TITLE:
Journalism in 280 Characters: Examining Dominant Issues and Communicative Functions in the X Posts of Mainstream Journalists in Ghana
AUTHORS:
Rainbow Sackey
KEYWORDS:
Journalists on X, Digital Journalism, Hybrid Media System, Communicative Functions, Mainstream Journalists, Ghana
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.4,
April
27,
2026
ABSTRACT: The increasing prevalence of social media platforms has significantly transformed contemporary journalistic practices, altering how journalists gather information, disseminate news, and engage with their audiences. This study investigates the activities of mainstream journalists on X (formerly Twitter) by analysing the primary issues they discuss and the communicative functions their posts perform. Utilising Agenda-Setting and the Hybrid Media System theories, the study employed a document analysis of 873 posts from four selected mainstream journalists on X. The findings indicate that journalists’ posts predominantly focus on issues related to politics, economics, sports, and entertainment, with political and economic topics receiving substantial attention. Additionally, the study identified various communicative functions performed by journalists on the platform, including audience engagement, story promotion, content curation, personal branding, connection with sources, organisational promotion, advertising, and monitoring developments. Among these, audience engagement and story promotion were found to be the most prevalent functions. These results suggest that while X facilitates interaction between journalists and their audiences, allowing for hybrid roles beyond traditional reporting, it concurrently reinforces journalists’ agenda-setting influence by enabling them to spotlight specific issues and direct public attention within networked communication environments. The study concludes that the use of X by journalists illustrates the ongoing integration of social media into professional journalism within a hybrid media ecosystem where traditional journalistic norms coexist with platform-driven communication practices.