Table Of Contents

Abstract……………………………………………………………………..

Literature Review………………………………………………………..

Individual, Organizational & Institutional Branding……..

Politics, Privacy, Personal Branding……………………………..

Celebritified Journalists…………………………………………………

My Tweets are not my Own............................................

How do Journalists Leverage Twitter……………………………….

Active Status of Journalists……………………………………………..

Celebrity Journalists……………………………………………………….

Involvement of Social Bots……………………………………………….

Building Your Pathway to Professional Success………………..

Engagement level on twitter…………………………………………….

Branding the self………………………………………………………………

Struggles of Virtual Self-presentation………………………………

Broadcasting or Networking..............................................
Abstract
Social media serves as a platform for personal branding where people update their profiles and
share content on daily basis to show their active status and this leads to fan following at a
larger (Gorbatov, N.Khapova, & I.Lysova, 2019) scale. By finding and joining different groups on
social media can also lead to strong personal branding which then helps individuals in
professional growth. Personal branding can open on to outcomes that are beneficial for career.
Different studies have indicated clear importance of personal branding which directly affects
the professional lives of the media personals. The formula (N=477) indicates the different
attributes of personal branding of two different cultures that are Western and Asian. Later the
results shows that aspects of career satisfaction and negative feedback to personal information
sharing and positive feedback to career persuasion personal branding all are the results of
personal branding. Hence the result highlights the importance of personal branding in achieving
the benefits in professional career. Everyday communication is mostly based n social media.
Not only a source of communication, social media also helped in personal branding too. The
excess use of social media and how strongly it impacts people Journalists are also more
interested in making their market value by their personal branding through twitter. This helps
them to serve as opinion leaders, news sources and increases their market worth. Through an
analysis by interviews of 12 different journalists it shows that how they manage to pass
information with publically self promoting themselves. Self promotion then helps in creating a
pathway of success for the professional lives of the media personals. (Brem, Todd,
Temmerman, & Broersma, 2016)

Twitter serves as a platform that allows people to create bonds with different people of the
society specially journalists use it as a tool to get fame and to flaunt their dominance and high
reputation within the journalists and among the public too. Social media like twitter allows the
journalists to show their image and gain fame too other journalists who are on initial stages try
to make good terms within their circle through their personal branding (Maares, Lind, &
Greussing, 2020). In Austria, tweeting habits of 365 journalists were studied which shows that
the high reputed journalists have homophilous tweeting habits and the new journalist only aims
to get visibility. Now a day’s social media serves as a stage for self promotion to people and
specifically twitter has become a personal branding platform for the journalists. A study was
conducted which explored 4189 Austrian journalists twitter accounts and it was found that they
use the site to show their own self more as compare to the areas they work for, the nature of
the profession or spreading information they promote their self more than promoting their
professional work (bruns & h, 2016), that can be their organization or institution they work for.
They prefer self promotion over professional promotion. Generally it is believed that all the
journalists are using social media very excessively as they are posting and responding people all
the time. They are posting news stories, giving opinions too but this is not actually true. The
usage time span and tweeting or posting habits of journalists differs from one individual to
other on the basis of their gender, age etc. The usage habits also differ on how the journalists
appropriate and adopt new technology. To study the difference a web survey was made in 2012
and 2014. The result of this study was that there was increase in adoption of social media in
both the years. (djerf, hedman, & ghersetti, 2016).

A study was made that revealed that the journalists use twitter and other social media
differently according to their job areas. The study was conducted on a UK city newspaper
employees and result shows that the sport reporter gather information and live stream on
social media the news reporters use their own twitter account to spread information likewise
all the roles in a job have different usage and purpose of social media. The main difference is
the use of twitter is very flexible it provides a choice to different roles what a journalist plays in
his or her job accordingly. (canter & brookes, 2016)

Personal branding is important because it brings out all the potential of a person. If you are
strong at personal branding the channels are willing to pay you more because they know at the
end of the day your influence will bring them ratings. So basically they value your influence. In
personal branding you are presenting yourself as a product. This includes everything how you
speak, your personal links and contacts, your daily routine, your social circle and the online
persona you carry. In short your personal brand is a polished and groomed extension of your
personality. Journalists infuse their personality in their personal branding by the captions they
write, their writing style, by the pictures they upload. You basically express yourself in the
digital world to make your personal brand grow stronger and also you need to stay much
updated to keep up the trends. (AakerD2017)

Literature Review
In recent times news anchors often struggle to grab the attention of their targeted audience,
because of massive increase of news channels. Social networking sites provide them a platform
for engagement, personal image and personal branding. Journalist use different tools like good
humor, daily life details, and personal activities. Moreover people like good entertainment
positive humor such skills helps in increasing twitter activity level. Journalist need to maintain
professionalism in digital media spaces. (Journalists social media, and the use of humor on
Twitter). These days if we look into someone life we will observe that people stick to certain
profession along with it they have many sideline things. People want to introduce themselves
not only by the profession they choose but also own their own terms. A Journalist invests in
creating a personal image by doing personal branding. At a time they are doing so many things
they are freelancers, entrepreneur and business owners. Twitter is a platform which is used by
all the journalist in the globe. Journalist on daily basis create content such as whom they met
today, what car they are using, their lifestyle, their shows just to keep their twitter account
active and create curiosity in people about themselves. They will purposely use controversial
statements, upload attention seeking picture to keep them in limelight and trending. Twitter is
radically revolutionizing the way news is distributed now the environment is competitive.
Journalist need to maintain very consistent approach to increase their social media aura.
Twitter is now a normal part of Journalism practice as this facilitates their reputation when
online traffic is interested in their personal image. People now except journalist to contribute
in the flow of online news flow of information as the Journalist are reliable source, because
with so many online news agencies available people cannot trust every source. To build an
authentic personal image media specialist need to build a personal connection through online
platforms in real times. Now Journalist is not bound to practice traditional journalism methods
they are well connected with their followers they are very much concerned about their online
connectivity. Twitter allows the journalist to become more visible and prominent than ever.
Personal branding is not only essential for their work but also a requirement for the sense of
connectivity. Many Journalists have now even gained the image of social media giants (Cara
Brems).

Individual, Organizational & Institutional Branding

In a technology dependent era today, we use social media in all aspects of life. From seeking
information to academic help social media also helps in the construction of online identity. Not
only online identity but personal branding is also seen on top. Personal branding is the most
commonly trick used by the journalists through social sites like twitter where they cash their
professional life as well as their personal life too. This is done by revealing their personal life
publically which includes the luxuries they afford and the news they break from their personal
accounts. According to the journalists personal branding is basically the disclosure of their
personal profiles and sharing what they do. This study is conducted to know what exactly
personal branding is in accordance to the media personals specially journalists through a
content analysis including the tweets and twitter profiles of the sample of 384 U.S. Journals.
This study is based on different levels of branding it can be organizational, individual and
institutional. Individual level is when a journalist show offs his individual self on social media.
Organizational level branding is when one is representing his or her news organization by
sharing news and promote their organization or one’s professional career at large level.
Whereas branding done at a large scale where other techniques of using social media relates
with journalistic branding is institutional branding. After analyzing the data the result shows
Branding is done widely on twitter by journalists. All three levels of branding are done but
individual and organizational branding is most often done. The technique used is organizational
branding is set as priority but actually personal branding is done behind the organizational level
(Holton & C.Levis, 2017).

Politics, Privacy, Personal Branding

New York Times issued new policies to their staff in late 2017. The new enlisted policies
clarified that whatever and how the employees use social media represents them as New York
Times organization. The use of social media whether is private or work related can affect the
organization in many ways. The employees should be unbiased in all ways they should not give
their political views or share any of their own opinions. So it is important for the employees to
be cautious while using social sites. It was also mentioned that everything on social media is
public in some extent so there is no privacy so everything shared and done by the employees is
related to The Times. A quick criticism was observed by a writer and technology observer
Mathew Ingram. He said that it is not possible for such a large organization to keep their
employees unbiased and it can be harmful for such organization to permit these sorts of
policies. An incident happened a few days before the Swedish elections in September 2018, the
head of election coverage was removed from her appointment in a result to when she likes two
articles written on the democratic party. So this is the point for what the journalists are not
allowed to comment or give opinion of any nature in public. Mathew gave another review that
the media outlet not only stopped the opinion out of journalists and their colleagues but also
created a barrier between the journalists and their public on social media while the journalists
and media persons of other organizations are branding themselves. A content analysis based
study of 129 elite twitter feeds of foreigners in China was put forward where the use of social
media and how journalists do foreign networking. The results showed that twitter is used as a
tool of networking as well as organizational branding and broadcasting. An interesting aspect in
the result of this study is that the foreign correspondents didn’t used their power to indulge in
personal branding practices (Christensen, 2018) .

Social media works as a platform where journalists and other media persons represent
themselves as well as their organizations. Journalists not only combine social media with their
professional work but also struggle to adopt best ways to constitute their personal and
professional image. A number of studies are made on this kind of representation and gave this
name of “branding”. Studies has also pointed that the change in trends of representation also
carries a shift of identities from personal to professional and vice versa identities. The pictures
and texts found on the profiles of journalists indicates their branding technique how they
represent their organization and their own identity. It is a branding approach that they apply on
their profiles with professional images like logos etc. findings has proved that journalists prefer
professional identity over personal and gives priority on sharing professional images over
personal on social media (Molyneux & E.Holton, 2017).

Celebritified Journalists
Twitter is the most commonly used social site by the media professionals. The ongoing situation
indicates that there no specificity between the professional journalists and other information
breakers because the journalists are more often busy in building their personal profiles instead
of promoting their organizations. In other words they prefer personal branding over
organizational branding. There is a high rate of using twitter for personal branding by
journalists. In this article 3 kinds of approaches are discussed that are used by the journalists in
personal branding they are Fame by Association, Assymetrical communication and
lifestreaming. The discussions concludes that the journalists introduce themselves as celebrities
thus celebrification is the most common aspect used in self promotion on twitter (Olausson,
2017).

My Tweets are not my Own!

There is a composite connection between the personal branding and online identity of
journalists. It is quite difficult for journalists to catch up their own expectations as media
personals as well as the public expectations on social media. Some of the journalists started
posting on twitter with a caption of “my tweets are not my own” in their profiles in this article
such journalists are called non representatives as they don’t represent themselves as a media
employee in that particular area. Further results shows that there are some types of brandings
used by the journalists, some of the common are professional self branding, corporate
branding, institutional branding and personal self branding. Hence the non representative
journalists use twitter in professional way whereas representative journalists share personal
content somehow. So it is proved in this study that journalists belong to a homogenous group
(Van Hove, Asdourian, & Bourgeois, 2018).

How do Journalists Leverage Twitter

There a study conducted to calculate the time spent on twitter by journalists and it is termed as
Twitter use Behavior. This study is based on a framework of theory of planned behavior (TPB).
This study not only discloses the time span of journalists and using habits of twitter as well as
the nature of tweets whether they are expressive or consumptive tweets. The expressive
tweets are the ones that journalists express or tweet on their feed while the consumptive are
the ones that are read by them. According to the framework of (TPB) there are three variables
positive attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. The further finding
revealed that the variables depend on the consumptive and expressive usage of twitter (Lee,
Sang, & Kim, 2019).

Active Status of Journalists

Ongoing social media active race has made everyone specially journalists to be active 24\7, but
this is really difficult for the journalist to stay active all the time and risking their professional
values and norms. Despite the professional pressure they try their best to fulfill their audience
expectations. There is difference in the habits of every individual do not all the journalists
remain active all the time so this study reveals that there are categories of journalists on the
basis of the usage of social media. The study finds out after analyzing the data that there are
some basic categories of journalists like skeptical shunners, pragmatic conformists and
enthusiastic activists. The difference in active status and use of social media depends on the age
and the work type of journalists as well as how they react towards their audience or how they
do branding. The result shows that there is clear difference between skeptical shunners and
enthusiastic activists (Hedman & Monika, 2013).

Celebrity Journalists
It is a little difficult to know that the audience is interested in what kind of content on social
media. To know what attracts the audience the most a study is done this calculated the most
replied tweets and most commented posts on facebook. This study was actually about what
attracts the online audience to the social media Outlets of celebrity journalist’s content in
Middle East and North Africa. The findings were dig out by analyzing top social media posts and
the result shows that 26.6% people interacted on personal posts of journalists, 26.5% replied
on sharing news and 20.7% replied on provided opinions. Further results shows that some
journalists reacted on trolls differently and other shared the local news. So the overall public is
interested in the personal content of the journalists (Al-Ravi, 2020).

Involvement of Social Bots

Social media plays a vital role in informing and entertaining the public. On spreading authentic
news and information, a spread of fake and misinformation is also noticed from past few years
and studies are conducted on this issue too. A lot of studies are made to know the authenticity
of information and participation of social bots. The participation and depth of journalists on
special media activities is very difficult to study because journalists are said to be the platform
and source of information. The number of followers of a journalists on social media or we can
say on twitter basically review the people who follows and trust the specific media personal it
can be in terms of news authenticity or fan following. A study on 290,000 twitter accounts was
conducted owned by the journalists. There are some direct readers of their tweets and as well
as some people who read and then spread the information too. With the presence of actual
news reporters and journalists we can also see the social bots and other people connected to
them. It is a great challenge for the media personals to win this battle by creating a large
number of actual followers. To find out the social bot involvement the followers of the
journalists were studied, and some verified and non verified accounts were found. The number
were found in the verified accounts and less number of bots in the non verified of bot
follower’s accounts which are not popular and has less following. It was found then that the
authenticity and image of a journalist cannot be proved by online popularity (Uluturk & Varol,
2020).

Building Your Pathway to Professional Success

Personal branding is one of the most common aspects used by professionals to make their
online identity and gather their audience. The technique of personal branding helps one to
create a large readership, viewership and strong bond between the professional and his online
audience. Personal branding is way of self examining and ways in which one portray one’s own
self online. There are six main features or steps that are followed in personal branding which
than leads to professional success. The steps include: Looking yourself with examining view,
Perception to the already existing brands, Create your brand motto, Lineup your physical
footprint, Convey your message. Ones personal brand is the image and repute of them and is
very important to meet the beliefs of the online followers (L.Philbrick & D.Cleveland, 2015).

Engagement level on twitter

Twitter is rapidly gaining attention because of its communication strategies and ability to run
communication campaigns. It is a platform that’s perfect for public relations and marketing. As
it offers two way symmetrical engagements in the form of arguments and discussions.
Journalist builds their personal image to promote one’s self. According to studies about
personal branding Journalist have to build up a broad profile of what they do and to maintain
the engagement they consistently upload their daily activities. There are different levels of
personal branding on twitter. Individual, institutional and organizational. Journalist prioritizes
each level according to the news and engagement they want to receive (How journalists engage
in branding on Twitter, 2017).Social Media has influenced many things and journalism is one of
them. In the past decade we have observed my Journalist moving to social media for everyday
communication. Digital Journalism is a new angle of Journalism. Twitter has also trigged the
means of production. A journalist is not bound now. Once they will receive news from a
trustable source they will prefer to break it on their personal account. This will highlight them
and make their account prominent in their audience. News casters are encouraged to make a
personal brand on social media. This is done for the benefit of both organization and Journalist.
Twitter is a great platform as it allows the Journalist to build a lucrative images of themselves
through which they can gain great deals of profit in the form of sponsorship and collaborations.
Twitter is a great platform to study these transformations of journalism and personal branding
because of its interactive features as it allows the user to extract all information in just 140
characters (Personal Branding on Twitter, published on 03 May, 2016)

Branding the self

When a journalist operates from his personal twitter profile the name and details are attached.
They are constructively building an image of their own. They attract the twitter audience this
attraction results in engagement of opinion hubs of people. The more engagement the more
market value a journalist will gain. It’s beneficial for the news organization or channel the
Journalist is linked with. This all make them appear highlighted among the media clients. This
personal branding brings them new opportunities such as collaborations, sponsored post and
they are paid heavy amount per post. To stay on the top line in the business of personal
branding the Journalist need to master the skill of engagement and connectivity (Broersma,
2017).The main purpose of the profile is interacting and sharing. But how well you do it how
well you arrange it on the platter and presents it other others is the most important part.
Whenever anything uncertain occurs it opens do door of social media traffic to attract new
readers and if they find. Through this networking they have the opportunity to show cast their
personal and professional life at same time. The format if personal branding indicates that
Journalist brand themselves as individuals rather than employees linked with certain
organization. Because branding is not only crucial for their work but also for their earning.
When looking into a deeper reason of personal branding its concluded that a Journalist
carefully construct his image on social media for their economic security as well as (Hedman 2. ,
2016)

Struggles of Virtual Self-presentation

You know it’s bad for you but it tastes so good, one of the interviewed journalists said while
comparing Twitter to a box of candy. To come to a better understanding of the virtual presence
and the personal branding of journalists on the micro-blog, all the interviewed journalists were
asked to compare Twitter to something they felt suiting. The answers varied from your personal
pub to a playground to “the new news wire. This illustrates the multi-functionality of the
platform and the different meanings it carries for various users. Not surprisingly, none of these
journalists directly acknowledged Twitter as a billboard or an easy way to brand the self. When
asked explicitly, the journalists often conceived direct self promotion as a negative and an
excessively assertive characteristic. They did, however, collectively recognize the benefits that
social media can offer to journalism as a profession: in the process of doing research contacting
sources and spreading work, social media have become a common, and to some even
indispensable tool. However when relating the findings of the content analysis with the self
perception of journalists in the interviews we found that they struggled with four dilemmas.
(MansellR&BeckettC)

Broadcasting or Networking?

When the changes in journalism practice brought on by Web are discussed, one development
always stands out: news organizations traditionally communicated in a one-way direction to the
audience but now have to cope with an interactive and in some cases even competing
networked audience. Interestingly, both the employed and the freelance journalists mostly
used @-replies. Using this type of tweet is a way to start a conversation with other Twitter
users, but also a strategy to be noticed by others because a @-reply will show up in their
notifications. Although the number of singleton is also high the journalists appear to use Twitter
more as an interactive platform to exchange information than to simply broadcast information.
Freelance journalists generally tweeted more than the employed journalists: they produced
60.4 per cent of the total number of tweets and they also produced more @-replies this might
have an economic incentive, as a freelance Dutch journalist indicated: You need to hold on to
customers. You see that people have questions about the beat. If you answer them they will
stay. They are just customers of mine so that is important. Since freelance journalists have to
ensure their own income they have to pay more attention to interaction with potential
customers. Conversely, employed journalists seem to be cautious that interactions might harm
their news organization (Digital Journalism, 2018)