This Master’s thesis examines digital journalism from a cross-media perspective through a qualitative content analysis examining online articles, Instagram posts and comments related to the Instagram posts from DR News and TV 2 News regarding the murder of Mia.

The murder of Mia is a news story from February 2022 where a young woman, Mia Skadhauge Stevn, disappeared in the Danish municipality Aalborg. After the police search and inquiries through the public, the police found human parts of Mia in a forest.
The crime got huge media coverage on the Instagram profiles of DR News and TV 2 News, which were continuously updating with news about the investigation.

Based on an analysis of the way journalistic news stories develop and what dynamics arise between the journalist and the users on Instagram, the purpose of this project is to examine how the journalistic news stories regarding the murder of Mia are framed in a cross-media and collaborative at DR News and TV 2 News.

Through this current case study, it is argued that journalists must both strategically adapt to social media logics and, at the same time, be conscious about how the public are acting on the internet and include these considerations in their gatekeeping decisions.
The frames in the journalistic news story have an impact on the comments and on the understanding of the network public of the story about Mia. In addition, specifically, the journalists are seen using a high degree of rhetorical adaptations as using emotional words in the text and this use of emotional language influences how users act online.
Based on the analysis, it seems appropriate to consider the users of Instagram as collaborating with journalists in the sense that their perspectives and interests in a social media comment are part of the journalist’s gatekeeping decision when journalists produce the news. Consequently, the users can no longer be considered as just receivers of the news but must also be considered as consumers and co-producers of the news on Instagram.
The public network therefore becomes an important starting point for user involvement where users participate actively. All at once, the journalist is still seen trying to preserve the norm of objectivity using interviews and focusing on telling the story about Mia with attention to how the public experiences and feels about walking alone in the light of Mia’s disappearance.