The Engagement Editor. Introducing the Voice of the Audience in the Newsroom

• In Event: Editorial Judgment in the New Media Environment

Abstract

Spurred by the increasingly central role of audience metrics in the editorial process, an emerging role is being introduced in the newsroom: the engagement editor. This paper aims to understand what the role of the engagement editor is and to what extent does audience advocacy figure in the editorial choices. This paper draws from a set of 15 in-depth interviews with various engagement editors, social media editors and analytics specialists from different media systems around the world. Two major findings emerge: First, the definition of engagement is almost entirely centered on different types of metrics. Second, while the engagement editor takes part in the editorial process, its role is to help journalists negotiate between the information obtained by their metrics and their journalistic intuition to make editorial decisions. The paper contributes to a growing literature that concerns itself with the pervasiveness of metrics and quantification of journalistic processes, by offering a more nuanced understanding of a new journalistic role.

Authors

• Raul Ferrer Conill, Karlstad U

• Edson Tandoc, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information, Nanyang Technological U