Research Questions

To explore the impact of chat apps on newsgathering during cases of political unrest during and since the 2014 Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong, this report examines the following research questions:

• How and why did protestors and official sources use chat apps?

• How and why did foreign reporters use chat apps for newsgathering?

• How did foreign reporters use chat apps for internal coordination and information sharing?

• How have journalists embedded these processes into their newsgathering systems since the Hong Kong protests?

  The aim of this report is to understand how reporters have integrated chat apps into their coverage of political unrest. This report examines how a sub-section of foreign correspondents used chat apps to cover one particular type of story in one location, and assess the implications for journalistic practice.