Kilgo conducts published study on Ice Bucket Challenge
A study by assistant professor of journalism Danielle Kilgo on the viral campaign The Ice Bucket Challenge appears in the latest edition of Digital Journalism.
The study focuses on emotional appeals and news values as factors of share-worthiness in Ice Bucket Challenge coverage, as well as what coverage characteristics influenced social media audiences to share content on Facebook and Twitter. Kilgo did the study with University of Texas doctoral students Kyser Lough and Martin J. Riedl.
Results reveal that while celebrity participation and human interest stories were more likely to be covered by journalists, news values played a limited role in predicting audience sharing practices.