Social Media as Commodifier or Homogenizer? Journalists’ Social Media Use in Individualistic and Collectivist Cultures and Its Implications for Epistemologies of News Production

This study seeks to address two research needs in journalism studies. First, there is a need for research that situates political reporters' social media engagement as part of a broader investigation into journalistic epistemology, or what it means for these reporters to produce and validate information as authorized "knowers." Second, there is a need for cross-national comparative research that looks beyond Western contexts alone and does so using the strengths of qualitative research methods. This study thus explores the use of social media by political reporters in the United States and South Korea. Through interviews with 35 journalists, we show that social media practices create a different sense of knowing, which operates according to a work atmosphere that is culturally conditioned. We find that U.S. journalism's emphasis on exclusivity and individuality motivates reporters to orient social media use around producing unique news that no other reporter knows. Such emphasis on distinctiveness opens the door for honing their personal branding skills, ultimately leading to a self-commodification strategy. By contrast, in South Korea, with its long tradition of a collectivist-oriented Confucian culture, reporters treat social media as a more communal digital workspace that distributes news sources and information in an equitable manner.