Abstract

Social media like Twitter have become critical tools for public discourse and journalistic practice as they are assumed to enable equal conversations and engagement between different societal actors. However, recent studies have found that Twitter reproduces existing networks and hierarchies, indicated through homophily where dominant journalistic users with high symbolic capital tend to amplify and engage more with colleagues of similar symbolic status, which legitimizes their authority and dominance in the public sphere. Still, an in-depth understanding of how this manifests and might be rectified is lacking. To fill this gap, we explore the tweeting behaviour of 356 journalists in Austria, as social capital and personal networks are especially relevant to be recognized by peers. Our findings show strong homophilous tweeting behaviour for those with high professional reputation and for men. New entrants aim more towards gaining visibility in these tight-knit groups.

摘要

诸如Twitter之类的社交媒体已成为公共演讲和新闻实践的重要工具，因为它们被假定为能够促进不同社会参与者之间的平等对话和互动。但是，最近的研究发现，Twitter复制了现有的网络和层次结构，通过同质性表示，具有高象征性资本的主要新闻用户倾向于扩大具有类似象征性地位的同事并与之互动，这使他们在公共领域的权威和统治地位合法化。但是，仍缺乏对此现象的表现方式和纠正方式的深入了解。为了填补这一空白，我们探讨了奥地利356名记者的推特行为，因为社会资本和个人网络特别重要，需要同行的认可。我们的研究结果表明，对于具有较高专业声誉的人和男性，他们具有强烈的同志推文行为。新进入者的目标更多是在这些紧密联系的群体中获得知名度。