Who’s in, Who’s out?

This study utilizes interviews with 53 full-time digital journalists to understand how they construct their identity. With social identity theory as a framework, the study found that medium, organizational backing, and role conception represent characteristics essential to being a digital journalist (the in-group). While the journalists also identified blogging, social media, and citizen journalism as characteristics that, in some cases, exclude persons from calling themselves digital journalists (the out-group). These results are then interpreted through the lens of social identity theory.