Proceed With Caution : A Bourdieusian Study on the Journalistic Field, Digitalization and Social Media Use Among Swedish Metropolitan Journalists

Abstract: The aim of this study was to understand how Swedish journalists balance social media use with traditional journalistic ideals and journalism ethics in a context of increasing digitalization, in light of a number of journalistic profiles being criticized for sharing inappropriate content on their social media accounts. The study is rooted in Bourdieu’s field theory and the research questions pertained to how journalists, occupying different positions in the journalistic field, used and viewed social media in relation to journalistic ideals and -ethics as well as their news organizations’ social media policies. In order to answer the research questions, 12 in-depth interviews were conducted with Swedish journalists from five national publications. In the analysis, Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital, habitus, but also practical sense and hysteresis were used to analytically describe the participants’ social media use.   The findings indicated that the participants used social media frequently in their work, which could be analyzed as part of the field’s doxa. Yet, they used different strategies of risk management on their own social media accounts in order to protect themselves and their well-being as well as not risking going against journalistic ideals and their organization’s social media policies, e.g., by avoiding posting own content, separating professional and personal content on different platforms and not being private on social media. Due to successful risk management and practical sense in regard to social media use, the participants experienced hysteresis to a very low extent. Finally, the analysis concluded with a discussion on potential implications the study has on the field’s autonomy, in terms of increased audience interaction and strength of journalistic ideals, which was seen as both weakening and potentially strengthening autonomy.  Key words: Journalistic field, Bourdieu, field theory, social media, digitalization, journalistic ideals, Sweden, hysteresis, autonomy