Reclaiming Control: How Journalists Embrace Social Media Logics While Defending Journalistic Values

Abstract

This article uses semi-structured, in-depth qualitative interviews with journalists at 16 US newspapers to examine how strategies for sharing news content and interacting with audiences on platforms have evolved over the past decade. Using a lens of Gatekeeping Theory, the study analyzes the approaches and techniques used by journalists to distribute content and engage with audiences on platforms—and how those approaches have changed since the beginning of the social media era. Its findings show journalists initially relied on traditional journalistic instincts and used somewhat haphazard approaches when sharing and interacting on platforms. Over time, the findings show, journalists’ approaches became more strategic—based much more on social media logics than just journalistic instinct, with heavy emphasis on algorithms and audience metrics. The study also provides evidence that, even as they have ceded some gatekeeping authority to platforms and adjusted to social media logics, journalists continue to defend traditional journalistic values of speed, objectivity and fairness. It also shows newspapers trying to regain some control over their content, through the implementation of paywalls and prioritization of their own websites. But, overall, the study offers evidence that US newspapers have embraced platforms in their institutional structures and editorial practices.

Keywords:

• Social media
• newspapers
• platforms
• gatekeeping
• audience engagement
• algorithms

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Logan Molyneux and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable input and feedback on this article. The author also wishes to thank Charles Schmied for his assistance in transcribing the interviews.

Disclosure Statement

The author received no funding for this project and has no conflicts of interest to disclose.