Hybrid normalization of Twitter: Political journalists’ practices during the 2021 German federal election debates

Despite disruptions and challenges posed by social media platforms like Twitter, they have become normalized in journalists’ professional practices. At the same time, the normalization of Twitter for political reporting, where journalists tend to transfer established norms and practices to this platform, remains an underexplored research area in the German context. The study employs a quantitative content analysis of 588 tweets from 73 political journalists to investigate how political journalists use Twitter to report on the 2021 German federal election debates. Therefore, the findings add to the question of whether there is a hybrid normalization of Twitter by journalists where they follow traditional journalistic norms and practices while also embracing the platform’s new modalities in the digital age. The results indicate that German political journalists primarily focused on policy-related issues across the debates, with few personal comments. However, negativity, critical comments towards candidates and hosts, and direct quotes to maintain journalistic objectivity and accuracy are common. The study also finds that previously confirmed practices by journalists in the U.S. context, such as using humor or irony and meta-communication, are prevalent.