Insta-journalism : a thematic analysis of Ming Pao and SCMP Instagram accounts during the 2019 Hong Kong protests

Abstract

An intrinsic network of media is the picture of 21st century journalism. This is especially true for tech savvy youths, who now manoeuvre across different media platforms for content and news information. As social media becomes the norm for news sharing and consumption, the conventional journalistic practices that news media organisations still uphold can seem to be outdated. In the midst of a constant evolving news environment and restructuring of the media landscape, this study aims to examine the news media organisations’ own readaptation of the journalistic habits in the social media sphere, especially on the youth-oriented visual sharing platform, Instagram. For the purpose of this study, the Instagram accounts of two well-established Hong Kong news media publications, Ming Pao and the South China Morning Post were selected for analysis. Academic studies attributed that social media such as Instagram was a vehicle for students and youths to gather information about the Hong Kong protests in 2019. As such, the social and political event was chosen as context to illustrate how young users influence the editorial decisions of newsmakers on Instagram as they adapt to this new mode of news dissemination. Thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the Instagram data and semi- structured interviews with news practitioners. Three main themes were revealed which were choosing between soft and hard news content, influence of young users on post publication, and the positioning of news media outlets on Instagram. Research findings illustrated that editorial decisions on Instagram were motivated by the interests and demands of their audiences with much of the objective of their presence was for the purpose of branding, rather than for news dissemination. The study also highlights the way in which news publications utilise Instagram not so much as a proper news medium, but more as a marketing tool. The findings shed light to new forms of journalistic practices on social media with possible implications for future research.