6. Shifting Values, New Norms: Social Media and the Changing Profession of Journalism

Shifting Values, New Norms: Social Media and the Changing Profession of Journalism (This Chapter) explores how journalists are balancing individual, organisational and professional norms while transitioning journalistic professional activity into social media environments. Practices that conform to social media policies, as well as new relationships in the newsroom, were seen to create both opportunities and tensions in utilising social media for journalism. What many of these changes amount to, however, is a fundamental shift in the way professional journalism is understood and, subsequently, a steady erosion of the professional authority maintained by journalists. This chapter focusses on the ways journalists represent professional identity on popular social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Bossio argues that the ways journalists present their personal and professional identities on social media corresponds to some of the complex professional and organisational influences they are attempting to balance.