Attribution Analysis

By Alison Henderson
This BBC report analyzes the social media impacts on the Troy Davis trial. The story does not have much attribution because most of the information is well known. The beginning of the report relies heavily on references to tweets. Because the story is related to social media, specifically Twitter, the citations are appropriate. In this situation, the links offer more interaction and keep the reader engaged. I think in a story that was not related to social media, referencing multiple tweets might make the report seem cluttered and illegitimate.
The latter half of the story cites statements made from social media experts (including several quotes from Brian Southwell). The majority of the attributions come after the quote. The formula is "quote-says-name" followed by a description of the person's relevance. This set up makes the story easy to read.