A Shift in Set: Examining the Presence of Agenda Setting on Twitter During the 2012 London Olympics

The purpose of this study was to determine whether agenda setting was present on Twitter during the 2012 London Olympics. In order to analyze the presence of agenda setting, tweets from the @London2012 account and tweets containing #London2012 were analyzed. The @London2012 account served as the news outlet, while tweets containing #London2012 served as the unit of analysis to determine whether agenda setting was present. A content analysis of these tweets revealed significant differences between the two groups in terms of tweet focus, sports mentioned, and countries mentioned, suggesting no agenda setting presence on Twitter. Additionally, the primary affiliation of individuals utilizing #London2012 was laypeople, which aligned with previous Twitter-specific research. The implications of these and other findings will be discussed further.