A new Pew Research Center study of the coverage immediately following the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson shows Twitter initially spotlighted the story with cable news soon following.
Pew found Twitter conversation started the day of Brown’s shooting on Saturday, August 9, with over 146,000 tweets posted. Cable news coverage began the next day. Examining primetime coverage during the first week following the shooting, MSNBC led the way, followed by CNN and Fox News. President Obama’s first statement on the shooting on August 14 marked the biggest day of attention on both cable news and Twitter with 296 combined minutes of primetime coverage between the three networks and over 3.6 million tweets penned.
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