Conceptualizing the Uses of Social Media in Journalism: Networked Audiences, Participation, and News Production

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel brings research together to cover the full range of social media uses in journalism: as a tool leading to manifold novel news practices, as platforms that lead to new patterns of news consumption and networked audiences, and also as an important space for audience participation. Beyond the initial idealism about audience participation and the sobering results of studies showing how little newsrooms are eager to open their production processes and how few voices have the willingness to express themselves, the studies presented in this panel aim at a more nuanced understanding of the motivations and current practices associated to the use of news in daily and professional life, contextualizing the actions of sharing, commenting and (co)creating. New theoretical frameworks, concepts and epistemological approaches allow posing new questions that overcome the implicit technological determinism that was still embedded in even the most critical research on (the lack of) audience participation. The projects are also innovative in their methodological approaches and can also inspire researchers interested in the relationship of journalists and their publics, or the role of journalism in society. A common aspect of all projects is the effort of researchers to go beyond the newsroom in understanding social media use in journalism: the perceptions and practices of journalists are contrasted with those of the networked audiences with a diversity of methodologies: survey, ethnography, in-depth interviews, content analysis.

The studies presented in the panel stem out of projects in four Western countries: USA, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. Results highlight the striking similarities in trends in these different media contexts. Altogether, the analyses of social media use in journalism and of (its) networked and partly participating audiences lead to something we could describe as “a clash” of the mass media paradigm inherent to the institution of journalism with a social media paradigm inherent to a new “networked architecture of journalism” – a paradigm which to date we are only able to describe in its contours.

Sub Unit

• Journalism Studies

Chair

• Wiebke Loosen, Hans Bredow Institute

Individual Presentations

• Normative Ideals vs. Actual Daily Practices: A Reality-Check on Audience Participation and Social Media in Spanish Online News Websites - David Domingo, U Libre de Bruxelles; Bella Palomo, U de Málaga; Pere Masip, U Ramon Llull

• Which for What? Uses of Social Media in the View of Journalists and Audience Members - Wiebke Loosen, Hans Bredow Institute; Christoph Neuberger, LMU Munich; Susanne Langenohl, LMU Munich; Christian Nuernbergk, LMU Munich

• Living in Two Worlds: Role Taking of Participatory Journalists - Merel Borger, Department of Language and Communication; Anita M. J. van Hoof, VU University Amsterdam; José Sanders, Radboud U Nijmegen

• Participatory Journalism and Transformative Events: Covering the Same-Sex Marriage Debate on Twitter - Matthias Revers, Goethe-University Frankfurt

Respondent

• Alfred Hermida, University of British Columbia