From Media Hype to Twitter Storm : News Explosions and Their Impact on Issues, Crises and Public Opinion News Explosions and Their Impact on Issues, Crises and Public Opinion

The word media hype is often used as rhetorical argument to dismiss waves of media attention as overblown, disproportional and exaggerated. But these explosive news waves, as well as - nowadays - the twitter storms, are object of scientific research, because they are an important phenomenon in the public area. Sometimes it is indeed 'much ado about nothing' but in many cases these media storms have play an important role in political issues, scandals and crises. Twitter storms sometimes ruin reputations within hours. Although different concepts are used, such as media hypes, news waves, media storms, information cascades or risk amplification, all the studies in this book refer to the same process in which key events trigger a chain of reactions and interactions, building up huge news waves in the media or rapidly spreading social epidemics in the social media. This book offers the first comprehensive overview of this important topic. It is not only interesting for scholars and students in media and journalism, but also for professionals in PR and communication, crisis communication and reputation management. Cover 1 Table of Contents 8 Acknowledgements 12 Preface 14 Hans Mathias Kepplinger 14 Introduction 18 Peter Vasterman 18 I. Theory, concepts, and methodology 38 1. Media hypes, moral panics, and the ambiguous nature of facts 40 Urban security as discursive formation 40 Marcello Maneri 40 2. News waves in a changing media landscape 1950-2014 62 Wouter van Atteveldt, Nel Ruigrok, Kasper Welbers, and Carina Jacobi 62 3. The dynamics of media attention to issues 84 Towards standardizing measures, dimensions, and profiles 84 Stefan Geiß 84 4. Hype, argumentation, and scientific dissemination 116 Adam Auch 116 II. Anatomy of self-reinforcing dynamics: Case studies 132 5. The mechanisms of media storms 134 Anne Hardy 134 6. Much ado about nothing 150 Five media hypes in a comparative perspective 150 Charlotte Wien 150 7. From media wave to media tsunami 168 The ‘Charter of Values’ debate in Quebec, 2012-2014 168 Thierry Giasson, Marie-Michèle Sauvageau, and Colette Brin 168 8. How a small-scale panic turns into an unstoppable news wave about mass mugging on the beach 188 Gonçalo Pereira Rosa 188 III. Impact on issues, crises, and public opinion 210 9. Dynamics of media hype: Interactivity of the media and the public 212 Ik Jae Chung 212 10. Why and how media storms affect front-line workers 230 Scandalized Danish crèches as an example. 230 Pernille Carlsson and Christian Elmelund-Præstekær 230 11. Media hypes and public opinion 250 Human interest frames and hype fatigue 250 Audun Beyer and Tine Ustad Figenschou 250 12. News waves generating attentionscapes 268 Opportunity or a waste of public time? 268 Marianne Paimre and Halliki Harro-Loit 268 IV. Interactivity: The role of social media 290 13. Modelling issue-attention dynamics in a hybrid media system 292 Annie Waldherr 292 14. You won’t believe how co-dependent they are 314 Or: Media hype and the interaction of news media, social media, and the user 314 Vivian Roese 314 15. From racial hoaxes to media hypes 334 Fake news’ real consequences. 334 Andrea Cerase and Claudia Santoro 334 16. Reputational damage on Twitter #hijack 356 Factors, dynamics, and response strategies for crowdsourced campaigns 356 Augustine Pang, Jeremiah Icanh Lim Limsico, Lishan Phong, Bernadette Joy Lopez Lareza, and Sim Yee Low 356 List of figures and tables 384 Index of names 386 Index of subjects 394 The word media hype is often used as rhetorical argument to dismiss waves of media attention as overblown, disproportional and exaggerated. But these explosive news waves, as well as - nowadays - the twitter storms, are object of scientific research, because they are an important phenomenon in the public area. Sometimes it is indeed 'much ado about nothing' but in many cases these media storms have played an important role in political issues, scandals and crises. Twitter storms sometimes ruin reputations within hours. Although different concepts are used, such as media hypes, news waves, media storms, information cascades or risk amplification, all the studies in this book refer to the same process in which key events trigger a chain of reactions and interactions, building up huge news waves in the media or rapidly spreading social epidemics in the social media. Annotation This anthology offers the first comprehensive overview of media hype, a phenomenon often dismissed as ephemeral and unimportant. Despite that reputation, media storms actually do play an important role in political issues, scandals, and crises, sometimes creating an important shift in public opinion over the course of only a few hours. This book provides an overview of theoretical, conceptual, and methodological issues related to media hype through close explorations of case studies from around the world