1. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread Read, Not Dead: A Case Study of #redanddead Viral News Spread Geoffrey M. Graybeal, Jiran Hou, and Carmen Hernández-Ojeda 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism. University of Texas, Austin. 04/19/2013

2. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread Intro August 2012, The Red & Black shifts control from student editors to hired professionals. Students resign; form digital-only publication, The Red & Dead. Twitter account: @redanddead815; #redanddead Facebook Page: Red & Dead.

3. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread Literature Review News content on Twitter Networks. – Few studies on journalism/breaking news (Brown-Smith, 2012). – Traditional news orgs primary source of info (Lariscy, Avery, Sweetser, &Howes, 2009). Online Influences (Cha, Haddadi, Benevenuto & Gummadi, 2010). – User influence-content based (news)/conversational based (celebrities). – Topical influence. Information flow and Twitter/Preferential Attachment (Himelboim, McCreery & Smith, 2011; Himelboim & Han, 2012).

4. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread Research Questions RQ1: What role did social media play in spreading news of Red & Dead? RQ2: How did news of The Red & Black editors’ resignation spread through Twitter so quickly? RQ3: How were the Red & Black editors able to build a sizable audience for a digital-only publication?

5. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread Methods Content analysis. – 500 tweets from the @redanddead815 between Aug 15 to Aug 21, 2012. – 111 articles pulled from the Internet. Social network analysis. – A Twitter-topic network of The Red and Dead. 304 Twitter users and 840 user relationships were captured.

6. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread RQ 1. What role did social media play in spreading news of Red & Dead? 80% of @redanddead815 tweets were posted during the account’s first three days. Red & Dead asked for followers and influencers to spread the news. – Half of Aug. 15 tweets fell into the request and outsider influence categories.

7. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread Red & Dead Timeline 8/15. 3:58 PM. First Actions: Twitter, Facebook, Website 8/15. 5:00 PM Influential Tweets: Huffington Post and USA Today 8/15. 6:30 PM. Twitter Impact: 1000 followers 8/15. Local Coverage 8/16. National Coverage 8/16. 125,000 website views 8/20 Reinstatements 8/21 Back to Red & Black. 4:38 PM. “-30-” RQ 1. What role did social media play in spreading news of Red & Dead?

8. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread RQ 2. How did news of The Red & Black editors’ resignation spread through Twitter so quickly? Red & Black alumni, ties. Journalism. – Influential journalists first tweeted. – Professional organizations and advocacy groups. – Student journalists. Red & Dead specific strategy. – Targeted influential people and organizations.

9. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread RQ 2. Findings

10. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread RQ 2. Findings “We worked hard to make sure the right people knew about our situation.” Lindsey Cook (@lindzcook) 950,000 followers 100,000 followers

11. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread RQ 2. Findings

12. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread RQ 2. Findings

13. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread RQ 3. How were the Red & Black editors able to build a sizable audience for a digital-only publication? 126,000 page views w/in 36 hrs. News coverage. – Viral nature. Social media. – Tweets drove traffic. Key document. – Stories covering the incident referenced the blog publication. Name recognition.

14. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread RQ 3. Findings

15. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread RQ 3. Findings

16. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread RQ 3. Findings

17. 04/19/2013. 14 th International Symposium on Online Journalism Read, Not Dead: A case study of #redanddead viral news spread Discussion Traditional news still matters. – Key players spreading content through SNSs. – News coverage  audience. – Journalists pivotal in enabling story to “go viral.” Ambient journalism. Topical influencers spread info (resonated beyond Georgia). – Student Press Freedom, college media, journalism.