Representation of news in Official media and its impact on public opinion on the Twitter social network (Case Study of Iraqis Sex Tourism news in Mashhad)

Abstract

In the summer of 1397, the issue of the Iraqi travelers' sex tourism in Mashhad was widely considered and highlighted by the mass media. Following this attention from the mass media, people also started discussing and commenting on this topic on social networks. This research seeks to describe and analyze the way in which the topic was represented in the official media and also to examine the impact of this representation and media-assisted highlighting on public opinions in the social network Twitter. For the purposes mentioned, a qualitative content analysis method was used to examine 20 news stories published in official media as well as 54 users’ tweets in the Twitter social network. Research findings show that according to Agenda-setting theory, the number of tweets per day is directly related to the number of news in the mass media, and the media have succeeded in prioritizing and attracting the audience's attention. However, the content of tweets is not entirely consistent with the views put forward in the mass media. There are two instances of compliance with gossip and racist claims, but there are two claims of governance and system mismanagement in tweets that have not been raised in the representation of the mass media

Keywords

• representation
• agenda-setting theory
• public opinions
• official media
• twitter social network
• sex tourism of iraqis in mashhad