Mediatized interdependency : Mediated interaction between journalists and politicians on Twitter

• The emergence of social media raises new questions concerning the relationship between journalists and politicians and between news media and political communication. A key trajectory in the relationship between news media institutions and political institutions is related to the changing practices of media production. The interconnections between journalists and politicians have been increasingly complex after the rise of political communication on and through social media platforms. Both politicians and journalists become dependent on factors that pertain to the communicative infrastructure and practices of social media. For example, communication on Twitter is characterised by high velocity, immediacy, and the public interactivity between politicians and journalists. This paper suggest that power relations between journalists and political actors are most fruitfully explored from the perspective of mediatized interdependency, where both parties are reliant on each other in order to get their work done properly. For example, the relations between politicians and journalists on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, could be understood as negotiation (Berkowitz, 2009) or as a struggle (Broersma et. al., 2013). However, the struggle is no longer so much about what ‘could’ be published, but about an on-going discursive battle that takes place in the digital public space. Political actors often make official statements through Twitter, where they ‘correct’ publications they consider problematic. When doing so, they become media producers, which, in turn, use journalism as source and vehicle for promoting their own agenda. Consequently, media logic in the digital era is not restricted to the ground principles of journalistic work, but to a much broader set of opportunities, available to political and commercial institutions in society as well as to the broader public. In order to empirically assess the concept of mediatized interdependency the paper draws on several examples of politicians- journalists interactivity on Twitter. 

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Medievetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Media Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

commercialization

journalism

sources

social media

Twitter

political communication

medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap

Media and Communication Studies

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)