Abstract
Much recent literature in journalism focuses on its intersection with social media, evidencing changes to the epistemological news production process, distribution and re-distribution of news, as well as the relationship between journalists and their audiences. Since 2011, several studies have emerged that witness the importance of examining not only journalists in news organizations but also the technologists. This timely book by Belair-Gagnon addresses all of these issues by means of a comprehensive analysis of how diverse actors have shaped the use of social media for crisis reporting at the BBC. The book explicitly sets out to examine ‘how journalists use social media, the ways in which social media have transformed BBC journalistic practices and relations with audiences, and how journalists and audiences articulate this new logic of communication in crisis reporting’ (p. 3).
Belair-Gagnon mainly conducted her qualitative fieldwork in 2011, but her retrospective examination explores how social media practices at the BBC have evolved from 2005 onwards. She provides worthwhile accounts of how the journalists at the BBC have approached crisis reporting and social media during several strikingly important international crises. Her discussions of these cases are impressively rich in detail, combining references to various sources aside from the interviews conducted. The crisis case studies are examined in chronological order – from the 2004 Asian Tsunami, the 2005 London bombings, the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the 2009 Iranian elections, to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Collectively – and altogether – they reveal patterns of both change and stability. For each crisis that is reported, the BBC reinforces as well as further develops its approaches to social media. Belair-Gagnon notes that following the Haiti earthquake in 2010, social media had become quite integrated into BBC journalism. During this time, she discusses how the BBC World Service Director Peter Horrock gave a keynote address to BBC staff in which he declared ‘Tweet or get sacked’.
The book has both shortcomings and merits. The main shortcoming concerns a lack of empirical and scientific context. It would have been preferable for the author to have included a more thorough discussion of – and comparison with – how things were at the BBC prior to 2005 (empirical context). Similarly, a review of extant literature on the emergence of social media practices at other news media organizations (scientific context) would have helped to situate this case study in relation to other developments. Moreover, Belair-Gagnon states she makes her analysis through the lens of ‘media logic’. However, there is limited discussion of this theoretical lens and little in-depth discussion in relation to the findings.
This book also has many merits. It documents a shift from when BBC journalists made occasional use of user-generated content (UGC) towards a more active approach for identifying and appropriating useful UGC through social media, as well as institutionalizing the BBC College of Journalism and revising their editorial policies. Belair-Gagnon notes that this non-linear process of integration ‘was – and remains – the result of new information technologies ushered in by the UGC Hub, social media trainers, senior managers and a selection of influential journalists’ (p. 57). She concludes that this ongoing process has been marked by renegotiation in the shaping of technologies, policies, norms and practices of news reporting.
The book sheds light on pivotal crisis events in the world. It truly unpacks the emerging roles played by social media in journalism inside a world-renowned public service news publisher. It also provides insight into how journalists – with and through diverse social media – reformulate their relationships with their sources and their audiences. A true merit of this book are the detailed descriptions of how BBC journalists turn to distinct social media to obtain information updates and to contact their sources, which range from collective blog efforts in Mumbai, a crowdsourcing map Ushahidi used after Haiti earthquakes and the central role of Twitter. A recurrent problem is the difficulty of verification through social media, which results in journalists mainly relying on people or institutions with which they are already familiar. Belair-Gagnon discusses four criteria used to evaluate sources in social media, meaning they apply old methods and ideals, and turn mostly to institutions and people with which they are familiar. Consequently, ordinary citizens are less likely to act as sources compared to professionals or the elite.
Ultimately, by demarcating the citizen’s contributions to UGC, and giving priority to other sources on social media, the relationship between journalists and citizens has not changed as substantially as it “possibly could”. That is not to say such a possibility is desirable from the viewpoint of either the journalists or the citizens.