Twitter and Television in a Hybrid Media System

Abstract

By analyzing all of the keywords and hashtags that became Trending Topics (TTs) in the Italian Twittersphere during both an electoral period and a non-electoral period, we evaluated what Italian Twitter users discussed. We found that topics about actors and issues in the entertainment field (e.g., singers, Hollywood stars and television stars) drive Italian discussions and that the political sphere is a secondary topic that elicits minor arguments within users’ conversations. However, we believe that even this low level of discussion about politics was able to influence the public agenda, thanks to the advent of a hybrid media system in Italy. In fact, Italian print media and television constantly covered the individual tweets or hashtags of a niche of citizens who were discussing politics on Twitter. Television, a part of the Italian media system that is highly consumed by the public, is also a primary factor in determining the appearance of a specific actor or issue on the TT list. Furthermore, we empirically confirmed the logic of breaking news events on Twitter, a microblogging site that primarily focuses on exceptional occurrences.