‘Organizational, professional, personal’: an exploratory study of political journalists and their hybrid brand on Twitter

Political journalists rely heavily on their occupational status and reputation. This article addresses how political journalists negotiate their standing and enforce their legitimacy on Twitter amidst the online environment that directly challenges them. So far, practice-oriented studies have only looked at journalists in general. Studies have also tended to investigate the content published to journalists’ Twitter feeds, neglecting other aspects of the Twitter profile that can affect the perceived image of journalists. This exploratory study examines the Twitter profile pages of 20 political journalists who work for the top broadsheet newspapers in the United States. It uses the conceptual framework of personal branding to identify patterns and trends of how and where political journalists actively communicate their presence on the platform. This process is delineated by three complementary and co-existing brand identities – the organizational, the professional, and the personal – as well as a digital media skills-based dimension that political journalists use to position their journalistic brand on Twitter. Findings suggest that it could be most appropriate to think of political journalists’ Twitter profiles as digital business cards or digital portfolios, deliberately crafted to differentiate the journalist and establish competitive superiority.