Journalists’ Coverage of Online Firestorms in German-Language News Media |
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| Authors: | Sabine Einwiller Benno Viererbl Sascha Himmelreich |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Vienna, Austria. Web: ?http://ccom.univie.ac.atsabine.einwiller@univie.ac.at;3. Department of Communication, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany. E-mail: benno.viererbl@uni-mainz.de;4. Department of Communication, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany. E-mail: sascha.himmelreich@uni-mainz.de |
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| Abstract: | When people perceive events that conflict with their expectations they can easily express their agitation and concerns online and likely find others who share their opinion. When large quantities of messages containing negative word-of-mouth suddenly spread in social media we speak of an online firestorm. By covering the outcry, journalists elevate it onto a mainstream communication platform and support the process of scandalization. Content analysis was used to explore how journalists, working for German-language media, cover this phenomenon. Over a period of 16 months, 130 online firestorms were identified and analyzed. Based on a typology of online firestorms, we have found that the majority of cases address events of perceived discrimination and moral misconduct aiming at societal change. Vilification of the organization or person occurred to a much lesser extent. Thus, journalistic coverage of the phenomenon focuses on the rectification attempts of an aroused public. Image-repair responses of the firestorm objects are quoted by journalists in about half of the articles, thereby providing some balanced reporting about the online criticism. This study provides an initial insight into how online firestorms are used as a topic of news coverage by journalists and explores journalists’ contribution to attempts of online scandalization. |
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| Keywords: | content analysis image repair online criticism online firestorm scandalization social media user-generated content |
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