Findings

Using the Hong Kong protests and subsequent political unrest in the region, we found the following to be true:

• 1) Discussions on chat apps have allowed reporters to develop rich multimedia sources of information, drawn from real-life encounters (e.g., with QR code function); chat apps can also provide private network communication, which is particularly useful in contexts of censorship and surveillance;
• 2) Protesters and, to a lesser extent, official sources used chat apps to communicate statements, notably on the dedicated media chat group which supplemented press conferences and printed releases;
• 3) For reporters who flew in and had little knowledge of the culture and language, “digital fixers” allowed them to navigate the muddy informational terrains of these mobile applications;
• 4) Journalists used WhatsApp (as the chosen platform) as a way to organize themselves both across and within news organizations;
• 5) Journalists faced similar challenges to those they already encounter in social newsgathering on open platforms—for example, verifying content and identifying echo chambers;
• 6) “Closed” networks emulate one-to-one newsgathering methods that used to happen over the phone or email. This is primarily because young, mobile people prefer these applications for their ease of use, or to combat issues around privacy and surveillance.

Our case study highlighted the ever-present tension between closed versus open social networks for newsgathering. While early social platforms pointed toward a potential newsgathering democratization on open social networks online, chat apps offer a counter-narrative: a more exclusive and closed way of newsgathering.