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

• Published in: Information, communication & society Vol. 19; no. 8; pp. 1150 - 1170
• Main Authors: Golan, Guy J., Himelboim, Itai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 02-08-2016; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Audiences; Broadcasting; Digital media; Governments; international broadcasting; Internet; Journalism; Mass media; Mass media effects; Media; network analysis; News; News media; Platforms; public diplomacy; Social networks; Structural hierarchy; System theory; Systems theory; World System Theory; New York; United States > US
• ISSN: 1369-118X; 1468-4462
• DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2015.1106572

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.