Regaining Control Citizens who follow politicians on social media and their perceptions of journalism

Abstract

The use of social media by politicians has received much scholarly interest. However, much less is known about the citizens who follow them and whether their motivation to seek information directly from political actors is linked to perceptions of journalism practice. To address this gap, this paper examines the motivations of news users, in six countries (Australia, Germany, Ireland, Spain, UK and USA), who also follow politicians and political parties on social media. Analysis of data from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2017 shows the desire to access information unfiltered by journalists was the primary motivation, followed by partisan support, and dissatisfaction with elements of mainstream political reporting. Additional logistic regression analyses for each country reveals these ‘followers’ are younger, have a higher interest in political news, stronger political orientation and efficacy, and participate more in sharing and commenting, than ‘non-followers’. Drawing on contemporary gatekeeping theory and the curation of information flows, this paper highlights the desire of these politically interested news users for greater control over the information they consume and raises questions about the impact of negative perceptions of journalism on the desire to seek alternative information sources.

Keywords:

• disintermediation
• gatekeeping
• journalism
• news media
• political communication
• social media

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Dr Antonis Kalogeropoulos from the Reuters Institute of Journalism Studies at Oxford University for his generous assistance with early drafts of this paper.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

Dr Caroline Fisher, Dr Jee Young Lee, and Associate Professor Sora Park are co-authors of the Digital News Report – Australia; and Dr Eileen Culloty is a co-author of the Digital News Report – Ireland.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Caroline Fisher

Caroline Fisher (author to whom correspondence should be addressed), Assistant Professor of Journalism, News and Media Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. https://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/faculties/arts-design/courses/communications-staff/journalism/fisher-caroline. ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7443-3787

Eileen Culloty

Eileen Culloty, Associate Researcher, Institute for the future of Media and Journalism, Dublin City University, Ireland. E-mail: [email protected]. https://www.dcu.ie/herc/people/eileen-culloty.shtml.

Jee Young Lee

Jee Young Lee, News and Media Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. https://www.canberra.edu.au/research/faculty-research-centres/nmrc/Team. ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6985-1730

Sora Park

Sora Park, Associate Professor, Direct of the News and Media Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra, Australia. E-mail: [email protected] ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3082-314X