ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces analytical procedures both to identify subgroups of diffusion processes that share similar dynamic patterns and to test potential relationships between event attributes and diffusion dynamics. It discusses links of the news diffusion process-approach to similar concepts as well as potential future advances of studying the dynamics of digital journalism from an ecosystem perspective. The task of reconstructing online news diffusion processes, as presented in our case study, can consequently be characterized as a Big Data project. Real time data collection of news items published by the variety of providers within the same digital news ecosystem is a precondition for the reconstruction of diffusion processes. News diffusion processes can be uncovered only when shared routines of prompt news dissemination in digital journalism converge with innovative methods of content analysis in journalism research, which are both highly sensitive to time and scalable to the ecosystem level of analysis.
