Journalists, media and influencers: An analysis of the conversation in the digital public sphere during the Qatar 2022 World Cup

TL;DR

This study examines the digital conversation during the Qatar 2022 World Cup, highlighting the roles and influence of journalists, media, and influencers through social network analysis of Twitter data.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how journalists maintain visibility and authority in social media during major sporting events, contrasting with other media actors.

Findings

Journalists are under-represented overall but dominate high-engagement accounts.

Media attract less attention and have sporadic impact peaks.

Journalistic authority is based on reference positions rather than participation volume.

Abstract

Public digital conversation around major sporting events takes place within a hybrid system in which journalists and the media compete with new intermediaries, including influencers, to gain greater visibility and engage with audiences. This study analyses the Qatar 2022 World Cup as a case of high informational intensity and public opinion monitoring. To that end, social network analysis was applied to X/Twitter using the hashtag #Qatar2022, analysing 1,343 high-engagement accounts, including those of journalists, media and influencers, alongside a random sample of 5,000 users. The findings indicate that journalists are under-represented in the user population as a whole, but significantly over-represented among the highest-engagement accounts, and they maintain stable visibility. The media, by contrast, attract a lower average level of attention and tend to achieve only sporadic peaks of impact. Accordingly, journalistic authority on social media is observed less as dominance in terms of participation volume and more as the capacity to occupy reference positions when public attention is being shaped during the event.