Social Media and Professional Development: A Study Among Journalists In J&K

Abstract

Living in times when both professional and personal are all coming together on one platform, with the growing number of social media platforms, journalists, too, are assumed to be using social media platforms for both professional and personal use. Research in the past suggest that professional identity on social media is formed out of  four things- subject expert, social media guidelines by organization, freedom and spontaneity. The aim of this study is to dig deep into journalists’ use of social media platforms, more specifically, to build their professional identity by interviewing selected journalists from J&K. This research helps in gaining more perspectives of journalists from both public and private media on the subject through qualitative interviews. The results of the study indicate that most journalists use only one or two social media platforms, mainly Facebook and Twitter followed by other platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram. Social networking sites attract professional journalists from across the globe and with the growing demand for mobile news content, engagement between journalists and their international reader is also on the rise. Considering this expansion, a journalist could be benefitted by presenting his/her identity in a way that is more truthful to help serve their profession and themselves better. Results also show that journalists are careful while sharing both content and identity on social media platforms as compared to users with no journalism background and feel that social media has made their job more difficult and challenging.