Patterns of Immediacy: News Diffusion Processes Among German Online News Sites

• In Event: Analyses of News Coverage: Cases and Patterns

Abstract

Contributing to research on online news flows, this study explores the dynamics of the diffusion of news events among online news sites. We develop a structuration model of news diffusion processes among online news sites from diffusion of news research, the notion of immediacy in online news production, and intermedia co-orientation. Using an automated big data approach to content analysis (N = 480,727 news articles), we reconstructed 95 news diffusion processes among 28 German online news sites. We could identify three common temporal patterns of news diffusion processes, which systematically differ regarding speed and variety of news sites involved. Almost half of diffusion processes is characterized by abrupt rises of the diffusion rate directly after events have been published first and often arrive at saturation after 1.5 hours. Especially for these rapid diffusion processes, we typically found the same online news sites to be among the first to report events.

Authors

• Florian H Buhl, University of Muenster

• Elisabeth Guenther, U of Muenster

• Thorsten Quandt, U of Muenster