Seventeen Years of Journalism and Social Media Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

Social media and journalism studies hold a prominent place in the communication field. The growing number of social media users and expanding sphere of influence have riveted scholars to journalism and social media research. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the research on the relationship between social media and journalism in mass communication. Against this backdrop, this study aimed to examine social media and journalism-related research in international academic publications using bibliometric analysis to determine its typologies over the years. For that purpose, publications on the relationship between social media and journalism were accessed between January 2007 and June 2023 in journals indexed in SSCI, SCI-Expanded, AHCI, and BKCI-SSH on the Web of Science (WoS) database. The study employed RStudio’s “Biblioshiny,” developed for bibliometric analysis, and the “VOSviewer” package program. Results indicated a growing number of studies on journalism every year, with most studies conducted in the communication field. It was also found that Digital Journalism had the most publications and citations, while “social media” and “journalism” were the most frequently used keywords. Results are expected to illuminate social media and journalism and guide prospective studies on the relationship between the two fields.