Social media posts as source for political news coverage inside and outside election campaigns: Examining effects on deliberative news media quality
Published in Journalism, 2024
Journalists increasingly cite and/or embed social media posts in news articles. While social media posts have been found to be of little deliberative quality, we do not know whether this also affects the deliberative quality of the news. Against the background of a hybrid media system and deliberative news media standards, we answer this research question with a content analysis of news articles including or not including posts from X (formerly Twitter) in the twelve widest-reaching German news websites prior and after the German general election 2021. The study uncovers an overall increase in the use of posts in political news coverage compared to previous research, with posts appearing more frequently during election periods than outside them, and examines the implications for deliberative news media quality.
Recommended citation: Oschatz, Corinna, Teresa Gil-Lopez, Dylan Paltra, Sebastian Stier, and Tanjev Schultz. 2024. "Social Media Posts as Source for Political News Coverage Inside and Outside Election Campaigns: Examining Effects on Deliberative News Media Quality." Journalism 25(8): 1638–1656. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849241231698
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