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The Thrill is Gone? A Longitudinal Study of Social Media Appropriation by Journalists

Sun, May 27, 12:30 to 13:45, Hilton Prague, Floor: LL, Congress Hall II - Exhibit Hall/Posters

Abstract

Technology appropriation theory suggests that rather than revolutionizing traditional norms and practices, new media usually become an enhancement of such norms and practices. Here, we test the attitudes and behaviors of a special group of early adopters of social media: journalists. Specifically, we conducted two longitudinal studies in Chile, the country with the highest levels of social media use in Latin America. In Study 1, we track the behavior of a sample of Chilean journalists (N = 117) over the course of five years with a quantitative content analysis of Twitter data. In Study 2, we analyze an original two-wave panel survey conducted over another representative sample of Chilean journalists (N = 310) to explore the dynamics of journalists’ attitudes and behaviors towards social media in general (and not just Twitter). By integrating digital trace data and survey data, we find strong evidence for the appropriation hypothesis.

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