Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Under which conditions are some tweets more likely to be forwarded or retweeted than others? This is the core question of the present research, as retweet stays for the most important feature for information propagation on Twitter. Drawing on my Master thesis in which I have analyzed 157 tweets from international media broadcasters accounts this paper reflects on “retweetability“ (the likelihood of a tweet to be forwarded or shared) of news media companies. Research studies on factors that influence “retweetability” have largely targeted the marketing field or the accounts of prominent individuals. I elaborate in this study on the understanding of virality on Twitter by examining tweets displayed by four international media broadcasters (CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera and RT) in 2014 when covering the attacks of the Nigerian religious group Boko Haram. Variables mobilized to give an answer to our query includes sources, emotions, and other textual attributes.