CHRISTIAN NUERNBERGK (UNI TRIER) AND JAN-HINRIK SCHMIDT (HBI) PRESENT THE RESULTS OF A SURVEY AND NETWORK ANALYSIS ON THE USE OF TWITTER BY POLITICAL JOURNALISTS AT THE FEDERAL PRESS CONFERENCE IN THE CURRENT ISSUE OF THE JOURNALISTIK.
In their paper entitled “Twitter in Political Journalism”, the two authors deal with the perception and use of Twitter within the communicative figuration of political journalism, using the example of capital city journalists of the Federal Press Conference: Because journalists and politicians increasingly use social media, this figuration is changing. The essay, published in the current issue 20 of Journalistik, aims to assess the significance of Twitter in particular in the communicative practice of members of the Federal Press Conference and to determine their assessments of the suitability of microblogging services in political journalism. To this end, it combines findings from a standardised survey with network analytical indicators on the interaction relationships on Twitter. The results show that political journalists use the service most often compared to other social media. Journalists who perceive Twitter as important in the communication work of politicians use Twitter significantly more often both as a receiving and as an active communication tool. Interactions between politicians and the journalists surveyed reinforce these differences even more: For example, respondents who are mentioned by politicians in tweets consider Twitter to be more important overall in their own work and rate the service higher than their colleagues when comparing the different communication channels used by politicians.
The paper is available online at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11616-019-00557-4