Tweeting Outside the Lines: Normalization and Fragmentation as Political Reporters Break from the Mainstream

Abstract

The field of journalism is experiencing intense diversification in form and message while trying to overcome widespread public disaffection by reinforcing professional norms. This study focuses on two forces-normalization and fragmentation-by observing them at work on social media. We analyzed content and interactions from mainstream and non-mainstream political journalists covering a 2016 U.S. presidential debate. Forces of normalization would draw these two groups of reporters together in a monolithic, widespread practice, perhaps including both newer and older methods. Forces of fragmentation, on the other hand, would drive groups of practitioners further apart, with clearer lines separating mainstream journalism from its offshoots. The key question is where these similarities and differences between mainstream and non-mainstream journalists arise. Findings suggest divergence in objectivity and gatekeeping, and convergence in campaign coverage practices. The evidence suggests that, on Twitter, mainstream reporters insulate themselves by interacting mainly with other journalists, while nonmainstream journalists offer openly partisan interpretations and seek out audience participation and engagement, often from people sharing their viewpoints.

Bounded or Boundless: A Case Study of Foreign Correspondents’ Use of Twitter During the 2019 Hong Kong Protests

“…Next, we found that the foreign correspondents tended to interact with each other and local journalists on Twitter far more frequently than with those outside their professional circle, thereby corroborating previous research (Molyneux & Mourão, 2019). This preference suggests that the correspondents were forming an interpretive community with other journalists on Twitter, the purpose of which was to share information with their audiences rather than to invite members of the public to contribute to the news production processes (Mourão, 2015;Mourão & Molyneux, 2020). Furthermore, the findings revealed that tweets containing foreign correspondents' personal opinions encouraged more audience engagement.…”

A Systematic Review of Political Media and Audience Engagement

“…Domestic governmental new media research mostly takes Weibo, WeChat, and TikTok as research platforms (Gu, Min, & Zhan, 2018;Xu, 2020;Zhou, 2019;Li, 2022). In contrast, foreign governmental new media research mainly uses Twitter and Facebook as research or data acquisition platforms (Mourão & Molyneux, 2021;Brandt et al, 2020;Tian & Yang, 2022;Mohd Fathir, Mohd Lokman, Abd Kadir, & Sualman, 2022;Sahly, Shao, & Kwon, 2019). The common denominator is that the proportion of video platform-related studies is on the rise, which is in line with the changes in the layout of government platforms and the rising trend of short videos.…”

“…Cross-platform studies still need to be included. Most studies on news content and audience engagement have been conducted using the content analysis method (Gu, Min, & Zhan, 2018;Mourão & Molyneux, 2021;Cushion, Morani, Kyriakidou, & Soo, 2021;Tian & Yang, 2022;Mohd Fathir, Mohd Lokman, Abd Kadir, & Sualman, 2022;Sahly, Shao, & Kwon, 2019), which is a single method that can verify the regression relationship between content attributes and audience engagement. Only one article used the experimental method (Janét, Richards, & Landrum, 2020), one article used the case study method (Brandt et al, 2020), and one article used interviews (Mihelj, Kondor, & Štětka, 2021).…”

“…Several studies focus on media content factors, in other words, interactive audience engagement with content (Gu, Min, & Zhan, 2018;Mourão & Molyneux, 2021;Molyneux & Mourão, 2017;Savolainen, Trilling, & Liotsiou, 2020). Gu, Min, & Zhan (2018) Provide quality services and create a multi-value participation system for audiences; take a practical route to the masses and make audiences love the new media crowd sourcing space.…”

Tweets That Matter: Reconsidering Journalistic Sourcing and Framing Processes in the Context of the #Grexit Debate

“…Particularly regarding political news, the news organizations were found to rely heavily on politicians and media as news sources. Mourão and Molyneux (2020), in their study of how political reporters in mainstream and non-mainstream outlets in the United States covered on Twitter the first presidential debate in 2016, found out that mainstream journalists essentially reinforced their role as gatekeepers by predominantly using as sources or by interacting with other journalists instead of other actors outside the mainstream media field. Several other studies have also shown that journalists mainly interact with their colleagues on their Twitter accounts and tend to predominantly retweet content published by other journalists and media outlets (Nuernbergk 2016;Folker and Nölleke 2019;Bentivegna and Marchetti 2018).…”