Chinese Journalists' Social Media Use

What is it about?

This study examines Chinese journalists’ social media practices by analyzing 2,659 micro-blogging posts by journalists. While Chinese journalists normalize their Weibo practices based on their existing offline journalistic discourses, the spin-off sphere of Weibo provides them with new opportunities to deviate from traditional journalistic norms. Yet, we find that official political and organizational control is still tight.

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Why is it important?

Previous studies indicate that Western journalists generally normalize their posting activities on social media to fit their professional standards and practices, but this normalization practice is carried out in a more complicated way in China, a semi-authoritarian non-liberal country. This study treats “journalists’ Weibo” as a spin-off journalistic sphere. Technological innovation and socio-political context are both important in influencing journalists' discursive practices on social media.