Can World System Theory predict news flow on twitter? The case of government-sponsored broadcasting

ABSTRACT

Social media platforms provide world governments with the opportunity to distribute news content from their broadcast channels directly to foreign publics [Wallerstein, I. (1974). The modern world system. New York: Academic Press] World System Theory, which has successfully explained and predicted the structure of international news flow, is now being challenged. Specifically, these social platforms undermined assumptions regarding the one-way flow of information toward audiences and the exclusive institutional nature of the players in the international system. This study examines the unique case of government-sponsored news media and its international news flow. It finds that while the structure of the international news flow on Twitter exhibits a hierarchical core–periphery structure, non-institutional actors (e.g. bloggers) conformed less than institutional players (e.g. governments and news media) to that structure. This study also found that non-institutional actors assumed the role of bridging news sources and audiences, a role traditionally reserved for a small minority of elite news media. The growing and diversified pool of information mediators resulted in a more fragmented network of news flow, siloed, rather than interconnected. Research findings are synthesized and analyzed in the context of international broadcasting and social media scholarship.

KEYWORDS:

• World System Theory
• network analysis
• international broadcasting
• journalism
• public diplomacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Guy J. Golan (PhD, University of Florida, 2003) is an associate professor of public relations and public diplomacy in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. [email: [email protected]]

Itai Himelboim (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 2008) is an associate Professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Revelations at the University of Georgia. Dr. Himelboim studies social media networks and their implications for democratic and civil societies. He pursues this interest by examining patterns of interactions and identifying key actors and communities on social media, primarily on Twitter, examining information flow between organizations and the public. [email: [email protected]]