Gender dynamics of German journalists on Twitter

Abstract

Women are underrepresented in many areas of journalistic newsrooms. In this paper, we examine if this es-tablished effect is continued in the new forms of journalistic communication, Social Media Networks. We used mentions and retweets as measures of journalistic amplification and legitimation. Furthermore, we compared two groups of journalists in different stages of development: political and data journalists in Germany in 2021. Our results show that journalists regarded as women tend to favor their peers in mentions and retweets on Twitter: while both professions are dominated by a massive number of men and a high share of men-authored tweets, females mentioned and retweeted other women to a more extensive degree than their male colleagues. In addition, we have found data journalists to be more inclusive towards non-members in their network compared to political journalists.