Personalised Tweeting: the emerging practices of journalists on Twitter

This study focuses on an in-depth case study of regional news outlet the Bournemouth Daily Echo and the role of Twitter within its editorial team. It is based upon two comparative studies conducted in 2011 and 2013 involving interviews with reporters, photographers and senior editorial staff, a discussion of the company Twitter guidelines and a content analysis of 27 Twitter accounts. During the research timeframe Twitter use increased dramatically amongst journalists leading to a clearer set of emerging practices. The data suggests that types of Twitter use are diverse but routine practices are forming in the areas of news gathering and live reporting causing a shift in traditional gatekeeping and verification conventions. The notion that journalists primarily use Twitter to drive traffic to their legacy platforms is not supported but there is evidence of personal branding and journalists presenting a personalised - but not personal - account of their job via their tweets.