Journalists’ Coverage of Online Firestorms in German-Language News Media

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.

KEYWORDS:

• content analysis
• image repair
• online criticism
• online firestorm
• scandalization
• social media
• user-generated content

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Robinson uses the term cruelty. Because cruelty often implies physical mistreatment we use the terms malice and aggression instead to signify negative emotional behavior directed against others.

2. The other 13 terms were Wutsturm (fury storm), Internetsturm (internet storm), Twitter-Sturm (Twitter storm), Internet-Empörung (internet indignation), Internetaufschrei (internet outcry), Empörung in sozialen Netzwerken (indignation in social networks), Empörungswellen in Social Media (waves of indignation in social media), Sturm der Empörung (storm of indignation), Schmähgewitter (disgrace storm), Netzprotest (net protest), Protestwelle (wave of protest), Proteststurm (protest storm), and Spottwelle (wave of mockery).

3. Because people’s agitation or arousal states, the third motivational factor, would have been very difficult to assess from the data, the typology is based on the analysis of stimulants and goals.

4. Three online firestorms could not be classified into any of the types.