Refracting the Pandemic: A Field Theory Approach to Chinese Journalists' Sourcing Options in the Age of COVID-19. Issue 6 (3rd July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Shuling; Wang, Qiong
• Is Part Of: Digital journalism. Volume 10:Issue 6(2022)
• Page Start: 1115
• Page End: 1134
• Publication Date: 2022-07-03
• Subjects: China -- COVID-19 -- data journalism -- social media -- source -- platform -- WeChat -- Weibo; Online journalism -- Periodicals; 070.40285
• DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2022.2029521
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2167-0811

Abstract

Abstract: Building on theories of the journalistic field and its refraction effect, this article calls to attention the unique circumstances Chinese journalists have faced when sourcing during the outbreak of COVID-19. Based on 32 semi-structured interviews with local journalists from 20 media organizations across four large cities in China, our study investigates how journalists navigate multiple social media platforms and employ data-driven sourcing as complements to traditional sourcing practices. We find the disruptions caused by the pandemic have unexpectedly converged with the ongoing developments of platformisation and digital transformation in China. We also reveal the subtlety of the field's refractions of external shocks and structural constraints, as evidenced in journalists' sourcing practices amid the crisis. Variations in their navigation of multiple sourcing options, i.e., platform-swinging, giving voice to the data or the lingering effect of hysteresis, are identified as contingent on media type and locality, platform affordance and popularity, as well as practical sensibilities towards each sourcing option at their disposal. Expanding the wide-ranging field theory to China's specific social and political contexts, this study offers a valuable window to discern technology-induced changes and the field's refraction effect to external influences.