Mastering Metrics: The Impact of Social Media on the Routines and Values of Broadcast Journalists

Abstract

Social media use is essential for success in today's television news industry. Broadcast journalists use social media platforms to gather and disseminate news in more efficient ways. Broadcasters are also using social media to engage with news consumers in innovative ways. This study employs a mixed-method approach to better understand how social media impacts broadcast journalists’ routines and values and explores the role of gender in broadcasters’ social media strategies. Qualitative in-depth interviews with top broadcast journalists and a social media discourse analysis of their Twitter pages produces this study's findings. Findings suggest that in many television newsrooms social media have become more important than traditional platforms like evening newscasts, and social media metrics are being used to gauge journalists’ success. Additionally, women broadcasters are disadvantaged by the current social media practices in many newsrooms. Implications are discussed.

Keywords

Broadcast dimensions of journalism gender new media/social media news format

Social media use is ubiquitous in modern-day newsrooms. According to a recent survey by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), the use of Instagram and Facebook is almost universal among television newsrooms, with most broadcast journalists also using Twitter regularly (RTDNA, 2021). News consumers are following suit, using social media platforms to get and share the news at growing rates. In total, 74% of all Twitter users say they use the platform for newsgathering purposes (Pew Research Center, 2017), and more Americans now get their news from social media than from print newspapers (Pew Research, 2018).

As such, expertise in social media is one of the keys to success in the news industry. Top broadcast journalists are expected to be active on social media around the clock, in addition to performing their traditional newsgathering duties, placing more pressure on already strapped journalists. However, there are hegemonic structures in place in newsroom culture that limit who can perform on social media and in what ways; specifically, female journalists find themselves at a disadvantage in the current system.

This study employs a mixed-method approach to investigate how social media are impacting broadcast journalists’ routines and values. Additionally, this study explores how gender influences broadcast journalists’ social media metrics, specifically audience engagement. Qualitative interviews with broadcast journalists in top markets along with a discourse analysis of their public Twitter accounts lead to findings that offer valuable insight for both communications scholars and professionals.

This study fills an important gap in the literature on journalists’ use of social media. While there is a small collection of insightful research about this topic, most studies, justifiably, employ one method to produce findings (Adornato & Lysak, 2017; Coddington, 2018; Lamot et al., 2021). The mixed-method approach of the current study will allow for a multidimensional exploration that provides unique insight into the topic at hand. Additionally, there is a lack of research addressing gender as a factor in journalists’ social media use. This study acknowledges the important and overlooked influence gender has on journalists’ social media metrics, especially the ways in which women are disadvantaged by the current system. Finally, social media platforms are constantly changing, thus journalists’ use of social media is constantly changing, so it is critical to keep research on this topic updated and current. This study provides up-to-date data on this important topic.

Literature Review

Journalists’ Social Media Use

Recent research alludes to the growing importance of social media for journalists. Social media are important parts of journalists’ daily newsgathering routines, as they are used to gather information, monitor sources, and develop story ideas (Powers & Vera-Zambrano, 2018). However, each social media platform also fulfills unique needs. Through a survey of U.S. journalists, Santana and Hopp (2016) found that journalists tend to use Facebook to survey friends and conduct research on newsworthy people. Twitter, on the other hand, is used to survey audiences and contact potential sources for stories. (Santan & Hopp, 2016). Instagram is also becoming more popular, with staff in nearly every television newsroom using the platform for their work (RTDNA, 2021).

Social media metrics are becoming keys to the success of modern-day journalists. Tandoc and Vos (2016) found that journalists are recognizing the value of audience engagement on social media and using these platforms to market news stories to larger audiences. However, increased audience engagement leads to increased instances of online harassment. Through a survey of U.S. journalists, Lewis et al. (2020) found that online harassment is pervasive among journalists, but does not affect all journalists equally, with women and broadcast journalists taking the brunt of the abuse.

Women journalists have endured sexism for decades (Finneman & Jenkins, 2018). However, the explosion of social media has subjected them to more frequent, personalized, and immediate forms of harassment (Everbach, 2018). Through qualitative interviews with broadcasters, Miller and Lewis (2020) found that women face gender-specific online abuse, including disruptive in-person harassment, physical in-person harassment, online unwanted sexual advances, and online threats and criticism. Chen et al. (2020) produced similar findings from their own qualitative research, arguing that most of the abuse women journalists faced was sexual in nature and based on misogynistic ideals.

Gender influences how audiences judge and receive news messages (Grabe & Kamhawi, 2006); message reception and audience persuasion are important for journalists on social media. Weibel et al. (2008) found that gender not only influenced audience perception of the credibility of the newscaster, but also the credibility of the news message itself. Through a controlled experiment, Brann and Himes (2010) found that male newscasters were perceived as being more competent and credible than female newscasters when delivering the same message. Mudrick et al. (2017) studied this effect in female sportscasters. They found that the lower perceived credibility of female sportscasters was in part due to audiences’ gender-role stereotypes and sexist attitudes (Mudrick et al., 2017).

Chaiken (1980) found that people were more likely to be persuaded by a message if the source had positive characteristics, regardless of the information being presented. Source characteristics, like authority, credibility, and social attractiveness, are important for journalists. Perloff (2003) argued that we as a society have been socialized to respect and obey authority figures like journalists. According to Karlsson (2011), “Journalism is a profession that claims authority in its field and traditionally does a great deal of work within a private or non-public sphere, then delivers the results in public” (p. 280).

Credibility is another important source characteristic for message persuasion (Heesacker et al., 1983). Jahng and Littau (2016) argued that social media platforms might influence how audiences make judgements about credibility. That is, audiences may look for different cues from journalists on social media than on other media platforms. The researchers found that journalists who were more interactive on Twitter were perceived as more credible with audiences (Jahng & Littau, 2016). Journalists can emphasise their credibility on social media by answering audience questions, responding to comments, and even posting additional photo or video material about news stories to keep audiences engaged and informed.

According to Perloff (2003), socially attractive communicators, who are perceived as either likable or physically attractive, are equipped with the tools for successful persuasion. However, social media have complicated the concept of social attractiveness for journalists. Journalists must decide whether to present a professional self, a personable self, or a combination of the two (Schultz & Sheffer, 2012). Some journalists even create two distinct social media accounts on the same platform: one for professional use and one for personal use (Bossio & Sacco, 2017). However, the ability to skillfully combine the personal and the professional seems to be a key element to success. Hedman (2017) found that journalists used a mix of their professional and personal identities to promote their social attractiveness on Twitter. Findings suggested a possible movement toward the ‘de-professionalization of journalism,” defined by Hedman as when “personal, and even private, attributes are valued more equal to more strictly professional attributes” (Hedman, 2017, p. 15).

Based on the aforementioned literature and gaps in the literature, the following research questions were formulated:
RQ1: How are social media impacting broadcast journalists’ routines and values?

RQ2: How do gendered source characteristics impact journalists’ social media metrics?

Method

A mixed-methodology approach was used to address this study's main research questions. Both in-depth interviews and discourse analysis of Twitter were conducted in an effort to answer the research questions. Research shows that Twitter is one of the major social media platforms used by broadcast journalists (Muck Rack, 2019; RTDNA, 2021). In-depth interviews were conducted to understand how broadcasters of each gender perceived audience interaction. A discourse analysis was then conducted to explore how gender impacted these interactions on Twitter in a more tangible way.

Sampling and Recruitment

Convenience and snowball sampling were used for this study. The first author's contacts were utilized to recruit broadcast journalists as interview participants. Interview participants then referred to other potential participants. To be included in the sample for this study, participants had to be working in one of the top 12 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) and be active on social media. Broadcasters who work in top DMAs are regarded as role models in the industry, thus strongly influencing journalists in lower markets. The exclusivity of the participant sample also adds to the uniqueness of the study. A detailed discussion of DMA structure follows.

According to Nielsen, a DMA is “a group of counties that form an exclusive geographic area in which the home market television stations hold a dominance of total hours viewed” (Nielsen, 2013). DMAs are ranked by the total population of the geographic area, and so their rankings tend to change slightly on a yearly basis. According to Nielsen, the top 12 DMAs for the 2018–2019 television season are New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington, DC, Houston, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Tampa.

Participants

Eleven women and nine men were interviewed for this study. All participants currently work in a top 12 DMA as broadcast journalists and are active on social media. Years of experience ranged from four and a half to 30 and all participants had worked in multiple DMAs over the course of their broadcast careers. The names of each participant have been changed and identifying information has been removed.

In-Depth Interview Protocol

In-depth interviews were conducted to investigate the social media strategies used by broadcast journalists. Qualitative methods provide unmatched access into the lives of people that simply cannot be obtained using other methods. Qualitative in-depth interviews, specifically, use the power of discovery and curiosity to produce new, innovative, and impactful knowledge. McCracken (1988) argued that “the long interview is one of the most powerful methods in the qualitative armory. For certain descriptive and analytic purposes, no instrument of inquiry is more revealing” (McCracken, 1988, p. 2). The long interview allows the researcher to see the world as others see it and experience it as others do (McCracken, 1988).

Oral consent was obtained before the start of each interview. Each interview was conducted via telephone and audio recorded, and permission to record the interview was obtained from participants. Each interview lasted between 30 and 45 min. The protocol consisted of mainly predetermined questions, but the semistructured nature of in-depth interviews allowed room for flexibility. While the provided protocol was followed, impromptu changes were made to the questionnaire as the conversations developed and progressed in different ways.

After the interviews were completed, the audio files were transcribed. The audio files were subsequently destroyed. The transcriptions were stored and will be kept secure in a Box account with controlled access.

Discourse Analysis of Social media

A discourse analysis was conducted to explore how journalists’ social media strategies played out on Twitter. The analysis of social networks is a multidisciplinary methodology that has its roots in ecology, anthropology, and sociology. According to Prell (2012), its goal is to understand the role of social networks, their complexities, and their interdependencies in societal structures. Understanding how these social networks contribute to societal structures can help researchers understand how they can contribute to societal problems and then hopefully find solutions to these problems (Prell, 2012).

As part of this mixed-methodology project, a discourse analysis of social media networks was also conducted. For this study, Social Feed Manager software was used to collect tweets from all 20 of the broadcasters who participated in the semistructured interviews; broadcasters were aware we would be using their tweets for research purposes. Audience engagement was measured by analyzing journalists’ “most favorited” and “most retweeted” tweets as well as audience commentary. Twenty of the best performing tweets in each of the two categories were analyzed, resulting in a discourse analysis of N = 800 tweets, along with their associated responses and attributes.

All the tweets collected were public, as to abide by Twitter's privacy policies. A discourse analysis of social media networks was conducted as a way to better situate the data collected through semistructured interviews. Some elements of the Tweets, such as names of specific people or places, were retracted to protect the identities of the participants in this study.

After the tweets were collected using the Social Feed Manager, they were loaded into an Excel spreadsheet. Each tweet had a unique identification number with the following information included: Twitter username, tweet URL, text of the tweet, link to associated media (i.e., photo or video), favorite count, and retweet count.

Using the journalists’ interview responses and the previous literature as a guide, a focal coding schema was created for the social media discourse analysis. The coding schema is detailed in Table 1.

Table 1.
Discourse Analysis Coding Schema.

Coding category Description

Gender of journalist Male/female

Media type Video/photo/text

Tweet subject Self/other person/object

Type of news Hard/soft

Self-branding strategy Credibility/authority/social likeability

Findings

Social Media Reigns Supreme

Research shows that social media is becoming more important for both news consumers and news producers (Pew Research, 2018; RTDNA, 2021). The increased value of social media engagement is changing how broadcast journalists approach their jobs and how newsroom management measures journalists’ success. As such, RQ1 asks: How are social media impacting broadcast journalists’ routines and values? Data from the qualitative interviews provide valuable insight into this question.

The overarching theme among the qualitative data is that social media now reigns supreme. What started as an add-on to traditional broadcast newsgathering is now the main focus for many broadcast journalists. Greg said, “I think the future is social media. I think social media has changed the game for news. I think people by and large tend to consume their news in 140 characters or less.”

Broadcast journalists understand that their audience is now online, causing a shift in focus from the traditional evening newscast to social media platforms. Josh said, “In many ways, what we’re doing on social media is the information people are getting. I don’t think they have to tune into 4, 5, 6, or 11 [o’clock newscasts] to get their news.”

The popularity of social media among news consumers is changing how journalists approach their daily routines. Instead of starting their day by listening to the police scanner, calling community contacts, or sifting through press releases for story ideas, broadcast journalists now start their workday before they even get out of bed. Kara said:

Twitter is the first thing I check when I wake up in the morning. It's wild because it is the first thing you check, not just to find out the pulse of what’s going on, but also to find out official information.

Amy agrees, saying she also begins every workday on social media.

I’m one of those people that social media is first. Honestly, these days, it is a part of my job in every sense of the word, from when I wake up in the morning to when I go to sleep at night.

Broadcast journalists use social media platforms to formulate story ideas at the start of their work routine. However, they also use social media platforms at the end of their workday to share their stories and get audience feedback. Tiffany said:
Obviously social media is the biggest thing out there right now. And so, it matters for us, especially in the station, to get as many likes and retweets as much as possible and to put that story out there. And so that's number one.

Newsroom management has placed high emphasis on social media success. They’ve updated newsroom policies and procedures to reflect the importance of social media. Jim said, “[My station] has a serious guide, a 54-page manual, to social media news coverage and delivery.”

Other newsrooms have social media policies outlining specific goals that must be met each day. Sarah said, “[Posting on] Facebook is like twice today and Twitter is six times a day so there is definitely like a hard rule, and it is definitely highly encouraged.”

Scott echoed this point, noting the high priority social media holds with newsroom management.

Social media is the subject of probably half the emails I get from my managers. They spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on social media and if we’re not posting stuff on there, we get reminded throughout the day.

Several broadcast journalists also noted a newer phenomenon taking hold in newsrooms: ranking journalists on their social media engagement. Not only are newsroom managers regulating how journalists use social media, but they are also determining journalists’ success in the newsroom based on their social media metrics. Tiffany said:
We’re not only looking at like TV ratings now, but we're also looking at social media ratings as well, you know, how did I do compare to the other reporters in the station? How did Fox do compared to ABC or CBS? It's checked like every single day. We have a ranking system.
Liz said her newsroom also ranks reporters on social media engagement.

They look at the engagements, they’re looking at … how you’re ranking, you know, its analytical data that's showing where you are in the charts. So, it’s part of the job. So you have to do it. You know, it shows your reach. It shows how many people are following you, it shows, that people are interested in what you’re doing.

Josh recalled the same pressures in his newsroom.

We’re tracked every day on the amount of engagement. So we have literally, we have people tracking how many times a day we’re tweeting. For our station, it is a minimum of 15 tweets a day, a minimum of two Facebook posts a day.

Social media have changed the routines and values of broadcast journalists and become the way success is measured in newsrooms. Peter summed up his thoughts on social media by saying:

Social media is a game changer. It always will be. It allows us to do so much more as journalists, reach so many more people, both with our stories and in order to get stories, that any journalist before us has ever done, that any generation of journalists before us has ever got.

Gender and Audience Engagement

During the qualitative interviews, every journalist noted the importance of engaging on social media, but women seemed to share common experiences that differed from those of their male colleagues. And so, RQ2 asks: How do gendered source characteristics impact journalists’ social media metrics? Data from the discourse analysis of social media provides evidence.

Source characteristics play an interesting role in the social media metrics of broadcast journalists. Data from the social media discourse analysis show that tweets that emphasize authority and credibility performed better among audiences when the journalist was a man. Meanwhile, tweets emphasizing social likability performed better among audiences when the journalist was a women. Specific examples are outlined below.

For the purpose of this study, engagement metrics were measured by retweets and likes. Male journalists received the most retweets when the topic of their tweet was “hard news,” like crime, politics, and extreme weather. For example, one of the most retweeted male tweets was “Sorority sex scandal: The university employee at the center of an FBI investigation has resigned” and included a mugshot of the alleged perpetrator. Another highly retweeted male tweet was “Cocaine, crack, and an AR-15 found in the home of a preschool teacher, who police say was running a big time drug operation” and included mugshots of the suspects. Audiences also highly retweeted this male tweet: “#BREAKING [criminal] pleads GUILTY to misdemeanor charges related to false rape case on the first day of jury selection. Will spend 1 year in prison plus probation,” which included a photograph of the criminal in court.

The most “favorited” male tweets were also about hard news topics, but additionally, they focused on other people or objects rather than the journalist himself. For example, one of the most favorited male tweets was “BREAKING: [rapper] sentenced to 2–4 years in state prison for probation violations” and included a video of the rapper walking out of court. Another highly favorited male tweet was “HAPPENING NOW: [governor] is voting right now. Heavy crowd here in spite of pouring rain” and included a video of the governor at a polling place. Audiences also highly favorited this male tweet: “Awakened by what has to be a sizable #earthquake. 15th floor of high rise building in [city] shaking for 10 s.”

In these examples, and across the most successful male tweets in general, the male journalists showed the source characteristics credibility and authority. The male journalists displayed credibility by including a photo or video of the hard news story. Including photos and videos of news stories makes it difficult for audiences to doubt the credibility of the journalist and of the news information. The “breaking” and “happening now” signifiers used communicate to audiences that the reporters are on the scene and getting a first-hand look at what is occurring.

Male journalists also showed authority. All of the information and photos in these tweets were exclusive information that is not openly available to the public. Although each state has its own laws on public information, police reports and mugshots are typically not easily accessible to the general public. Journalists, however, have the expert knowledge and professional authority to gain access to this type of content. In this regard, sharing mugshots and information exclusive to news professionals reifies the male journalist's authority.

Hard news tweets, however, did not perform well for female journalists. Instead, the most retweeted tweets by female journalists focused on “soft” news topics like charity, lifestyle, and feel-good stories. For example, of the most retweeted female tweets was “The unveiling of Selena's star!” noting the unveiling of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for deceased pop star Selina Quintanilla. Another highly retweeted female tweet was “Teddy is high-fiving the players as they make their way onto the court” and showed a little boy giving high-fives to an NBA team. Audiences also highly retweeted this female tweet: “This” with a heart eyes emoji. It included a photo of a pregnant NFL fan naming her son after the team's quarterback.

Additionally, female journalists’ most favorited tweets were about the journalist herself. For example, one of the most favorited female tweets was “It rips at your heartstrings, reminds us we’re all in the thing called #life together and we can ALL be friends. Only the best for this show. I give [the play] #FiveStars” and included a photo of the female journalist and her boyfriend at a Broadway show. Another highly favorited female tweet was “Ringing in the #NewYear engaged! Could not be happier to be marrying my best friend” with a photo of the female journalist, her engagement ring, and her new fiancé. Audiences also highly favorited this female tweet: “[football team] takes the win! So happy I was able to come out to enjoy the game with family!”

While the most successful male tweets emphasized credibility and authority, the most successful female tweets emphasized the source characteristic of social likeability. Female tweets that performed the best with audiences were about soft news topics or about the personal life of the journalist herself. These differences can be important implications for the success broadcast journalists’ social media strategies, especially considering the high importance of social media engagement in newsrooms.

Discussion

This mixed-method study explores broadcast journalists’ use of social media through qualitative interviews with broadcasters in top markets and a social media analysis of broadcasters’ Twitter pages. Research questions focus on how social media metrics impact broadcast journalists routines and values, and how gendered source characteristics influence audience engagement.

Findings suggest that social media are more important now than ever, not only to individual broadcasters, but to newsroom management. Social media engagement is the most critical part of many broadcast journalists’ daily work routines, with many broadcasters starting and ending their workdays on social media. In fact, to some, social media content is more important than the content produced for traditional news platforms like evening newscasts and station websites. Mastering social media metrics is a make or break skill for today's journalists. Newsroom management is also placing high emphasis on social media metrics, with some even ranking their staff weekly on social media engagement. These rankings can influence the career trajectories of broadcasters in top markets.

This study found that gender influences the success of journalists’ tweets with audiences. Specifically, women journalists in this study were more successful when they tweeted about soft news or their personal lives, emphasizing social likeability. Male journalists in this study were more successful when they tweeted about hard news like crime and politics, emphasizing authority, and credibility.

These findings show the profound impact of social media on the routines and values of journalists. The shift in emphasis from traditional newsgathering techniques to social media engagement could endanger the integrity of the news industry. If journalists care more about social media metrics than anything else, perhaps they will be more drawn to covering stories with the potential to “go viral,” rather than topics with informational value but no entertainment value.

Previous research suggests that women journalists are pigeon-holed into covering “traditionally female story areas” like features and human interest (North, 2016, p. 360), and the current findings suggest that is still the case. At least, audiences react more positively to women journalists when they cover soft news topics like those. While social media had the potential to break sexist gender norms in the news industry, it seems these digital platforms only served to reinforce these norms in new ways. Social media have great power for change, but findings of this study suggest they are instead being used to keep things the same.

Limitations and Future Research

Although considerable thought was invested in the planning and execution of this study, there are limitations that should be noted. While these limitations should be discussed, they do not invalidate the findings of this study. Rather, they should be used to better understand the findings and inform future studies.

There were methodological limitations in the recruitment of the participants. Industry contacts were used to start a snowball sample. Because of this, all of the participants are indirectly linked socially and professionally. “Cold calling” through e-mailing random top 12 broadcasters was originally used, but the response rate was extremely low. Perhaps having a more random sample would have prompted different results.

Additionally, measuring audience engagement by likes and retweets is only one-way audiences can engage with journalists online. These measures were the ones that were publicly available to the researcher and able to be collected for data analysis, however, it still can be considered a limitation of this study.

Social media are so unique because they are constantly and rapidly changing. Even within a matter of months, new media technologies emerge while others lose popularity. Future research should continue to examine the latest media technologies and their impacts on the broadcast news industry to keep the gap between theory and practice as small as possible.

Coding category	Description
Gender of journalist	Male/female
Media type	Video/photo/text
Tweet subject	Self/other person/object
Type of news	Hard/soft
Self-branding strategy	Credibility/authority/social likeability

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biographies

Stefanie Davis Kempton is an assistant professor of Communications at Penn State Altoona. Her research agenda focuses on gender and the media, social media, and applied journalism. She received her PhD from Penn State University.

Colleen Connolly Ahern is an associate professor of Advertising/Public Relations in the Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University. She is an expert in the area of applied communication research. She received her PhD from the University of Florida.

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