Breaking news commentary: Users’ reactions to terrorist attacks in english-speaking twittersphere

Abstract

The micro-blogging platform Twitter is increasingly applied for breaking news dissemination and commentary. The users become so-called citizen journalists, as in some cases they are the first ones to report on breaking events. This paper investigates the tweeting behavior of Twitter users in view of three terrorists’ attacks that stroke Europe in 2015 and 2016, the attacks on Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, in Paris in November 2015, and in Brussels in March 2016. These attacks were triggering events for a wave of tweets showing support (#PrayForParis, #PrayForBelgium), solidarity (#JeSuisCharlie, #JeSuisBruxelles) or promotion of values like freedom of speech and press (#FreedomofSpeech). This study sheds light on the basic information behavior of English-speaking Twitter users participating in the information exchange on these three events.