Twitter have been widely adopted in newsrooms over the last number of years and it has become an integral part of the journalist toolkit, write Bahareh Rahmanzadeh Heravia and Natalie Harrowerb. Their new article investigates the adoption of social media into journalistic workflows, journalists’ attitudes towards various aspects of social media, and the content and perspectives generated by these online communities.

The study is based on a national survey of social media use in Irish newsrooms. It was conducted in 2013.

Findings suggest that the full adoption of social media as one amongst many available sources of news is in a transitional phase. According to the study, journalists have integrated social media to in all areas of their journalistic work, but they state that it cannot be trusted, even when the information on social media comes from known or authoritative sources.

The article is published online by Information, Communication & Society. Find the article here.

Picture: Blue + Bird by John Verive, licence: CC BY-SA 2.0