I don’t engage

Online communication and social media use among New Zealand journalists

Bibliographic Data

ID7478301
AuthorsTai Neilson (0000-0002-5109-5850, George Mason University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume19
Issue4
Pages536-552
Publication date2016-09-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-8849 • E-ISSN: 1741-3001
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1464884916667871
OpenAlexW2520369805
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited29

Social media, comment threads, and other means of online communication are important to journalists’ work processes, but expand their workload and pose challenges to their professional identity. The concept of ‘engagement’ is used by news workers in New Zealand to describe the role of digitally mediated communication in their work. Engagement deserves scholarly treatment akin to concepts such as ‘participatory journalism’ because it is employed by journalists to place professional and practical limits on online interaction. Their decisions about engagement are based on professional commitments, past experiences, and the allocation of time and resources. Journalists in newsrooms that are already understaffed and under-resourced are expected to take on new tasks; like other digital laborers, journalists experience the interpenetration of work and leisure and the incorporation of affective and unpaid work. News workers have an opportunity to develop best practices for engagement and determine how and when they should engage online

Citizen journalism · Digital media · Identity (music · Journalism · Media studies · Political science · Public relations · Social media · Sociology · Work (physics · Work engagement · Workload · Computer Science · Engineering · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics

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