New Media and Journalism: Assessing the Twitter using Patterns of Journalists

. This study examines journalists’ Twitter using patterns and its relationship with attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control based on personal usage and professional usage. Twitter has become an important tool for journalists, not only for personal usage but also for professional usage. It provides a platform for fast communication. A quantitative research approach is deployed, and a survey of professional journalists (N=411) was conducted. The results of the survey indicate that Twitter using patterns of journalists have positive relationships with attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control. Resumen. Este estudio examina el uso de patrones de Twitter de los periodistas y su relación con la actitud, la norma subjetiva y el control de comportamiento percibido basado en el uso personal y el uso profesional. Twitter se ha convertido en una herramienta importante para los periodistas, no solo para uso personal sino también para uso profesional. Proporciona una plataforma para una comunicación rápida. Se implementó un enfoque de investigación cuantitativa y se realizó una encuesta a periodistas profesionales (N = 411). Los resultados de la encuesta indican que los patrones de uso de Twitter de los periodistas tienen una relación positiva con la actitud, la norma subjetiva y el control conductual percibido.


Introduction
During the past decade, there has been a transition in journalism practices due to the technological shift from traditional to modern mediums i.e., social media. Source generation is a daily practice among journalists but there are certain standards to be met or criteria to be developed for the professional practice of journalists. Critics argue that media initially generated one-way communication and produced messages irrespective of the audience thus building a communication gap but current media has replaced all these traditional methods leading towards interactivity with the audience (Chung & Nah, 2013;Schultz, 1999). This interactivity among the audience and journalists through modern means is giving rise to new professional practices of journalism.
The role of journalists to create fresh and updated content has left behind the older traditions of journalism where journalists had to wait for the official press release of organizations before posting content in the newspapers. Using traditional sources for information has become outdated since social media has taken over, where news breaks within seconds (Lewis et al., 2008). With this comes the responsibility of the journalists to make the sourcing credible enough but the criteria of creditability are yet to be developed because not much is known about social media sourcing (Erika & Renee, 2021;van Dijk, 2000). Various sourcing methodologies used by the journalists are following, monitoring, entering queries, monitoring trends, browsing news, posting news stories to gather new stories, networking, reading comments, and as well as question and answer sessions. These sourcing methodologies are utilized to collect various types of opinions, facts, events, news stories, user-generated content and most importantly to interact with their audience in real time. After gathering information from various sources comes the role of the journalist, where certain questions may arise such as: how professional are they? What are the criteria of professionalism? What are the ethical practices on the basis of which journalists evaluate the news? On what basis do the journalists evaluate the news stories?
The current media is all about the notion of professionalism. The impact of social media is so great that is now controlling the field of journalism, converting it into multi-channel communication (Daniela & Giuseppe, 2021). Twitter has become an influential medium for journalists to source stories, hence affecting traditional media practices. Twitter journalists have been provided with a platform where they possess the option of interactivity to obtain information and communicate, discussing thoughts and opinions (Lee et al., 2015). Therefore, as per some scholar's social media, especially Twitter is responsible for framing the role of journalists (Lawrence et al., 2013;Lee et al., 2015).

Significance of the Study
Trained professional journalists spend years on rigorous training sessions, professional education, and various philosophical values which are a trademark of the profession of journalism. Current media is all about social media and professionals from all walks of life who are making full use of the available mediums to make their voices heard. Twitter is the most active medium used by professional journalists to gather news stories, interact with the audience, and various other modes of interactivity.

Literature Review
The advancement of technology in conjunction with virtual interactions has made it very easy to access information. With the advancement in technology, the role of journalists has seen a major change in the last two decades (Picard, 2014). During the late 1990s, the role of journalists has grown specifically concerning social media. Speaking of current age media, social media is used as a means of news delivery, two-way communication, and most importantly creating content for journalists to be used for sourcing (Broersma & Graham, 2012). The rise of social media has left behind the traditional forms of sourcing that journalists used to practice previously. This interactivity among the audience and journalists through modern means is giving rise to new professional practices of journalism. Moving forward with leaving behind the traditional forms of media, the credibility of the news sourced has come into question, since everyone can post on social media which gives rise to unverified, fake news sometimes. The article aims to talk about how journalists make use of social media for sourcing.

Twitter
Living in the contemporary world, social media has grown in the means that it has helped marketers and have created strong impact and is responsible for creating awareness which further have induced and increased the purchase behaviour via effective communication (Coulter & Roggeveen 2012). Maintaining social media presence is the effective strategy for branding in technical world and build relationships with their consumers. As per Lipsman et al. and a few other researchers (2012) two-way communication going-on on social media platforms is the key point for connecting both producers and consumers Social media platforms specially, Twitter which is known as a micro blogging platform enhances the credibility of various brands publicly. Twitter allows the users to post text-based content of about 140 characters knows as "tweets" via various gadgets and applications available (Naaman, Becker, & Gravano 2011;Thelwall, Buckley, & Paltoglou 2011). The main agenda behind using this microblogging platform is to disseminate various form of content, can be in textural or visual form (Smith, Fischer, & Chen 2012). Among all social media platform available, Twitter outshines in engaging the audience and broadcasting the content, hence it is the only platform that has progressed into providing credible source of information (GlobalWebIndex, 2013). This can be very well explained that how brand products excelled in posting their brand comments, also seeking information about these brands via other people, other than that, comments on daily activities remained on the low side.

Social Media and News
The advancement of social media has led to considerable changes in the media landscape. Internet specifically has made social media bypass all those traditional modes of transferring information and direct communication with each other (Steve & Raymond, 2014). Social media has become an integral part of life, especially for journalists where they can have one-to-one interaction with their audience. News has now been associated with social media, also a requirement on daily basis (Hermida et al., 2014). Social media specifically, Twitter is responsible for "Technical Infrastructure", an important part of news production from where journalists can monitor, weave out various stories, respond to the audience, and copy each other for content (Paulussen & Harder, 2014). Many researchers argue about social media playing the role of social sensors (Sakaki et al., 2010), specifically Twitter, as the source of breaking news of earthquakes and natural disasters or any news in general (Nic, 2009). Most studies have analysed more than one functionality of Twitter. The journalists must possess the know-how of operating at multiple levels since social media have changed journalistic activity from a single channel to multiple channels. Moreover, the use of social media, specifically Twitter is applicable and suitable in all phases of new production. Taken together by both social media and journalists, journalism is reaching a higher level of complexity (Neuberger et al., 2018).

Journalists on social media
The use of information found on social media has become an integral part of the journalism practice. Various research has confirmed that the use of online sourcing is fast replacing the old traditional means (Hermida, 2013;Paulussen & Harder, 2014;Taylor, 2014;Vis, 2013). However, this combination of both traditional and new media has brought about new challenges for journalists. Speaking of challenges, one of them is the technical skill of the journalists to verify online sources to avoid the anonymity of the news being sourced in the production of stories in journalism (Bakker et al., 2013;Schifferes et al., 2014). Examining and investigating the credibility, complexity, interdependence, and transformative potential is essential to journalism. As per research, media messages that emerge from credible sources are considered to have more and stronger impact on citizens, and media organizations that make use of their trusted sources are considered to grow more economically (Druckman, 2001;Hovland & Weiss, 1951;Kruikemeier & Lecheler, 2016). In a broader perspective, credibility is directly related to media trust as one of the essential factors of democracy, most importantly the role of media within that democracy (Kruikemeier & Lecheler, 2016;Tsfati & Joseph, 2003). Talking about the current era, evidence shows that information from both traditional or offline news media and new media are evaluated from a different perspective (Chung et al., 2012). Social media being the most powerful tool these days is helping journalists and due to this fact, online news travels faster and unfiltered than other mediums (Kristensen & Mortensen, 2013).

Theoretical Framework: Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)
The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) is an addition or an extended version of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Martin & Icek, 1975). TPB suggests that the changing behaviour of the people is determined by the goals and targets that reframe the behaviour and that specific intentions are influenced by three factors: (1) attitude toward that behaviour in question, (2) subjective norm, and (3) perceived behavioural control that refers to perception of the people in regard to the ease or difficulty of performing a certain behaviour of interest (Ajzen, 1991). TPB tends to predict and explain the behaviour of people the way people adapt to new technology, like blogs (Yonghwan, 2011), instant messaging services (Yaobin et al., 2009), and Internet banking (Shumaila et al., 2010). Individual's attitude and behaviours towards the adoption of technology be it internet-based, scholars have concluded and found a positive prospect that includes the attitude of people towards technology like, such as mobile Internet services (Per E, 2005), smartphones (Jihyuk & Yoonmo, 2013), and e-learning (Hung-Pin, 2008). Various research from the past tends to support the vigorous roles about attitudes that play a vital role in explaining individual intentions and predicting certain behaviours and also explain the reasons for the adoption of certain behaviour (Namkee, 2010;Tai-Quan et al., 2012). Journalists seem to be careful and perceptive to the organization they are working for, their fellow journalists in evaluating the way journalists tend to cope up with the new technology e.g., in setting up journalists' blogs (Yonghwan, 2011). Hence this is the reason that led the authors of the study to implement and adopt the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) instead of the Technology of Acceptance Model (TAM), the other reason is that TPB widely explains and predicts the behaviour of people in accepting information technology. Talking about journalism and journalists is specific, their interests and norms are one of the reasons to re-shape and affect their intentions to adopt the ways the blogs are managed by them (Yonghwan, 2011). Subjectivity and personal interests play a critical role in the adoption of a certain behaviour because of the limited space, non-flexibility, and the various constraints journalists face to reshape media companies. In this study, the researcher has assumed that subjectivity refers to "the perceived social pressure to perform or not to perform the behaviour" (Ajzen, 1991), which plays a vital role in the amplification of individuals adopting a certain behaviour. Perceived behavioural control is a phenomenon that not only explains one's ability to be able to operate new technologies (internal perceived behavioural control), also includes various other factors that are required i.e., available time (external perceived behavioural control). The abovementioned factors are considered critical the way people tend to adopt certain behaviours (Tai-Quan et al., 2012). Ajzen (1991) concluded that perceived behavioural control tends to affect directly, the way people use new technology. It is perspective, if people are strongly inclined towards new technology, they may not be able to adopt it without the required skills, resources (e.g., time), and sense of control are not available (Yaobin et al., 2009).

Hypotheses
The Theory of Planned Behaviour argues about the relationship of four variables. Three of them as independent variables: 1) "Attitude", 2) "Subjective norms", and 3) "Perceived behavioural control". Behaviour is considered to be a dependent variable. Following the directions of TPB, based on all the variables, three hypotheses are developed.
• H1: Journalists' positive attitudes will have positive relation with Twitter and its usage. • H2: Journalists' subjective norms will have negative relation with Twitter usage. • H3: Journalists' Perceived behavioural control will have negative relation with Twitter usage.

Methodology
This study employed a survey of professional journalists who are working with news organizations and have direct influence over news content (Matthias & Max, 2021). 500 journalists working in 11 news organizations were contacted via email for the study, however, 411 journalists completed the survey. The survey was conducted between October 20, 2019, and December 18, 2019. The questionnaire formulated for this research addressed the hypotheses to have insight into journalists' perceptions about using Twitter and how they utilize the technology for their professional activities. A pilot test, to check the accuracy of questions and their wording, was conducted on 51 journalists before the finalization of the questionnaire.
A review of relevant literature has provided bases for eight questions for the survey using a 5-point Likert scale to examine the attitude of journalists toward using Twitter (Hernández-Fuentes & Monnier, 2020). Three factors have been emerged after the factor analysis with varimax rotation (eigenvalues > 1.0). The first factor was characterized as "Twitter in Newsroom," the second factor was "Training for using Twitter effectively," the third factor, "Twitter engagement" (table 3). The literature review suggested three subjective norms: 1) "family and friends", 2) "co-workers", and 3) "organizations" (Lee et al., 2017). Six questions were developed to examine this variable. The first factor in this category was labelled as "feedback by family," the second factor was named "feedback by friends," and the last factor in this category was termed as "feedback by coworkers" ( Table 6). The literature review guided the current study to six questions to measure internal pressure and external pressure (Lee et al., 2017). Two important factors have been labelled after the factor analysis with varimax rotation (eigenvalue > 1.0) indicated: 1) "internal perceived behavioural control" and 2) "external perceived behavioural control" (Table 4). To examine the Twitter using patterns of journalists this study used two major categories 1) "Personal Use" and 2) "Professional Use". Prior studies guided to development of ten questions to be asked in the survey to investigate personal use and professional use of Twitter. Factor analysis with varimax rotation was used (eigenvalue > 1.0) to measure the two factors (Table 8).

Validity and Reliability
Initially, face validity of the questionnaire was examined. Three authors of this study and two more independent researchers have conducted a detail examination of the data collection tool to finalize the face validity, however, a statistical test of Pearson's Correlation Coefficient (2-tailed) test was also applied using SPSS to establish the validity of the data collection tool. Questionnaire has 27 questions and used Likert scale to collect the responses. Pearson's correlation coefficient value (r) of every question was compared with the critical value (0.097824) of Pearson's correlation table at p-0.05. All the questions had r value below the critical value except question 18, which had r=0.09975. Overall results of the Pearson's Correlation Coefficient test show that the questionnaire has statistically significant validity. Reliability of the questionnaire was also examined by applying Cronbach's Alpha test on SPSS (Table 1). The output value of Cronbach's Alpha was 0.89, which shows that the tool is statistically reliable.

Results and Findings
The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) guided in developing the hypotheses of this study. The first hypothesis is about the positive relationship between attitudes and Twitter using patterns of professional journalists.   Table 3 presents Cronbach's Alpha outcome values of behaviour and Twitter using pattern as personal use (α = 0.84) and professional use (α = 0.89). Outcomes of the test indicate the tool for measuring behaviour and twitter using pattern is reliable.   Table 5 depicts the results of Pearson's partial correlations as H1 was supported. Journalists with more positive attitudes are more likely to use Twitter for both their personal and professional activities. The table shows a positive relationship between attitudes toward Twitter and journalists' using patterns of Twitter. In this study, attitude has three indicators; 1) Twitter in newsroom for personal usage (r = 0.280, p < 0.001), Twitter in newsroom for professional usage (r = 0.490, p < 0.001), 2) need of training for effective personal usage (r = 0.310, p < 0.001), and need of training for effective professional usage (r = 0.485, p < 0.001), 3) engagement in personal activities (r = 0.272, p < 0.001), and engagement in professional activities (r = 0.390, p < 0.001).  The second hypothesis of the study predicts the negative relation between subjective norms and twitter using patterns of journalists. Results in Table 7 show that H2 was not supported as subjective norms and Twitter using patterns of journalists were found to have positive relation. Family's subjective norms for personal usage (r = 0.320, p < 0.05), family's subjective norms for professional usage (r = 0.220, p < 0.05), friends' subjective norms for personal usage (r = 0.210, p < 0.05), friends' subjective norms for professional usage (r = 0.380, p < 0.05), and co-workers' subjective norms for personal usage (r = 0.220, p < 0.05), co-workers' subjective norms for professional usage (r = 0.410, p < 0.05).  The third hypothesis of the study deals with the negative relationship between Twitter using patterns and perceived behavioural control. Results in Table 9 show the negative relationship between the two variables, so, the hypothesis was not supported by the findings. Perceived behavioural control has two indicators 1) internal perceived behavioural control for personal usage (r = 0.232, p < 0.05), internal perceived behavioural control for professional usage (r = 0.342, p < 0.05), and 2) external perceived behavioural control for personal usage (r = 0.190, p < 0.05) and external perceived behavioural control for professional usage (r = 0.360, p < 0.001).

Discussion
Twitter is a medium used for broadcasting content and has increased journalistic practice and that too in a good way. The results indicate the reliance of journalists on Twitter and its usage daily for their professional work as well as for personal activities. This study is designed to examine the professional use of Twitter in journalistic practice and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TBP) guided the study where the behaviour, attitude, and subjective aims and objectives were studied, and hypotheses were framed and tested. There is a substantial statistical connection between the diversified use of Twitter and journalistic practice. Results show that the journalists with more positive attitudes are more likely to use Twitter for both personal and professional activities. The table shows a positive relationship between attitudes toward Twitter and journalists' using patterns of Twitter. Twitter is providing a window to journalists into what's happening in the world, and that is the sole reason that some of the most active and verified Twitter accounts belong to journalists. In the current time, news often breaks first on Twitter, and everyone from various media outlets to reporters often uses Twitter to update the public on breaking news. This clearly states that how journalists are moving from traditional to new means of breaking news and how Twitter has influenced the way news and the content is broadcasted. Twitter is responsible for enhancing journalistic performance, interactivity on both personal and professional levels, also building up the credibility of the journalist. This clearly illustrates how much time journalists spend on Twitter while working on a story idea which shows the professional usage of Twitter in journalistic practice. It also establishes the fact that Twitter is a reliable source amongst journalists. The second hypothesis of the study states the negative relationship between subjective norms and Twitter using patterns of journalists. Results show that H2 was not supported as subjective norms and Twitter using patterns of journalists were found to have positive relationships. Subjective norms and attitudes have a link, and these factors tend to influence the Twitter usage of journalists. Various characteristics of Twitter have some influence on journalism and how journalists gather material for their news stories. One important aspect of Twitter is that with the increase in the use of Twitter, there has also been an increase in the content journalists post to maintain their presence on media. The results of the study clearly show that almost all journalists rely on Twitter in one way or the other for the gathering of news stories and maintaining their persona on Twitter and hence verifying one of the supporting of the study. Professional journalistic use of Twitter is concerned with the promotion and publication of the content whereas some use it for sharing of information, interacting, and sourcing, etc. Almost all the journalists, want to be tuned in to the latest information and perspectives coming from contributors, colleagues, and people of interest. Maintaining lists are an important aspect for source for keeping abreast of what trusted sources are Tweeting about, from colleagues to contributors from a specific field. For newsrooms, Lists can be a great way to increase followers for all their related accounts, including staff journalists. They can also be deployed around a particular story or even breaking news coverage and hence enhancing the credibility of the journalist. Twitter has developed its credibility and trustworthiness. Most reporters use Twitter for their work and spend quite some time on Twitter for gathering ideas, sourcing, and communicating with their audience. This interaction can be in the form of comments, messages, tweeting, or retweeting. According to the results, almost half of the respondents are engaged on Twitter while working in the newsroom, simultaneously collecting ideas for their news stories. Twitter has become the preference of working journalists' accuracy over speed of Twitter. This clearly shows the professionalism of working journalists who always prefer the accuracy of the story rather than the fast spread of the story. Twitter is responsible for creating a shift from traditional to contemporary journalism practice. As per the results of the study, most of the respondents believe in conducting training sessions to be fully aware of the utility of Twitter. According to the survey, journalists believe in the training sessions to be able to fully operate Twitter. It has become a platform where journalists can grow exponentially and in the contemporary world, it has become a necessity for journalists to be able to operate their Twitter accounts and actively respond to the audience. But Twitter is not as simple as it may seem, it's not intuitive of how journalists make use of it.
Attitude leads to the change in behaviour and is the driving force. Attitude and external pressure tend to control the behaviour, and this is the reason the third hypothesis states a negative relationship between Twitter using patterns and perceived behavioural control. It may be used as a self-promotion tool, an easier way of sourcing stories, or a way to engage the audience. This study clearly states how important Twitter has become in the field of journalism and how professional journalists are making use of it for their professional growth and development. Twitter has shown that at times public seems to be the best source and lead for information that journalists can use in their stories after verification. It is also helping the audience to get their questions answered regarding certain issues. Twitter, an interactive communications medium, offers certain features through which journalists can directly interact with the audience and answer their queries. If a journalist can move seamlessly between various modes of engagement, this will lead towards the enhancement of his journalistic practice and increase credibility. One of the limitations is the character limitation, Twitter only allows to post 140 characters per tweet, which on the part of journalists is very less, at times journalists fail to convey the message. On the other hand, the other limitation of Twitter is the blocking of the account at the expense of followers.

Conclusion
This study investigated the Twitter using patterns of professional journalists in their daily life. Theory of planned behaviour guided to develop research questions and hypotheses. Social media can be used for both personal purposes and professional purposes. This study argued that with positive attitude, productive and effective use of Twitter can be enhanced. Positive attitude can be developed through constructive feedback by family members, friends, and colleagues. Attitude controls human behaviour towards anything. This study examined the two types of behavioural control as internal and external. Behavioural control plays an important role in journalists' Twitter using patterns. Twitter may block the account on its own after being monitored for unlawful behaviour, which again on the part of journalists isn't good as they have maintained and gained a certain number of followers and built-up credibility over a certain time. Talking about the contemporary world, where technology has taken over and social media is on hype, in this regard Twitter is acting as a communicating tool that is helping journalism and journalists vigilant towards their job. Twitter is improving journalists' capability to evaluate content, gather news ideas and form opinion via interacting with the audience while broadcasting their content. Twitter regarding journalism, mostly journalists are of the notion that twitter is a credible source as they gather news ideas from Twitter, hence highlighting the importance of twittier in journalists' circle. Twitter has replaced the old traditional journalists practice by fast spread of news, therefore an effective platform and an important gadget for journalists. Journalists gather news ideas form Twitter, clearly showing the importance of twitter in the profession of journalism, this interaction of journalism and audience via twitter shows how well the newsroom environment is synchronised and the results of the study clearly show how journalists rely in Twitter for broadcasting the content. Social media platforms specially twitter is responsible for crowdsourcing in terms of providing content ideas, interactivity, two-way communication, information and most importantly providing real time information to the people in the race of breaking news. Twitter in contemporary times, is providing users and consumers to interact directly, hence creating a bond and splitting the barrier between both the audience and journalists. Publication of the content and information sourcing appears to be the most obvious reasons for journalistic activity on Twitter.

Limitations
Data collection, in the early stage, looked a bit difficult as researchers had limited access to the professional journalists. It would have been better if they contacted via phone call instead of email. After the analysis, it was observed that "motivation, journalistic agendas, Twitter activities, and relational satisfaction", such potential factors have not been examined in the present study. The above-mentioned factors might show the inclination of a journalist towards a certain political party, other factor is the pressure from the organization and specific agendas of a journalist. Limitation of methods and measurement scale was also observed. The scale used in this study was 5-point Likert scale, which should have been 7-point Likert scale for better measurement of journalists' attitude and behaviour toward Twitter. For future prospect, researcher can investigate these variables.

Implications
This study would help to develop better understanding about Twitter using patterns of professional journalists. It can also provide ground for media organizations to develop social media use policy to facilitate journalists to work more efficiently.