Journalists and bloggers. Professional identities and practices in food risk/benefits communication in Spain

Abstract

Roles and channels define professional identity in the web 2.0 environment and practices associated with topics and sources are constitutive of the roles and identities of traditional journalists. In our research, based on indepth interviews with 12 professional journalists, expert bloggers and hobby bloggers, we describe the difficulties faced by the interviewees when communicating food risks and benefits and discuss their relationships with topics and sources. Differences among and between these actors create distrust, yet what they share offers them new opportunities to cooperate. © 2014 Communication & Society.