{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T00:28:36Z","timestamp":1777854516355,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2016,3,18]],"date-time":"2016-03-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1458259200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Journal of Information Science"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2016,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Twitter, the micro-blogging social media tool, has established a critical role in facilitating social engagement. Its low technical and economic barriers to uptake provide a readily accessible forum for public engagement with events such as televised political debates, and in this context provides a \u2018backchannel\u2019 to mainstream media, allowing users to comment on and engage in debates. Most recently during the 2014 Scottish Referendum, Twitter was used extensively by both \u2018Better Together\u2019 (pro-Unionist) and \u2018Yes\u2019 (pro-independence) campaigners. The aim of this research was to develop an understanding of the linked content present in tweets sent during three televised debates on the issue of Scottish Independence. Analysis of the linked content shows a broad subject proximity to the topics under discussion during the debates, but highlights the lack of specificity in relation to the peaks and troughs of Twitter traffic during the debates. The paper also highlights the use made of links to a variety of resources such as the mainstream media as well as more informal sources including user-generated image and video content to support political viewpoints, and argues that, while the use of such content is beneficial in terms of unifying perspectives, supporter activism and the gratification of the social need for connectivity, it does not act to convert political opinion.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/0165551515624355","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,3,18]],"date-time":"2016-03-18T23:29:38Z","timestamp":1458343778000},"page":"396-409","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Linking for influence: Twitter linked content in the Scottish Referendum televised debates"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"42","author":[{"given":"Simon","family":"Burnett","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"iSchool, Robert Gordon University, Scotland, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lyndsay","family":"Bloice","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, Scotland, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,3,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-0165551515624355","unstructured":"Twitter, About Twitter, https:\/\/about.twitter.com\/company (2015, accessed January 2015)."},{"key":"bibr2-0165551515624355","first-page":"591","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 19th international World Wide Web conference","author":"Kwak H"},{"key":"bibr3-0165551515624355","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chew C, Eysenbach G. Pandemics in the age of Twitter: Content analysis of Tweets during the 2009 H1N1 Outbreak. PLoS One2010; 5, http:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0014118 (2010, accessed January 2015).","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0014118"},{"key":"bibr4-0165551515624355","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1464884911410017"},{"key":"bibr5-0165551515624355","first-page":"863","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 22nd international World Wide Web conference","author":"Lehmann J"},{"key":"bibr6-0165551515624355","first-page":"405","volume":"10","author":"Harrington S","year":"2013","journal-title":"Participations"},{"key":"bibr7-0165551515624355","first-page":"1195","volume-title":"Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems","author":"Diakopoulos NA"},{"key":"bibr8-0165551515624355","unstructured":"Scottish Parliament, Scottish Independence Referendum 2014 results, http:\/\/www.scottish.parliament.uk\/ResearchBriefingsAndFactsheets\/Scottish_Independence_Referendum_2014_Results.pdf (2014, accessed January 2015)."},{"key":"bibr9-0165551515624355","first-page":"1127","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 19th international World Wide Web conference","author":"Kandylas V"},{"key":"bibr10-0165551515624355","first-page":"1293","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 19th international World Wide Web conference","author":"Rowlands T"},{"key":"bibr11-0165551515624355","first-page":"1159","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 35th international ACM SIGIR conference on research and development in information retrieval","author":"Mishne G"},{"key":"bibr12-0165551515624355","first-page":"1","volume-title":"Communication in the 2008 U.S. election: Digital natives elect a president","author":"McKinney MS","year":"2011"},{"key":"bibr13-0165551515624355","unstructured":"Trippi J. The revolution will not be televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the overthrow of everything. New York: HarperCollins, 2004, pp. 1\u2013336."},{"key":"bibr14-0165551515624355","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0002764213506211"},{"key":"bibr15-0165551515624355","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00028533.2013.11821804"},{"key":"bibr16-0165551515624355","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444812457328"},{"key":"bibr17-0165551515624355","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1108\/AJIM-09-2013-0093"},{"key":"bibr18-0165551515624355","first-page":"1","author":"Ceron A","year":"2015","journal-title":"New Media & Society"},{"key":"bibr19-0165551515624355","unstructured":"Pedersen S, Baxter G, Burnett S, Goker A, Corney D, Martin C. Backchannel chat: Peaks and troughs in a Twitter response to three televised debates during the Scottish Independence Referendum campaign 2014. 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