The Reinvented Journalist

Abstract

This is the accepted version of a paper published in Digital Journalism. This paper has been peerreviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination.

Speaking on behalf of oneself and others: Negotiating speaker identities in journalistic discourse on refugee activism in Sweden

“…This is primarily undertaken in one or two different ways, sometimes separately and sometimes intertwined. Previous research on Twitter users and their ways of presenting themselves, primarily including politicians and journalists (Hanusch, 2017;Hedman, 2017;Olausson, 2016), shows how the professional identity of individual Twitter users is of great importance in the identification of the users. In this set of data of both more and less publicly known users, many include their professional occupation or status in their bio.…”

Making the most of Twitter: How technological affordances influence Swedish journalists’ self-branding

“…In a magazine interview in 2012 13 , he describes his Twitter strategy as personal branding via a mix of personal and professional content: "In a near future, legacy media will be dependent on profiles -journalists with strong personal brands, celebrities in their own right," he said. On Twitter, but also on Facebook and Instagram, he has shared details about his job as a reporter and his search for interviews and hunt for news, mixed with links to his articles and television shows, pictures of his wife and children, updates from dinner parties, his views on this and that … (Olausson, 2017;. This explicit strategy has led to massive criticism from colleagues 14 , probably because he was one of the first Swedish journalists to fully implement it.…”

“…Self-branding practices among Swedish journalists have been analyzed by Berglez (2016), who noticed a pattern of self-branding through joint performances with the most active j-tweeters as key actors on the stage. Olausson (2017; focuses on one of the most widely followed journalists in Sweden in two case studies, the tabloid politics reporter Niklas Svensson, and from a qualitative analysis of his tweets shows how he constructs his professional identity and brand online.…”

“…Van Dijck and Poell (2013) refer to this as ‘datafication’ and highlight the increasing importance of deriving metadata for predictive and real-time analytics from social media as well as from the devices that are used to gain access to media content, but also conclude that ‘platform metrics are increasingly accepted as legitimate standard to rank people and ideas’ (p. 7). For individual journalists, becoming a node or a hub by delivering a constant flow of relevant news from trustworthy sources is one way to create a personal audience and keep the audience’s attention (Olausson, 2017). Credibility can be obtained not only by authenticity and accountability but also by personal disclosure (Hayes et al, 2007).…”

“…Twitter has become a platform not only for traditional professional tasks but also for more personal activities like networking, professional branding, and interactivity with other Twitter users, including colleagues, competitors, sources, or members of the audiences (see Hermida, 2013 for an overview). Many journalists on Twitter also function as specific news hubs or community nodes – delivering a constant flow of updates on breaking news, links to news stories, commentary, analysis, exclusive information, and so on for their followers (García de Torres and Hermida, 2017; Olausson, 2017). Most news organizations strongly recommend that their journalists on staff have an active Twitter account (Ihlebæck and Larsson, 2016).…”