Introduction: Understanding Social Media Journalism

Abstract

Now over a decade since the influential paper Understanding Social Media Logic by van Dijck and Poell was published, the total number, sheer variety and penetration of social media apps in everyday media consumption and production behaviour has exploded. This poses risks and opportunities for legacy media corporations as well as scholars attempting to make sense of the various affordances each individual social media platform offers to facilitate the production, dissemination and consumption of novel types of news content. Drawing on insights from the articles published in this special issue on the characteristics, constraints and contingencies of social media journalism, we seek to advance scholarship by challenging and expanding existing frameworks. We synthesise the current state of research and propose a research agenda for peers.