Proximity and Terrorism News in Social Media: A Construal-Level Theoretical Approach to Networked Framing of Terrorism in Twitter

This study investigates networked framing of terrorism news in Twitter by distinguishing three proximity effects (geographic, social, and temporal proximity) on audience and media institutional frames (i.e., episodic/thematic and space frames), based on construal-level theory. An analysis of tweets during the Boston Marathon bombing and the Brussels Airport attack finds that institutional and audience frames show similarity but do not always converge on Twitter. Similarities in the audience and institutional frames are attributed to a universal human tendency for social categorization, inherent in the minds of not only ordinary citizens but also journalists. Proximity effects, however, were more salient on audience frames than on institutional frames.