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The Use of Twitter During the Uk Riots 2011: a Regional Newspaper Journalists Opinion

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The Use of Twitter During the Uk Riots 2011: a Regional Newspaper Journalists Opinion
The Use of Twitter during the UK Riots 2011: A Regional Newspaper Journalists Opinion

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of a degree in Journalism or International Journalism at Liverpool John Moores University.

Name: Joe Lanigan-Smith Course: Journalism BA Honours Supervisor: Hazel Barrett

Contents Page:
Pg3: Abstract
Pg4: Introduction
Pg10 : Lit Review
Pg15 : Methodology
Pg23: Data analysis and discussion
Pg 32: Conclusion

Abstract
Twitter has 140 million active users, with 340 million tweets being sent out on a daily basis (Twitter, 2012). This dissertation focuses on the uses of Twitter during the riots of 2011 and the opinion of regional newspaper journalists who reported on them. All participants of this study were active reporters during the disturbances in August 2011. This study offers an in-depth overview of how those journalists used Twitter in the process of newsgathering and promoting their articles. This article also highlights a series of suggestions for more research into the uses of Twitter in journalism. Through the use of interviews with journalists present during the riots the results of this study showed that Twitter was extremely useful to the all the journalists who took part in this study.

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Introduction

The riots of August 2011 were something that this country did not seeing coming and arguably we weren’t prepared for. The scale of the violence over those four nights between August 6th and 10th was widespread across major cities up and down the country. According to the Daily Mirror the start of the riots occurred when a policeman apparently shoved a small girl to the ground after he threw a rock at them (Parsons, 2011). Although many other observers believe that the riots actually started because of the shooting of alleged gangster, Mark Duggan by Police, following reports that he was brandishing a gun. Close friends and family or Mr Duggan have always denied


Bibliography: Ahmad, Ali Nobil (2010) “Is Twitter a Sseful Tool for Journalists?” Journal of Media Practice, 11 (2), pp. 145-55 Alan Rusbridger Alfred Hermida. (2012). Twittering The News . The Emergence of Ambient Journalism . pg 3 Angelica Orb, Laurel Eisenhauer, Dianne Wynaden Barbara Alysen (2006). The Electronic Reporter: Broadcast Journalism in Australia. 2nd ed. Sydney : New South Publishing. Pg 157. Bruns, Axel, Jean, Burgess Bryan Greetham (2009). How to write your undergraduate dissertation. London : Palgrave Macmillan. 182. D 'Monte, Leslie (April 29, 2009). "Swine Flu 's Tweet Tweet Causes Online Flutter". Business Standard. http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/swine-flu%5Cs-tweet-tweet-causes-online-flutter/356604/. Retrieved February 4, 2011. FARHI, PAUL (2009) “The Twitter Explosion”, American Journalism Review, Farida Vis Hall, Jim (2000) Online Journalism: A critical primer, London: Pluto Press HERMIDA, ALFRED AND THURMAN, NEIL (2009) “A Clash of Cultures: The Integration of User- http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4756, accessed March 10th 2013 http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070731niles/, accessed March 6th, 2013. Jankowski, N W (1991). Qualitative Research and community media. In K.B. Jensen and N. W Janlowski (Eds.) A handbook of qualitative research methodologies for mass communication research (pg. 103) London: Routledge John Pavlik Joseph Straubhaar Robert LaRose Lucinda Davenport (2009). Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology . London: Wadsworth. pg 110-115. Kerlinger, F.N., & Lee, H. B (1999). Behavioural Research 3rd Ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston pg 185 Kjell Erik Rudestam and Rae R Lyon, Santiago. 2012 “Detecting the truth in Photos: How a news service Verifies Images and Videos.” Nieman Reports 66 (2): 7-9. www.nieman-harvard.edu/reports/article/102763/detecting-the-truth-in-photos.asapx Lyon, Santiago Mary Cross (2011). Bloggerati, Twitterati: How Blogs and Twitter are Transforming Popular Culture. Californina: ABC-Clio. 69-71. Mary Cross (2011). Bloggerati, Twitterati: How Blogs and Twitter are Transforming Popular Culture. California: ABC-Clio. 67 Matthew Ingram May, Tim (1998) Social Research London: Sage NILES, ROBERT (2007) “A Journalist 's Guide to Crowdsourcing”, Papacharissi, Z. (2009). Journalism and Citizenship. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Paul Lewis. (2011). Reading the riots: Investigating England 's summer of disorder. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/05/anger-police-fuelled-riots-study. Last accessed March 17th 2013. Posetti, Julie (2009) “Twitters Difficult Gift to Journalism”, newmatilda.com http:/newmatilda.com/2009/96/16/twitters-difficult-gift-journalism accessed 13th Feburary 2013 Robson, C Tony Parsons. (2011). UK riots: Why did the riots happen? Who are the rioters?. Available: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-riots-why-did-the-riots-happen-who-147237. Last accessed March 15th 2013.
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