis of the tweets of politicians and journalists found that ‘journalists and

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6 new media & society 0(0)

politicians are mutually dependent on each other’ in terms of ‘finding news and spread-

ing news’ (Verweij, 2012). Yet the study does not fully explain the various ways in which

tweets are influential or why tweets can have that power.

Finally, it is important to properly define what constitutes influence. Even if the con-

tent in a tweet is included in a story or leads to a story idea, the end result might not be

agenda building in the way the political leader intended. As Curtin (1999) found during

in-depth interviews with journalists, information subsidies promoting an issue could

spark story ideas, but journalists would sometimes cover that issue in an unfavorable

light. As a result, the concept of influence in an agenda-building sense should be under-

stood as shaping coverage in a way that assists a political leader’s agenda.

Based on previous studies on agenda building, social media, politics, and journalism,

two main research questions are addressed:

• RQ1: In what ways do political leaders’ tweets influence political journalists’

news coverage?

• RQ2: Why are some political tweets especially able to shape coverage?

Method

The focus of this study is on political journalists at US newspapers who use Twitter.

Political journalists at TV or other media outlets were excluded to keep the research scope

narrow, which in qualitative research aids in doing in-depth analysis and achieving ‘satu-

ration’, the point at which no new themes are found (Morse, 2000). Also, previous research

has found that print journalists tend to use Twitter differently than broadcast journalists

(Schultz and Sheffer, 2010) and, therefore, may be influenced differently by tweets. More

than 100 political journalists from 20 states and the District of Columbia received inter-

view requests via their office email. They were initially identified by the researcher look-

ing at membership lists of associations of political journalists and the politics section on

newspaper websites. Those who expressed interest were sent a consent document, infor-

mation about their right to use a pseudonym for confidentiality, and information about

them having the choice of doing the interview via email or on the phone. They were also

told to use whatever phone number or email address they felt comfortable using. Of the

20 who expressed interest, 11 gave consent and were interviewed. All interview proce-

dures were approved by a university institutional review board.

Interviews were done with 11 political journalists from May to July 2012. Two are

editors, and nine identified themselves as some variation of reporter or writer. The news-

papers the participants work for are diverse in terms of geography and size. Some are

national newspapers, while others focus on a region or city. Some participants cover

Congress, while others report from state capitol bureaus or cover politics and govern-

ment in their cities. One participant identified as African-American; the others identified

as white. All participants have work-related Twitter accounts, which they use frequently.

More information about the participants can be seen in Table 1.

The sample size and non-random sample selection are in line with in-depth interview

guidelines, especially for an exploratory study such as this. As Marshall notes, ‘The

probability sampling techniques used for quantitative studies are rarely appropriate when

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Parmelee 7

conducting qualitative research’ (1996: 522). That is because, according to Crouch and

McKenzie, an in-depth interview study ‘scrutinizes the dynamic qualities of a situation

(rather than elucidating the proportionate relationships among its constituents)’ (2006:

483). Reaching saturation in a sample of 11, which was done in this study, is common

with in-depth interviews (Starks and Trinidad, 2007). McCracken’s seminal book on in-

depth interviewing notes that ‘eight respondents will be perfectly sufficient’ in most

cases (1988: 17).

The construction of the semi-structured interview also was guided by McCracken’s

(1988) advice, which calls for asking open-ended questions to stimulate conversation

and using follow-up questions, called probes, to get at the deeper meaning of what is

being said. The interview questions inquired about the ways in which information in

tweets from political leaders help generate story ideas or contribute to how existing story

ideas get covered. Participants were asked to think of a tweet from a political leader that

really contributed to their coverage and to explain to the interviewer what made it so

useful for their coverage. In addition, participants were asked to describe the types of

political leaders who provide the most useful tweets. Finally, participants compared

political tweets to other forms of social media, such as Facebook, that political leaders

use to persuade.

Of the 11 interviews, five were over the phone and six were via email. The phone

interviews lasted between 30 minutes and one hour and were transcribed. No compensa-

tion was provided to participants. Email interview probes were done with follow-up

emails. Email interviewing has several advantages, including extra time for participants

to reflect on questions and feeling free to say things they might not say in a face-to-face

setting (Hunt and McHale, 2007). While there are disadvantages, such as impersonality

Table 1. In-depth interview participants.

Pseudonym Age Gender Years in journalism

Years in political journalism

State in which the newspaper is located

Description of job title

Marc 39 Male 16 13 Florida Political writer

Andrae 60 Male 39 28 Ohio Political/government reporter

Eddy 55 Male 28 17 Oregon Political reporter

Sydney 42 Male 20 1 New York Assignment editor

Butter 27 Male 5 3 Georgia Washington correspondent

Tracie 40 Female 19 7 Pennsylvania Government policy reporter

Anniezebra 49 Female 15 15 Florida Political reporter

Alan 45 Male 25 4 New York Political editor

Lawrence 31 Male 12 9 California One-man state capitol bureau

Maria 51 Female 31 13 Pennsylvania State capitol reporter Robbie 32 Female 9 3 Florida Political reporter

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8 new media & society 0(0)

and the interviewer not seeing non-verbal cues, Hunt and McHale argue that ‘the e-mail

interview is an effective interview technique’ (2007: 1415). In the present study, both

interview formats resulted in similar findings, although email interviews produced

shorter answers and often required more follow-up questions.

The researcher analyzed the transcriptions and answers sent via email by using a

grounded theory approach, which includes the constant comparative method (Glaser and

Strauss, 1967). This approach involved first open coding to develop categories from the

data collected, and then comparing and integrating categories to reveal themes of the

ways in which tweets influence journalists and why such influence is possible. During

the coding phase, memo writing aided in understanding what aspects of agenda building

were emerging from the data. The researcher also did negative case analysis, a process

that is meant to ensure that the themes being reported in the results section were in no

way contradicted by anything said by participants. The quotes in the results section are

attributed to the pseudonyms that were selected by the participants.

Results

The participants regularly use political tweets as part of their reporting process. All see

Twitter as more important to them than Facebook and other social networks when doing

their jobs as political reporters or editors. Interestingly, participants compared political

tweets to press releases and said neither influences their coverage much or at all. Yet,

when they talked about how they use Twitter, all of the participants gave examples that

indicate that political leaders’ tweets shape their coverage in at least one of six ways. For

participants, political leaders’ tweets are:

• generators of story ideas;

• tip sheets for events that they might have otherwise missed;

• places to go to find quotes and polling data;

• ways to expand access to a wide range of sources to get alternative viewpoints;

• forms of background information that help them better understand issues;

• ways to double-check information in existing stories.

Not all political leaders’ tweets are considered equally useful by participants. Tweets

from political bloggers, think tanks, and interest groups tended to rank higher with most

participants than tweets from candidates or elected officials. When asked to describe

what makes a political tweet worthy of being used in their coverage, participants pointed

to several qualities:

• the breaking nature of the information;

• information that adds value to an existing story being worked on;

• an insider’s perspective on what is really going on politically;

• information that quickly gets to the point.

The pages that follow provide a more detailed description of participants’ comments

regarding how and why political tweets shape coverage.

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Parmelee 9

Participants’ perceptions of Twitter’s influence

Participants rely heavily on Twitter to do their jobs. Tracie said: ‘Twitter has become

such an integral part of my reporting that I don’t really think of it as a separate thing

anymore’. She, like all of the other participants, said Twitter is a better fit than Facebook

for political journalists. One reason for Twitter’s advantage is the nomenclature used by

the two types of social media. She said, ‘I’m comfortable “following” a source [on

Twitter] but not comfortable “friending” one [on Facebook] because of perceptions that

go along with being “friends” with someone I cover’. Andrae said Twitter is used more

by political reporters because ‘Facebook is used to a much lesser extent by politicos and

their allies’.

Despite Twitter’s standing as the top social media for political reporters, participants

said political tweets are no more persuasive on their coverage than press releases, which

they said are not influential. Lawrence said, ‘I don’t see it as any different than press

releases, personal contact, and advertisements’. Eddy said: ‘Tweets from political lead-

ers are little more than abbreviated news releases of the type that typically are ignored by

most reporters’. Butter said, ‘Every one reads like a press release, so they don’t add

much’.

Occasionally, political leaders attempt to directly influence journalists, but with lim-

ited success. Anniezebra said those working for Florida’s governor have tried several

tactics: ‘Gov. Scott’s staff definitely uses Twitter to try to influence coverage by push-

ing back on stories or getting into actual arguments with reporters’. However, the con-

sensus among participants is that leaders’ tweets do not alter the overall tone of stories

but rather contribute information to stories being worked on. ‘Generally, I don’t think

Twitter influences our coverage all that much. Instead, it augments it’, said Sydney.

Despite some participants’ perceptions that political tweets fail to substantially influ-

ence their coverage, all participants gave examples that indicate that their coverage is

often shaped by tweets.

Ways in which political leaders’ Tweets shape coverage

In addition to contributing information to existing stories, many participants said tweets

from political leaders can act as a tip sheet that sparks new story ideas. Andrae said he

has received leaders’ tweets that led him to story ideas. ‘There are instances where an

official or an agency actually tweeted something newsworthy, tipping us to something

happening in the legislature’, he said. ‘I’ve found they often tweet information about

news events or make comments that are worth pursuing’.

Marc said following a wide range of political sources can help in finding story ideas.

After seeing tweets from a Tea Party member discussing the issue of surveillance

drones, he thought ‘that would probably make a good story. So, you hear people talking

about things that you might not otherwise hear. It adds to the mix of things to eventually

write about’.

Some participants actively seek out political tweets to find story ideas. Lawrence said

he will regularly ‘troll through’ tweets he sees from ‘officials, spokespeople, policy

wonks’ and others because sometimes such tweets will ‘spark within me an idea that I

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10 new media & society 0(0)

might want to present’. Similarly, Anniezebra said: ‘I follow Twitter all day and use it to

follow on leads. … I often see things about endorsements, candidates getting into races,

candidates coming to Florida, etc. It helps me very much as a news “source”’. The previ-

ous comments from Andrae, Marc, Lawrence, and Anniezebra indicate first-level agenda

building, with salience being directed to objects, such as issues, events, and candidates.

In addition to sparking story ideas, political tweets are a source for quotes, polling

data, and other statistics that end up in stories. Robbie said: ‘If a candidate is making

comments about, let’s say, an issue, a hot button issue, sometimes we’ll use that tweet as

a quote for our story’. Marc gave a more specific example of how quotes in tweets make

it into stories:

When Ann Romney [wife of the 2012 GOP presidential nominee], for instance, got on Twitter

after Hilary Rosen [a Democratic Party pundit] had made a comment about how Ann Romney

was just a stay-at-home mom and didn’t really have a job in her life, there’s an example of

here’s Ann Romney, we believe, speaking on her own. Here’s what she said. There have been

times in stories when I’ll troll through Twitter, and I’ll actually pick up quotes through Twitter

and throw it in there, saying ‘such and such tweeted this’.

Including tweeted quotes in coverage suggests second-level agenda building because

such quotes likely stress the salience of attributes that are favorable to the leader who is

tweeting. Marc also said he follows ‘as many pollsters as possible’ because ‘Twitter is

exceptionally well-suited for getting out polling information’, which he feels his readers

appreciate.

Many participants also said Twitter gives them access to a wide range of sources that

lets them share diverse opinions with their readers. Marc said, ‘I follow about 860 peo-

ple: left, right, and center. So it helps me get different perspectives from people’.

Maria said she sometimes sees ‘an angle or a viewpoint that you may not have thought

about when you were reporting it. You know, it’s that alternative view that I always like

to include in as many stories as I can’. She also said the public nature of Twitter, where

everyone can see who is following who, encourages her to find diverse sources so her

readers don’t suspect bias. ‘I sometimes think they’re going to think I’m too conservative

or too liberal based on who I’m following, so I really do make a conscious effort to get a

lot of Democrats, Republicans, and all sorts of groups’, she said.

Sydney said links in political leaders’ tweets can direct him to perspectives on issues

that he might not have been exposed to otherwise:

I recall that after one closely watched jobs report recently, I saw a tweet with a link to an

economist’s report showing that most of the job losses came from the government sector. It

caught my attention because it was not necessarily an intuitive thought. State and local

governments were cutting their budgets to account for lower tax revenue, all over the country,

and the aggregate effect was offsetting gains in the private sector. That’s a report I might have

missed before. … Now, of course, a lot of these reports are written to advance a certain political

goal, so we have to be careful to check for veracity and methodology.

If a tweet is particularly informative, participants sometimes seek out the source and

interview them. Alan said: ‘I have seen tweets that led to phone conversations’.

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Parmelee 11

Several participants also said political tweets are a useful resource to better under-

stand the issues they cover. Sydney said some tweets give him ‘a directional sense’ of

where certain issues are heading. Alan said viewing hashtags that focus on current events

can add to his knowledge about issues. One hashtag he cited, #SSM, was ‘very, very

important’ as he covered same-sex marriage legislation that was pending. ‘It enabled me

to filter out a lot of noise and hunt for the information or feedback that was important to

me at that time for that issue’, he said.

The final way political tweets shape coverage deals with fact-checking. Journalists

can compare information in their story against information in tweets. Also, Eddy said

political leaders’ tweets can sometimes reveal a story error. ‘Their Twitter responses have

caused me, and other reporters, to correct an error or make some other, generally minor,

tweak to a story’, he said.

The most influential political leaders on Twitter

Participants cited the tweets of political bloggers, think tanks, and interest groups as

being the most useful in terms of generating story ideas and providing information for

existing stories. The tweets of elected officials and candidates rated lower. According to

Maria, the tweets of think tanks and interest groups are the most valuable because such

groups are ‘more about analyzing issues as opposed to telling me what the news of the

day is’. Similarly, Eddy said: ‘Political think tanks tweet links to their analyses, which

are sometimes useful’. The in-depth analyses linked to in the tweets better fit the needs

of newspaper reporters. Maria said: ‘I think newspapers emphasize analyzing today’s

news rather than just reporting today’s news tomorrow’. Andrae said the tweets of inter-

est groups and think tanks help with ideas and alternative perspectives:

Interest groups and think thanks, more than most, seem to tweet information that I find useful,

be it about a press conference or upcoming event, or commentary on a current event or topic.

Sometimes they actually break news this way.

The tweets of political bloggers are also quite useful, especially for story ideas.

According to Eddy, ‘Political bloggers sometimes get, and tweet, bits of information that

are essentially mini-scoops that we have to follow up’. Sydney cited ‘specialized journal-

ists or bloggers at news outlets like Politico or RealClearPolitics or TNR or ScotusBlog’

as being shapers of news. ‘These writers go deeper than we do on many subjects, and so

they are great sources of ideas’, he said.

Elements of an influential political tweet

Several factors make a political tweet able to shape coverage. Tweets with news values,

such as timeliness, stand out to journalists. Marc called Twitter ‘possibly the ultimate

breaking news tool’. Andrae said: ‘We often pick up ideas, breaking news tips, even

press statements from Twitter. It is a source of daily information’. Speed is one of

Twitter’s big advantages. Sydney said he seeks out tweets that meet his deadline needs:

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12 new media & society 0(0)

They are useful, on deadline, if I’m looking for immediate reactions to the news. So when the

Supreme Court issues its decision on President Obama’s health care law, our first cut might

include instant reactions from political players, as expressed on Twitter. Twitter has become the

first draft of the ‘…said in a statement’ comment.

Useful political tweets are often those that contain information that supplements an

existing story being worked on. When it comes to a political tweet’s ability to shape a

story, Maria said, ‘A lot of it is topical’. One example Robbie gave of a topical political

tweet dealt with how local candidates will sometimes tweet about ‘how they’ve knocked

on seven thousand doors or they’ve raised just so much money’. She said candidate out-

reach and fundraising are common themes she covers:

That’s something that I definitely care about, because we do stories about how much each

candidate has raised in their campaign. So looking at that kind of thing, those kinds of tweets

and those kinds of nuggets of news are helpful for me.

Certain types of quotes also stand out to journalists. Butter said journalists appreciate

having instant access to quotes from political leaders who are not always available to be

interviewed:

One example was when I was covering Newt Gingrich, and he was asked about whether he

supported women joining Augusta National Country Club. It was Masters week. He told the

traveling press corps that Callista [Gingrich’s wife] would make a great member. Then he

tweeted the same answer to the wider public a few minutes later. That way other reporters did

not have to write ‘NBC reported’. They could say, ‘Newt tweeted’.

Tweets that include an insider’s perspective on the major issues being debated are

sought after by participants. Lawrence said: ‘I think that’s valuable, where you’re getting

a very unvarnished view’. Alan also desires political leaders who are plainspoken and

revealing when they tweet. He wants to see:

… a politician who would tweet a committee meeting, you know, almost the same way that a

reporter would. That politician’s perspective as to why a bill is being bottled up in committee,

that kind of thing. If we could ever get to the point where politicians were doing that, sort of

live in-the-moment, that would be very exciting.

Finally, tweets must be easy to read to appeal to journalists. Robbie said: ‘I tend to

focus on the ones that are short and punchy … with a quick sentence or a quick descrip-

tion, and then I can click on the link and go on from there’. Tracie said to-the-point

tweets stand out because they are ‘helpful to reporters who are, more and more, being

stretched in every direction’.

Discussion

The findings presented in this exploratory study indicate that tweets from political lead-

ers lead to agenda building. To get a detailed understanding of how agenda building

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Parmelee 13

occurs on Twitter, the first research question sought to find out the ways in which politi-

cal leaders’ tweets influence political journalists’ news coverage. Participants noted six

uses for political tweets in their coverage or reporting process. Leaders’ tweets are: story

idea generators, tip sheets, sources of quotes and data, places to find diverse sources,

resources for background information, and fact-checking tools. The findings clearly

show the presence of first-level agenda building. In other words, a political tweet that

acts as a tip sheet to spark a story idea is influencing object salience in coverage regard-

ing issues and candidates, which is the basis of first-level agenda building.

Second-level agenda building also seems to occur as a result of political leaders’

tweets. For example, quotes and poll data from leaders’ tweets that are used by journal-

ists have the potential to influence the attributes in journalists’ stories that portray issues,

candidates, and other objects. Using information subsidies to shape the affective tone or

substantive dimension of attributes in stories is at the heart of second-level agenda build-

ing. Precisely how much or how often political tweets serve to influence attribute sali-

ence is the subject of another study. A content analysis of political leaders’ tweets and

subsequent press coverage would help clarify the degree to which second-level agenda

building is occurring.

Political tweets can now be seen as information subsidies, which Gandy defined as

information that is ‘made available at something less than the cost a user would face in

the absence of the subsidy’ (1982: 61). Tweets are free, easily available, and contain

information participants described as valuable. While participants sometimes compared

tweets to press releases, tweets are actually more akin to other types of information sub-

sidies. Press releases are generally targeted to journalists only, whereas tweets are dis-

tributed to journalists and the general public. Tweets, therefore, have the opportunity to

influence the public directly as well as through media coverage. The increased public

exposure makes tweets similar to YouTube videos, Facebook posts, and blog posts,

which are used as information subsidies by journalists and are also seen by millions of

others (Ragas and Kiousis, 2010; Wigley and Fontenot, 2009).

The public consumption of tweets may make tweets more influential on media cover-

age than traditional press releases. Political tweets inject issues and views into the public

domain that journalists may feel the need to cover, either to appear current with their

readership or for fear that competing news organizations will scoop them. In addition,

the public environment of Twitter differs in influence from many other venues for agenda

building by subtly forcing journalists to receive information from a wider range of

sources than might have happened previously. Maria alluded to this phenomenon when

she said that she makes ‘a conscious effort’ to expand the ideological diversity of the

leaders she follows because ‘I sometimes think [my readers are] going to think I’m too

conservative or too liberal based on who I’m following’. As a result, Maria said she

sometimes sees ‘a viewpoint that you may not have thought about’.

The second research question asked about the elements that make some political

tweets successful in shaping coverage. Participants said political tweets that stand out

and are worth using tend to include breaking news, information that augments an exist-

ing story, inside information, and information that is clearly and quickly delivered. The

findings match what British and Dutch journalists said are the qualities that lead to a

political tweet contributing to coverage. Qualities cited in the study include

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newsworthiness, such as timeliness, and information that adds to a broader news story

(Broersma and Graham, 2012). So, British, Dutch, and US journalists share some simi-

larities in what makes a political tweet worth using in coverage.

While participants said the tweets of many types of political leaders are valuable in

their coverage, the tweets of political bloggers, think tanks, and interest groups were

cited as particularly useful. Candidates and elected officials were mentioned, but less so,

which underscores how much political persuasion happens by those who are not politi-

cians. Also significant is Twitter’s lead over Facebook as the most beneficial social

media platform for political journalists. This finding matches what was found during

in-depth interviews with political consultants and other politically interested individuals,

who said they use Facebook for their personal life but Twitter for politics (Parmelee and

Bichard, 2012).

The influence that political leaders’ tweets have on participants is especially notewor-

thy given where they work. Most participants do their jobs in state capitol bureaus and

Washington, D.C., yet some past research has found that journalists tend to be the least

influenced by political information subsidies when they work in centers of power, such

as state capitals (Dunn, 2009).

Using a qualitative approach aided in more fully exploring the many ways in which

agenda building occurs with political leaders’ tweets. For example, many participants

said leaders’ tweets served as background information to help them understand issues, as

opposed to showing up word-for-word in stories. This is the kind of influence that

Vermeer (1982) noted can be missed when doing a content analysis that simply compares

information subsidy content with news story content. Also, by letting participants talk at

length about what they do with political tweets, it was possible to explore Curtin’s (1999)

warning that information subsidies may spark story ideas, but not lead to agenda building

because the resulting coverage ends up being unfavorable. In the present study, no par-

ticipants mentioned using political leaders’ tweets in ways that clearly went against the

leaders’ agendas.

Several limitations to address include the sample and the method selected. The par-

ticipants were not randomly selected, limiting the ability to generalize the findings. Also,

a sample size of 11 participants might seem low, but it is in line with other qualitative

studies (McCracken, 1988: 17; Marshall, 1996: 523; Starks and Trinidad, 2007: 1375).

As is true with all methods that rely on self-reports, the in-depth interview findings are

based on what the participants said they do with political tweets and may not reflect what

they actually do.

One area for future research deals with inter-media agenda setting, which occurs

when stories from one news media outlet, such as the New York Times, set the agenda of

other news outlets, such as smaller newspapers or TV news (Golan, 2006; Reese and

Danielian, 1989). Inter-media agenda setting on Twitter is suggested by one participant,

who said that tweets from political news websites, such as Politico and Real Clear

Politics, are ‘great sources of ideas’ to his newspaper. The degree to which journalists are

influenced by the tweets of other journalists is unclear and deserves further study.

Additional research also needs to be done on how tweets influence political journal-

ists who work in television, as well as how tweets are used as information subsidies by

journalists whose beats include health, science, and local news. Also, while the present

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Parmelee 15

study focused on how political leaders use tweets to influence journalists, it is also likely

that journalists’ tweets affect leaders’ agenda. This bidirectional process has been found

in other contexts (Wanta and Foote, 1994) and is worth pursuing regarding Twitter.

Finally, quantitative methods should be employed to compare political tweets to other

information subsidy types, such as press releases and candidate ads, in terms of relative

effectiveness at the first and second level of agenda building.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or

not-for-profit sectors.

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Author biography

John H Parmelee (PhD, University of Florida) is professor and chair in the Department of

Communication at the University of North Florida. His research focuses on how technology

impacts political communication. His research is in journals such as Political Communication,

Communication Studies, Communication Quarterly, Telematics and Informatics, and the Journal

of Mixed Methods Research. His latest book is Politics and the Twitter Revolution (Lexington

Books, 2012).

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