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When Citizens and Journalists Interact on Twitter: Expectations of journalists’ performance on social media and perceptions of media bias

Taylor & Francis
Journalism Studies
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Abstract

Twitter has become the leading social media platform for journalists to break news, build a following, and interact with the public. Social media offer journalists and citizens a communication space, where they can discuss issues, provide context for the news, and foster community values. This study examines how expectations about journalistic practices on social media influence audience engagement with journalists, and in turn, perceptions of editorial bias. Drawing on a two-wave panel survey from the United States, we first find that expectations about the practice of “good journalism” on social media predict engagement with journalists on Twitter. Second, these personal interactions lead to lower levels of perceived bias in the news media. Finally, expectations of journalists’ performance on social media are explored as a moderator of perceived editorial bias. This study adds to the growing literature analyzing the causes and outcomes of audience engagement with journalists on social media.
... In the last decade, Twitter has become a growing platform for citizens to express, connect, and interact with politicians and elected officials (Frame & Brachotte, 2015;Golbeck et Lee & Shin, 2012;Lyons & Veenstra, 2016), and journalists alike (Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2018;Hermida, 2010;Molyneux & Mourão, 2019). Prior research has characterized Twitter as a useful tool for politicians to consult their constituents (Karpf, 2018), and for journalists to pulse public opinion to closely connect citizens to politics and political actors (McGregor, 2019). ...
... the main effects of communicating with these democratic actors separately (Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2018;Guerrero-Solé, 2018;Hwang, 2013;McGregor, 2019), leaving a relatively unclear academic testing on their general impact as collapsed factor. In fact, our study shows that citizens' interaction with democratic actors (politicians and journalists) on Twitter represents a pivotal path to increase citizens' trust in government and government performance assessment. ...
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Chapter
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