Baby, We Were Born to Tweet
Springsteen Fans, the Writing Practices of In Situ Tweeting,
and the Research Possibilities for Twitter

Introduction

In "Baby, We Were Born to Tweet," I use a grounded theory approach to offer a view into the writing practices of one group of media contributors, Bruce Springsteen fans, as they tweet before, during, and after a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert on April 12, 2012 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ. My interest in how fans are composing emerges from Kathleen Blake Yancey's (2004) call to better understand how and why people are writing outside of the classroom—especially in the age of Web 2.0. As Yancey (2004) wrote, "no one is making anyone do any of this writing" (p. 298). No one is making anyone tweet, yet millions are tweeting every day.

Grounded theory is a qualitative research methodology where theories about the object of study emerge from the data itself (Strauss & Corbin, 1990; Charmaz, 2006; Creswell, 2006). Researchers withhold applying theoretical constructs to data until phenomena emerging from the data suggest either new theories or new applications of existing theories. As such, I have taken advantage of the nonlinear structure of webtexts to replicate as close as possible my process of discovery. Therefore, content traditionally found in an introduction—namely, a discussion of the main theories that inform the findings—have been withheld until the conclusion. It wasn't until I was able to draw conclusions from the data that theories became instructive. I situate the study by presenting background information on the evolution of writing on Twitter and a brief history of fan readings and writings. I then move into a discussion of grounded theory methods, my research process, and results, including insights into my reasons for coding tweets as I did.

It is important, however, to note my goal is not to attempt to show uniqueness in fan tweets; even those that might be considered run-of-the-mill fan-type writings that express fan-type adoration are important and meaningful. Rather, I present composing practices as suggested by a grounded theory approach so fan writing on Twitter may begin to be understood on its own terms and not through pre-conceived (and often incorrect) notions about fans, fan writing, and writing on Twitter. Though scholars in rhetoric, composition, and technical writing (as well as fan studies) have started examining how various communities and individuals are composing on Twitter (for example, L. Bennett, 2014; Jones, 2014; McNely, 2010; Potts, Seitzinger, Jones, & Harrison, 2011), there is still much to learn. I hope my study helps close the knowledge gap, if ever so slightly, while also showing how grounded theory methods can be used to study new media texts to reveal nuances that might otherwise be missed.