Date of Award

1-1-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Specialization

Communication and Leadership

School or Department

School of Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Heather Crandall

Abstract

With the social media revolution and the sense of urgency people have, the way people receive their news has altered. Twitter is becoming a more popular platform to receive news because of its ability to spread news faster than any other medium. This study addresses the ability of broadcast journalists to spread their agenda using Twitter. This study is a content analysis and quantitative analysis of the Twitter accounts of broadcast journalists Greta Van Susteren and Chris Matthews during the 2014 State of the Union address. Using the Agenda Setting theory and the Two Step Flow model, this study found that not only do broadcast journalists have the ability to spread their agenda through Twitter, they are actually more popular on Twitter when they do so. The importance of presenting factual information as opposed to opinion lies in the idea that the public may not be able to tell the difference between the two.

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