ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways in which social media are adopted in journalistic practices, contributing to the debate about the extent and nature of the changes in the profession. It focuses on specific patterns of use or particular platforms, and seeks to explore social media adoption holistically, identifying four key features: hybridity, convergence, changing relationship with the audience, and fragmentation. The chapter provides analysis of each of these features and discusses their implications. The analysis shows how social media use is inherently diverse and how it has contributed to an increasing complexity of journalists' work, where hitherto distinctive platforms, processes, elements, and norms are mixed and blended. A mixed methodological approach is applied to provide a theoretical contribution to the study area supported by empirical data. Research on social media and journalism has received increased attention in academic literature. Social media have been widely adopted by journalists and over a relatively short period of time.
