Understanding News Sharing Across Social Media - Detailing distribution on Facebook and Twitter

Abstract

News sharing across different social media platforms is increasingly impacting on our news habits. However, we know very little about what makes news popular in these settings. The current paper details what types of news stories are shared the most on two social media platforms—Facebook and Twitter. By conducting a qualitative content analysis and comparing data from four Norwegian media outlets, we find that editorial comment pieces about “softer” news topics are more frequently shared than “harder” news topics from all media outlets—except for TV2. For this latter broadcaster, the results suggest that sensational news and news regarding celebrities allows for viral effects to take place.