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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
the printed version of the information, provides other informative aspects and it relates
to whoever follows its tweets.
It is therefore not surprising that the former has no following but 55,000 followers and it
has issued 125,000 tweets, whilst the latter is less followed (a little over 35,000
followings) but it follows more than 33,000 and it has tweeted almost 20,000 times.
This latter is a less popular account, considerably more moderate in its tweets and with
a greater contact with its followers – messages and RT – which probably makes it more
influential according to the Klout Score.
It is worth mentioning that the 72 media analyzed have a logo or an image that is
characteristic of the institute, whilst 71% of them exclusively mention the name and
nature of the medium in their Bios, whilst 26% simply do not have any biographic data
at all.
Discussion and preliminary conclusions
Conscious that the analysis – even with the date provided in this working paper – might
be considerably harsher, we believe that at least what has been mentioned is sufficient
for beginning a debate along two parallel lines.
On the one hand, there appears to be a weak relationship in Twitter between journalist
and the specific medium where he/she works. Although it is true that some
professionals use the social network for promoting the products in their organizations,
there is no correlation between the influence wielded by the journalists and that of the
media they work for.
There does appear to exist, however, a much stronger relationship between the
influence of the journalists and the role – news programs – they play in their media and
which, as a matter of fact, is usually TV and/or radio. The journalist’s exposure would
appear to have more weight whilst working for a mass medium than his/her
participation in a given medium.
Secondly, Twitter is used by Chilean professionals in a limited way for reporting and
information. The most important use is in its origin and intention for conversations with
their followers, that are mostly colloquial.
This then means – and here is where we reach the final aim of the overall
research to which this working paper belongs – conducting an overall exploration into
the use of the social networks within journalistic work.
There does not appear, for the time being, to be a reflection by the institutions and the
professionals who belong to them – in Chile anyway – in relation to the correct use of
the social networks either as a source of information, a channel for own or institutional
means or a personal journalist-follower relationship.
There are valuable initiatives in this sense then, such as the Forum of Digital
Journalism that has been held annually since 2009 in Rosario (Argentina) and the
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