ABSTRACT
Journalists have managed Twitter as a communicative space that is more personal and autonomous than their media activity. In particular, they have felt freer to express personal opinions and, to a lesser extent, offer details on their professional day-to-day lives and disseminate content generated by other users. Twitter opens up the public discussion played out in the news media to new sources such as pressure groups, activists and social movements which can counterbalance the more regular institutional sources. Additionally, Twitter is routinely used by journalists to reach out to newsmakers or their community of followers, or to give a sneak preview of a forthcoming news article. They also retweet information from the Twitter network. Scholars have also expressed fear that the engagement on Twitter that benefits journalists by drawing them closer to their readers may occur at the expense of appearing less objective.
