Study explores how QAnon went from fringe to mainstream on Twitter
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BUFFALO, N.Y. – QAnon’s journey from a fringe phenomenon in 2017 to a mainstream presence on Twitter represents an evolution that arrived by tapping into an interconnected media system, according to a recently published paper by a University at Buffalo communication researcher.
The QAnon presence, which began as obscure actors on Twitter, was the start of a development that spread from the social media platform and realized further amplification from far-right media outlets.
“The QAnon Twitter accounts we analyzed knew well how to play the social media game. They gained retweets and follows by engaging in group identity performance, praising their own while disparaging opponents, but that was just a start,” says Yini Zhang, PhD, the paper’s lead author, and an assistant professor of communication in the UB College of Arts and Sciences. “Our results show the more retweets they gained and the more followers they accumulated, the more likely it became for far-right media outlets to embed these tweets in their coverage.
“This dovetails with prior research showing how journalists construct news stories by incorporating viral social media content and how audience reaction to social media content can influence their news judgement.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2023/04/004.html.
