Many journalists use social media, not only as a source of information but as an outlet for their own work or that of the media they work for. One such social media outlet is the photography-based application, Instagram. This format whereby a user can accrue followers and share images and videos offers many opportunities for journalists in terms of sharing their output and related content. However, as a team writes in the International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning few studies have investigated exactly how journalists are using Instagram.
Tatiana Harkiolakis of The London School of Economics and Political Science, UK and Katerina Diamantaki of The American College of Greece in Athens, Greece, hope to help fill this gap with a study of how travel journalists perceive Instagram and how it has changed their professional lives, if at all.
There are two sides to the results that emerge from their survey of travel journalists. On the one hand, it is obvious that Instagram offers new opportunities for expanding a journalist’s professional network as well as being a useful research tool for finding new sources and trend-watching. On the other hand, travel journalists can also use Instagram to help them demonstrate their authenticity and build their own following among members of the public. In both regards, professional travel journalists are essentially competing for attention with amateur content producers and citizen journalists, such as travel bloggers, influencers, and the like.
“Instagram is becoming a platform of growing importance to journalists, especially amongst younger journalists who work for online media and for those focusing on photojournalism, and lifestyle journalism,” the team writes.
Much is yet to be done to understand how the world of journalism has and is changing in the new world of social media. Where journalists once focused on reporting and writing, there is an increasing urgency for them to gain additional skills, such as photography, to have technological literacy, and even an understanding of branding strategy. This, the researchers suggest, is increasingly important in travel journalism, where social media, visual aesthetics and public relations and advertising all play key roles in public consumption of travel-related content and tourism itself.
Harkiolakis, T. and Diamantaki, K. (2022) ‘The professional practices of travel journalists on Instagram: a generic qualitative study’, Int. J. Technology Enhanced Learning, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp.382–401.
No comments:
Post a Comment