Twitter has gained notoriety in the field of journalism due in part to its ubiquity and powerful interactional affordances. Through a combination of digital ethnography and content analysis, this article analyzes journalistic practice and meta-discourse on Twitter. Whereas most applications of Bourdieu’s field theory focus on macro-level dynamics, this study addresses the micro- and mezzo-level elements of journalism, including practices, capital, habitus, and doxa. Findings suggest that each of these elements is undergoing notable change as the journalistic field adapts to the networked era. Furthermore, this article constructs a typology of Twitter-journalism practices and demonstrates Twitter’s role in the transformation of journalistic norms, values, and means of distinction. It argues that these changes have contributed to new opportunities for capital exchange as well as to the emergence of a hybrid, networked habitus that integrates values and practices from the traditional journalistic field with those from digital and nonprofessional origins.

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As a hybrid, journo-activist space, tweeting #Ferguson quickly emerged as a way for activists and journalists to network and spread information. Using a mixed-methods approach combining digital ethnographic content analysis with social network analysis and link analysis, this study examines journalistic and activist uses of Twitter to identify changes in field relations and practices. Employing the lenses of field theory and mediatization, this study finds parity and divergence in the themes, frames, format, and discourse of journalist and activist Twitter practices. While the traditions of objective journalism and affective activism persist, notable exceptions occurred, especially following acts of police suppression. The networked communities of professional and activist Twitter users were overlapping and interactive, suggesting hybridity at the margins of the journalistic field. Given the hybridizing of journalistic and journo-activist practices, this case study examines the role of social media in efforts to report on and bolster social change.

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