A Social Media Platform Model of Supreme Court News

• Published date: 01 September 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129241248586
• Author: Jake S. Truscott
• Date: 01 September 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2024, Vol. 77(3) 866–879

© The Author(s) 2024

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129241248586

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A Social Media Platform Model of Supreme

Court News

Jake S. Truscott

1

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Abstract

An economic model of news contends that the pressures of limited column space and market competi tion force media

actors to be strategic concerning which notable events receive exhaustive coverage, if any at all. Applying this framework

to the Supreme Court can explain why coverage of the Justices’decision-making has historically been sensatio nalized and

reserved for decisions sure to have a pronounced effect on public discourse. However, the emergence of social media as

a practical alternative for mass media dissemination raises notable questions, chief among them being whether the

economic framework fully extends to this newer medium. In this study, I analyze media coverage of the Court’s decisions

using Twitter and observe important distinctions among environments for news dissemination. I argue that the apparent

reduction in the economic costs associated with coverage dissemination and consumption on social media platforms like

Twitter requires viewing Supreme Court news in these environments through an amended theoretical framework.

Keywords

supreme court, media, social media

Introduction

Decisions by the United States Supreme Court represent

an interesting dichotomy. Cases reviewed by the Court

have the potential to inf‌luence numerous subsets of

American law, though the degree of public notoriety they

will garner varies considerably. Some become an ever-

lasting presence in public discourse while others are ul-

timately relegated to obscurity. Given the disconnect

between the public and the Court, the masses rely on

popular media to provide coverage of decisions as a

prerequisite for public awareness. Indeed, an exhaustive

literature exists that draws on the intersections between

the Court’s salient decision-making, media behaviors, and

public awareness or recall (e.g., Brenner and Arrington

2002;Clark, Lax, and Rice 2015;Collins and Cooper

2012;Epstein and Segal 2000;LaRowe and Hoekstra

2014;Sill, Metzgar, and Rouse 2013;Strother 2017).

However, many of these studies are restricted to an-

alyses of media heavyweights and observe sporadic or

over-sensationalized trends of covering the Court. Central

to this dynamic is recognizing that media actors often

navigate within the constraints of an economic framework

(Hamilton 2004;McManus 1988;Vining and Marcin

2014). In this environment, f‌inancial and other market

forces coexist with oversight restrictions to elicit strategic

behaviors among media actors in deciding whether and

how to provide coverage of notable events. Appending the

elements of this framework to the Supreme Court can

explain why coverage of the Justices’decisions are often

limited to those sure to have some pronounced effect on

public discourse (Graber 2002;Strother 2017). Yet, ad-

vances in technology have facilitated the development of

new media alternatives. This development is of particular

interest, insofar as platforms like social media networks

provide an unlimited stream of content for their users and

have become increasingly useful tools for news dissem-

ination and consumption. As such, while traditional news

mediums are forced to navigate market competition and

other restrictions, social media can potentially alleviate

many of these constraints. If so, these platforms might

provide an avenue for covering the Court’s decision-

making in greater volumes and across a broader variety

1

Center for C-SPAN Scholarship & Engagement, Purdue University,

West Lafayette, IN, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jake S. Truscott, Political Science, Purdue University, 2263 Beering Hall,

West Lafayette, IN 47907-2050, USA.

Email: jtruscot@purdue.edu