Adapting to Twitter: The Entanglement of Journalistic Values and Online Personas

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of the sample.

Participant code	Gender	Occupation	Media type
P1	Female	Editor	Broadcast
P2	Male	Journalist	Digital
P3	Male	Editor	Broadcast
P4	Male	Journalist	Digital
P5	Male	Journalist	Digital
P6	Female	Editor	Digital
P7	Female	Editor	Broadcast
P8	Male	Editor	Broadcast
P9	Female	Journalist	Digital
P10	Male	Editor	Digital
P11	Male	Editor	Digital
P12	Male	Editor	Digital
P13	Female	Journalist	Broadcast
P14	Male	Journalists	Digital
P15	Male	Journalists	Digital

Table

The tension between the professional and personal	• How would you describe your profile on Twitter? • What are the characteristics of your tweets? • How active are you? • What do you mainly use your Twitter account for? • Do you use Twitter for branding purposes? How?
Role conceptions	• What do you aim to achieve through your tweets? • How would you describe your role on Twitter? • What are the differences between your role as a journalistand your persona on Twitter? • How do you approach norms such as neutrality andimpartiality on Twitter?
Considerations	• What criteria do you have for your tweets? • How would you compare your profile on Twitter with yourprofiles on other social media? • What are the characteristics of your audience on Twitter? • How does your news media organisation approachjournalists’ behaviour on social media? • Do you feel limited in what you can tweet? Why?

Table

Code	Coded when	Examples
Personal and professional platform	Journalists and editors talk about Twitter as a platform that encourages both personal and professional use.	P14: “Twitter can be used in a strictly professional way, but it can also be used in a very personal way. Maybe we can only call it a personal-professional platform”. P1: “I think of Twitter as a platform that is a mix of professional and personal use. You can often see super personal stuff on my tweets, but I also share links to my work”. P10: “The way I have conceptualised Twitter is a combination between my professional portfolio and my personal profile. So, it’s a profile of me as XY and me as a journalist of XY”.
Moral values as criteria	Journalists and editors talk about moral values being the criteria for their tweets, in comparison to journalistic standards in their profession.	P7: “I never post something which can be offensive towards someone, I am very careful about that. There are also lots of issues that are talked about during the day and which I choose to ignore on my account as I consider them sensitive topics”. P10: “Discrimination should never be allowed. A journalist shouldn’t be allowed to express sexist, racist, homophobic opinions. A journalist shouldn’t be allowed to make fun of people who aren’t part of the public sphere. But, it’s different when it comes to politicians who are public figures, there should be no restrictions when it comes to them”. P8: “In contrast to my articles, I can’t really say I have specific criteria on what to tweet and what not. I would say that I just apply the more universal norms of good civil behaviour”.
Online persona	Journalists and editors talk about their profile on Twitter as a presentation of themselves; creating a character within the platform.	P3: “You create a personality online and then people get to know you through that personality and form their opinion on you based on what you present”. P6: “I see Twitter as a window of opportunity to get to know people and to show them a reflection of who I am”. P2: “It’s almost as if I have two different personalities on Twitter and Facebook. Maybe I post about similar topics, but there is still a big difference in how I approach them”.
Ordinary citizens	Journalists and editors talk of themselves on Twitter as citizens who express opinions on political issues.	P11: “Maybe writing in an article what I tweet wouldn’t be considered professional. But, I have a life outside the news offices and away from the computer I use there. I am a human and I have opinions on different issues. Just because I am a journalist doesn’t mean I don’t have an opinion because I express that opinion anyway when I am out for a drink with my friends”. P10: “We are just ordinary citizens. We do not have any political power, so we should be treated like any other citizen”. P7: “My profile is my personal account. At the end of the day, I am just a citizen of this country and I also should have an opinion on issues that the country is dealing with. Am I not a citizen just because of what I do for a job?”
Activists	Journalists and editors talk of themselves on Twitter as activists who put initiatives in motion for topics personally close to them.	P7: “I started a petition about … and afterwards that case was sent to the Supreme Court. The support I got on Twitter was incredible, I couldn’t believe it!” (part of the statement was cut out to safeguard the interviewee’s identity). P8: “One of the main reasons I use Twitter is to promote Kosovo. When people search the word Kosovo or through a hashtag, they’ll see my tweets. This is not part of my journalistic duties, but I do it as a patriotic duty because it’s a passion of mine to tell the world about this small country and its achievements in sports and arts mainly”. P2: “The issue of stray dogs in the city has been discussed by journalists on social media way more than it has been reported on mainstream media, but still it became an issue that is now being taken seriously by the city council”.
Mordant critics	Journalists and editors talk of themselves on Twitter as critics of political figures and issues, through ruthless opinion expressing and political satire.	P4: “I don’t feel the need to show mercy towards political figures. I will taunt these people because they deserve it. Because they are constantly taunting us as a public”. P15: “When you’re satirising an issue or something, no one can accuse you of offending someone. Politicians are public figures, they live their life in the public sphere. I don’t feel like I have to spare them, especially when it’s something about human rights or any other topic where I don’t accept compromises”. P8: “There is no need for you to always stay neutral. What you need to do is tell the truth. If you stay neutral in a conflict, then you are helping the aggressor”.
Social media policies (SMP)	Journalists and editors talk about the (lack of) limitations brought by social media policies. The confusion that is referred to in the thesis comes from the contradictory answers between interviewees working in the same media.	P8: “There is no such thing. I can’t talk about all the media in the country, but I really don’t believe that any media here has social media policies and guidelines”. P14: “Yes! The news media organisation where I work now has a policy. All journalists have to respect it. I think it’s very normal for journalists because we’re used to having to remain a bit more neutral”. P15: “No, I don’t have any limitations, guidelines or advice on what to post and what not to post. We’re totally free in this aspect”.
Twitter’s unique audience	Journalists and editors talk about the audience on Twitter as different from other social media.	P15: “The audience is quite influential. I would say it’s an audience you don’t see on other social media platforms. Maybe it’s not a politically correct thing to say, but the audience on Twitter is made up of people that belong to a privileged class, people with higher educational levels”. P7: “Twitter, at least until recently, has been used mainly by more open-minded people. The audience there is able to accept criticism, participate in a civil discussion and understand that no one thinks the same as them”. P12: “The audience is of a higher quality because they are interested in political events, they will read an article until the last sentence, and then they will discuss it on their account”.
Twitter’s affordances and ambience	Journalists and editors talk about the reasons why Twitter as a platform allows them to behave the way they do.	P3: “Twitter has this characteristic of being less serious because the character limit does not allow you to indulge the public in a long analysis of an issue, you can only serve the judgement part of your position to the audience”. P12: “On Twitter, even if you want to speak in an earnest manner, you are limited to a small number of characters, so you have to strike at the issue more directly than you initially wanted”. P2: “Hashtags have played such an important role, even when it comes to gaining a bigger audience for an issue. For example, (…) which afterwards has influenced even political leaders”. (part of the statement, where the interviewee explains a case that they were involved in, was cut out to safeguard their identity).