The next presentation at ECREA 2012 is by Sarah van Leuven, whose interest is in the impact of journalistic cost-cutting on the coverage of the Arab Spring. Does this lead to a greater amount of networked journalism, drawing especially also on social media? An analysis of Twitter interaction in the context of the Arab Spring certainly shows an intermingling of various English- and Arab-language voices, but how does this translate to journalistic coverage?
Sarah examined the Belgian media coverage of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria, focussing especially on early protests. It appears that the more journalists represent …