Presentation by Wiebke Loosen, Christoph Neuberger, Susanne Langenohl, Christian Nuernbergk & Julius Reimer held at the International Communication Association's annual conference (ICA 2015), May 23rd 2015, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

1. Which for what?
Uses of social media in the view of
journalists and audience members
ICA | San Juan | May 23rd 2015
Wiebke Loosen, Christoph Neuberger,
Susanne Langenohl, Christian Nuernbergk & Julius Reimer

2. ►Background I
 Journalism is multichannel communication: Typically,
users and producers use a number of social media and
other internet channels in parallel.
 Social media are multifunctional: Journalists and users
alike use them to the end of manifold purposes.
 In contrast to legacy media, the affordances of social
media also emerge from mutual expectations and
adjustment/adaption processes between producers and
users.
2

3. Journalism
User
User
User
►Uses of social media in journalism
Source
Source
Source
User Participation
- Reactions to editorial
content
- Engagement in the
editorial production
process
Meta-
communication of
editorial staff
- Transparency
- Advertisement Investigation
- Finding sources and
topics
- Current news
- Experts and
prominent people as
sources
- ‘Vox populi’
- Enhancing and
cross-checking
Publishing
- Short breaking news
- Real-time reporting
- Own videos
- Editorials
…
Monitoring of the
audience
- User Comments
- User
Recommendations
- Web Analytics
- Surveys
User Participation
- Reactions to editorial
content
- Engagement in the
editorial production
process
Monitoring of the
audience
- User Comments
- User
Recommendations
- Web Analytics
- Surveys
3

4. ►Background II
 How to grab these characteristics of social media use in
journalism?
 Our attempt today: Heuristically combining two different
studies to shed light on how to deal with multiple
channels, multifunctionality, and adoption processes
between journalism and (its) audiences theoretically and
empirically
4

5. ► How to analyze the use of social media in
journalism?
Framework I: A repertoire-oriented perspective
(Hasebrink & Popp, 2006; Hasebrink & Domeyer, 2012)
 Uses: Which social media do users and providers select for which
distinct purposes?
 Appropriateness: Which particular qualities do users and providers
ascribe to which kind of social media?
Framework II: A reciprocity-oriented perspective
(Loosen & Schmidt, 2012; Borger et al., 2014; Lewis et al., 2014)
 Fitness I: To what extent do users and providers select the same
social media to the end of the same purposes?
 Fitness II: To what extent do users and providers agree or disagree
when assessing the qualities of social media channels?
5

6. ► Project 1: Repertoire of producers: Use of social media
in German newsrooms (Neuberger, Langenohl, & Nuernbergk, 2014)
 Population: all media providers with supra-regional reporting and
distribution, except for daily newspapers (including regional papers);
internet-only providers (with current news and a variety of topics)
 Fieldwork: May 5th to June 5th 2014
 Commissioned by the Media Authority of North-Rhine Westphalia (LfM),
Düsseldorf
Total number
Response
rate
in %
Daily newspapers 114 75 65,8
Weekly newspapers/public magazines 9 8 88,9
Broadcasting 16 16 100
Internet-only providers 12 6 50,0
Total 151 105 69,5
6

7. ► Questions
 Use of social media and their appropriateness for 24 different purposes:
user participation (6 items), meta-communication (2), investigation (10),
monitoring (1), publishing (4)
 Social media repertoire: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, blogs
► Results
 Facebook and Twitter are the “Swiss pocket-knives” of journalism.
They are most often used for the majority of purposes.
 In contrast, blogs (editorials with a subjective view, background
information, discussions) and YouTube (video publishing) are more
specialized tools.
 Frequency of use and quality valuation are very similar. However, blogs in
particular are more appreciated than they are used.
 Respondents’ highly consistent answers show an understanding of
specific social media qualities.
7

8. Journalism
User
User
User
►Uses of social media in journalism
Source
Source
Source
User Participation
- Reactions to editorial
content
- Engagement in the
editorial production
process
Meta-
communication of
editorial staff
- Transparency
- Advertisement Investigation
- Finding sources and
topics
- Current news
- Experts and
prominent people as
sources
- ‘Vox populi’
- Enhancing and
cross-checking
Publishing
- Short breaking news
- Real-time reporting
- Own videos
- Editorials
…
Monitoring of the
audience
- User Comments
- User
Recommendations
- Web Analytics
- Surveys
User Participation
- Reactions to editorial
content
- Engagement in the
editorial production
process
Monitoring of the
audience
- User Comments
- User
Recommendations
- Web Analytics
- Surveys
8

9. ► Uses of social media for user participation and audience
monitoring (in %, n=103, newsroom survey, 2014)
51
39
24
58
42
33
26
60
95
34
48
95
71
57
43
93
46
7
18
47
24
20
18
38
10
11
12
26
10
24
12
9
12
18
20,6
User discussions on articles written by editorial staff
Real-time interaction with the audience during the
programme (second screen)
Ongoing discussions with no relation to current news
User criticism of articles written by editorial staff
Transfer of photos and videos to the editorial staff
Participation of the audience in investigation tasks
(crowdsourcing)
Articles written by users themselves
Feedback on their own reporting
Twitter Facebook Google+ YouTube Blogs
9

10. 10
►Project 2: Audience inclusion in journalism
(Heise et al., 2013)
Case
studies
Fieldwork
Medium
Journalis1c
orienta1on
Rhythm
of
publica1on
Online
surveys
In-­‐depth
interviews
Aud.
Journ.
Aud.
Journ.
TV
newscast
Feb
13th
–
Sep
5th
2012
TV/
online
News
Daily
4.686
63
6
10
Poli1cal
TV
talk
May
21st
2012
–
Jan
16th
2013
TV/
online
Debates
Weekly
354
10
7
7
Supraregional
daily
newspaper
Feb
6th
–
Nov
20th
2013
Print/
online
News
Daily
525
139
8
10
Supraregional
weekly
newspaper
May
5th
2013
–
Jan
8th
2014
Print/
online
Debates
Weekly
344
10
6
6
 Reciprocity-oriented perspective: “looking on both sides” (Schmidt/
Loosen 2014)
 Comparing inclusion practices of journalists and audiences
 Comparing inclusion expectations of journalists and audiences

11. 11
%
Newscast
TV
talk
Daily
Weekly
All
respondents:
n=4.686
n=354
n=525
n=344
No
form
of
“acQve”
parQcipaQon
49,3
43,4
27,0
12,5
Call
the
newsroom
via
telephone
2,0
1,7
3,8
4,1
Audience
mail
(leVers,
e-­‐mails,
faxes)
18,8
26,8
23,4
22,7
Only
users
of
the
resp.
website/forum:
n=4.618
(98,5%)
n=229
(64,7%)
n=503
(95,8%)
n=321
(93,3%)
Comment
on
journalists’
arQcles/content
26,4
29,3
26,0
45,5
Recommend/bookmark
arQcles/content
18,0
10,5
46,1
-­‐
Take
part
in
polls
on
the
website
-­‐
48,0
49,7
43,0
Write
arQcles
in
the
community
on
freitag.de
-­‐
-­‐
-­‐
21,5
Only
users
of
the
resp.
Facebook
page:
n=334
(7,1%)
n=370
(10,5%)
n=41
(7,8%)
n=200
(58,1%)
Comment
on
journalists’
posts
34,4
32,4
41,5
53,5
Share/recommend
journalists’
posts
46,1
21,6
75,6
78,5
“Like”
journalists’
posts
50,0
35,1
65,9
78,0
►Participatory practices (selection) across
case studies

12. 12
1
2
3
4
5
Commentary
sec1on
Audience
mail
Facebook
Editorial
blog
(n=382-­‐390)
(n=35-­‐38)
(n=40-­‐41)
(n=43-­‐45)
I
do
[par,cipatory
prac,ce]…
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
M
SD
…because
I
want
to
bring
in
my
opinion
publicly.
4,15
0,92
3,30
1,18
4,10
0,92
3,98
1,01
…to
propose
certain
topics
which
are
important
to
me.
4,06
0,98
3,84
1,15
3,63
1,26
4,09
0,86
…because
I
want
to
learn
something
in
dialogue
with
others,
get
food
for
thought
and
expand
my
knowledge.
3,94
1,07
3,39
1,32
4,39
0,67
3,91
0,95
…because
I
want
to
share
my
experiences
and
knowledge
with
others.
3,77
1,04
3,40
1,06
3,66
1,09
3,76
1,09
…because
I
would
like
to
be
acQve,
not
just
a
viewer/reader.
3,75
1,10
3,51
0,87
3,76
1,07
3,93
1,07
…to
point
out
errors
in
videos
or
on
the
website.
3,20
1,229
3,59
1,26
2,93
1,17
3,14
1,05
…because
it’s
fun.
3,51
1,06
2,89
1,20
4,03
0,92
3,49
1,12
In
total
18
items;
5-­‐point
Likert
scale
with
1
“disagree
completely”
to
5
“agree
completely”
►TV newscast:
Motives for participating across platforms

13. Studying social media use requires a repertoire-oriented perspective
 Multichannel activity will need a meaningful combination of platforms
and the exploration of exclusive niches
 Further focus also on individual journalists and repertoires within a
single platform
 Emerging repertoires may vary in different areas of journalism
Studying social media use requires a reciprocity-oriented perspective
 Providers should consider how and with what motivations their
audiences engage with them via which channels
 Better understanding of different levels of audience inclusion and
platform affordances in the context of journalism
►Future research: Combining both frameworks in a diachronic
perspective to better understand the development of social media
repertoires and the co-orientation between producers and users
► Conclusion and directions for further research
13

14. ► References
Borger, M.; van Hoof, A.; Sanders, J. (2014): Expecting reciprocity: Towards a model of the
participants' perspective on participatory journalism. In: New Media & Society (online first). DOI:
10.1177/1461444814545842.
Hasebrink U.; Domeyer H. (2012): Media Repertoires as patterns of behaviour and as Meaningful
Practices: a Multimethod Approach to Media Use in Converging Media Environments.
Participations, 2 (9), 757–779.
Hasebrink U.; Popp J. (2006) Media repertoires as a result of selective media use. A conceptual
approach to the analysis of patterns of exposure. Communications, 31(3): 369–387.
Heise, N.; Loosen, W.; Reimer, J.; Schmidt, J.-H. (2014): Including the audience. Comparing the
attitudes and expectations of journalists and users towards participation in German TV news
journalism. In: Journalism Studies 15 (3), 411-430.
Lewis S.C.; Holton A.E.; Coddington M. (2014): Reciprocal journalism: a concept of
mutualexchange between journalists and audiences. Journalism Practice 8 (2): 229–241.
Loosen, W.; J.-H. Schmidt (2012): (Re-)Discovering the Audience: The relationship between
journalism and audience in networked digital media. Information, Communication & Society 15
(6), 867-887.
Neuberger, C.;Langenohl, S.; Nuernbergk, C. (2014): Social Media und Journalismus. Düsseldorf:
Landesanstalt für Medien Nordrhein-Westfalen (LfM) (=LfM-Dokumentation Nr. 50).
Schmidt, J.-H.; Loosen, W. (2014): Both Sides of the Story. Assessing Audience Participation in
Journalism through the Concept of Inclusion Sistance. In: Digital Journalism. DOI:
10.1080/21670811.2014.930243.