Media Reporting on Media Project X Haren explained by traditional media Jolanda van Grunsven Tilburg University Culture studies Supervisor: Dr. P.K. Varis Abstract The aim of this thesis is to investigate how traditional media (talkshow De wereld draait door and newspaper NRC Handelsblad) reported on Project X Haren in September 2012. Focus is on the way they handled material coming from new media. In the first part, a theoretical background is set, focusing on the definition of new media, also taking a closer look at Facebook and Twitter in particular as that is where a lot of the stories on Project X Haren have their origins. Because the thesis deals with different forms of media it is also important to look at the existence of media ideologies. Theories on recontextualisation and entextualisation are also set out. Next part of the thesis is the analysis in which two broadcasts of DWDD and two articles from NRC Handelsblad are examined. How do they incorporate online content in their reports? In conclusion, the thesis argues that there are noticeable differences in the ways in which the two different traditional media reported on the event: in DWDD online material is placed in another context and explained, thus creating a new context in which the matter can be understood. In DWDD the process of recontextualisation and entextualisation is completed. In NRC however, there is a context in which online material is placed. The material is not explained so there is no new context that is constructed. The material is part of the context that already existed. Another remarkable outcome is that content from new media seems to be deemed as an inappropriate source when the subject becomes more serious. When that happens journalists turn to traditional media for their information. This gives us an insight on the media ideologies of the media at play: online content is light and fun and shouldn‟t be put into a serious context. 1 Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3 2. Theoretical background .......................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Old media and new media ................................................................................................................ 5 2.1.1 Principles of new media ............................................................................................................ 5 2.1.2 Properties of networked publics ................................................................................................ 9 2.1.3 Twitter ..................................................................................................................................... 11 2.1.3 Facebook ................................................................................................................................. 12 2.1.4 Media ideologies ..................................................................................................................... 12 2.1.5 Journalists and social media .................................................................................................... 13 2.1.6 Media convergence.................................................................................................................. 13 2.2 Discourse ........................................................................................................................................ 16 2.2.1 Recontextualisation ................................................................................................................. 16 2.2.2 Entextualisation and intertextuality ......................................................................................... 17 3. Method and data ................................................................................................................................... 19 4. Analysis ................................................................................................................................................ 21 4.1 De wereld draait door ..................................................................................................................... 21 4.1.1 Broadcast of the 21st of September 2012 ................................................................................ 21 4.1.1 Broadcast of the 24th of September 2012 ................................................................................ 24 4.2 NRC Handelsblad ........................................................................................................................... 27 4.2.1 Preview.................................................................................................................................... 27 4.2.2 The aftermath .......................................................................................................................... 29 4.3 TV vs. newspaper ........................................................................................................................... 31 5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 32 References ................................................................................................................................................ 33 Appendix 1 ............................................................................................................................................... 34 2 1. Introduction Turning sixteen can be a big deal for a girl. Little did Merthe from the small Dutch town Haren know her birthday would have as many people talking as it had. As many people do, she decided to invite her friends over to celebrate her birthday by creating an event on Facebook. Initially she invited 78 of her friends, and she made the invitation public because she was fine with her friends bringing along other people and she wanted to know how many people she could expect at her party. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary until a friend of a friend invited 500 people, leading to a snowball effect. She created the event on September 6 2012, and on the 7th of September as many as 16.000 people claimed they would attend the party. Merthe deleted the Facebook event. Sadly for Merthe, anyone can create a Facebook event so a new one was created by others with the intention of throwing a big party in the small Dutch town. The Facebook event was named “Project X Haren”, corresponding with the name of a then popular movie in which a party was crashed by a lot of people who tore down the house in which it was held. Even though the growth of the number of people claiming they would attend was a lot slower than in the original event, eventually 250.000 people were invited of which roughly 30.000 claimed they would attend. Strikingly enough most of this growth took place between the 19th and the 21st of September (Project X Haren, n.d.), the 21st being the date on which the party would take place and the 19th being the day traditional media (TV, newspapers, etc.) started reporting on the event. Because the event really took flight after traditional media had reported on it, a lot of people blame them for the eventual number of people that were in Haren on the 21st. According to these critics the event would have drawn in a lot less people than it did if the traditional media had not started reporting on it. The role of the traditional media in the events of Project X Haren has already been very heavily discussed, as has the role of social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.). In one of the broadcasts of Dutch talkshow De Wereld Draait Door for example, the host questions what their own role in the escalation of the events was, but he also points his finger towards social media. What is missing in insights on this subject is a direct link between the two forms of media. It has either been traditional media or new media that has been studied, but how these two interacted with each other has never been examined. That is why in this thesis the way the 3 traditional media handled the enormous stream of stories coming from social media will be investigated. First a theoretical background will be set, focusing on the definition of new media, also taking a closer look at Facebook and Twitter in particular as that is where a lot of the stories on Project X Haren have their origins. Theories on recontextualisation and entextualisation will also be set out. These theories will provide a good perspective on the next step for this research: analyzing how different media (the TV-program De Wereld Draait Door and newspaper NRC Handelsblad) processed material that they had selected from new media. 4 2. Theoretical background 2.1 Old media and new media 2.1.1 Principles of new media With the ongoing technological developments comes a variety of new ways to communicate with others. These new ways of communication are also defined as new media, which automatically puts the already existing media in the category of old media. There are however forms of media that are not that easily categorised. Just think about the medium television which is definitely a technological medium, but is it a new medium? Manovich (2001) came up with a set of principles to characterise new media. By using these principles we can rule out (or not) certain types of media and thereby categorise them as old or new media. It is