From humorous skits on TikTok to the recently popularized infographic on Instagram, we take a look into the journalists adapting to online storytelling, from sharing the personal and professional, and how some have found success as internet personalities and how others have become the targets of vicious online attacks.

Everything is digital. Throughout the last decade, there has been an undeniable shift in popularity from print news to online media outlets. Journalism has been transformed. More and more journalists and media makers freelance and contribute to a wide array of websites and online periodicals. The industry has changed and so with it, the culture and practices. It’s no longer enough to simply be a good writer, you have to have the internet presence to show for it. A digital footprint is now a part of a professional portfolio. Are you able to promote the work you do? Does your work easily translate into a TikTok? An Instagram post? We look at three popular social media platforms and the journalists utilizing their internet presence to tell stories and bring their work to life online.

The summer of 2020 was a reckoning for the U.S. and beyond. The coronavirus pandemic was in full throttle while people took to the streets, marching for justice throughout cities all across America. A contributing factor to the widespread unrest was the incendiary power of social media. Artists and writers, especially Black creators, took to Instagram to educate the masses, creating the popular “infographic”, an easily-read, aesthetically-pleasing, shareable series of slides with explainers on what was happening and how the public could help. Some detailed the specific cases of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor, others were more focused on general anti-racism education. The infographics were accessible and could be shared on users’ Instagram stories. They easily spread all throughout Instagram. Because of their powerful and shareable nature, the sharing of infographics has become the norm in movements toward awareness and calls for justice. Who are the people behind the infographics?

Eda Yu, @edacyu on Instagram, is an arts and culture freelance journalist whose work can be found on Vice, Billboard, and Complex. Her work centers around uplifting marginalized voices and highlighting stories focused on communities of color. With a growing audience of over 7,000 on Instagram, Yu is one of many activists using their platform and background to educate through social media. For her, posting on Instagram was a natural choice for sharing her work. “I've always been passionate about educating through my writing, through my reporting and creative work as well. I've always shared my published articles and poetry on my Instagram, and that naturally progressed into writing directly for posts on Instagram since it was an accessible and direct way for people to engage with my work” says Yu.

Yu’s work on Instagram centers around the promotion of Asian American culture and issues and recently more specifically around the rise of hate crimes against the Asian American community. Yu’s campaign “Protect Our Elders, A Call to Action Against Anti-Asian Violence” amassed a wide range of support from Instagram users. The slides document a timeline of attacks against Asian Americans, a list of ways to help the community, and a comprehensive collection of donation links. The post garnered over

150,000 likes, more than Yu’s following, due to people sharing on their stories and own Instagram pages. Her campaign was able to reach its goal in a week. Through the use of art and research, Yu educated, fundraised, and was able to reach an audience outside of her normal following. As a journalist utilizing the power of the Instagram infographic, Yu feels that “using the social platform to educate is valuable, as long as the work is fact-checked and well-researched”.

Yu’s work on Instagram spans from the sharing of her published writing, to helpful infographics, and even to her own poetry. Her Instagram often mixes the professional with the personal, creating a more diverse image of the online journalist. Her Instagram page not only acts as a platform to promote her writing but also as a portrait of her personal life. Yu captions a sponsored picture posted of herself “social media, rejections, and general state-of-America hopelessness have me feeling hella down lately”. On combining her professional image with a more personal dialogue, Yu states: “People should feel empowered to do whatever makes them feel comfortable and present themselves however they choose online”.

Writer and artist Annika Hansteen-Izora (@Annika.izora on Instagram) has a more complicated outlook on their relationship with social media. Hansteen-Izora also combines the personal and professional on their platform, using Instagram to share their digital art while offering resources and materials on self-reflection to an audience of over 58,000. When asked about the rise of infographics on Instagram, Hansteen-Izora is conflicted. “I think they’re a fantastic way to share information in an accessible way. And at the same time, I wonder about the intention behind infographics. I especially wonder about where people are sourcing their information from”. But Hansteen-Izora’s concerns go beyond what to share or what not to share online. “I do hope that we see the downfall of social media spaces that are invested in censorship and silencing the voices of its Black, trans, queer, sex-working, and disabled users. I hope we see the rise of platforms that are more invested in authentically supporting creators, and that open up opportunities for online worlds to have nurturing dialogue. I hope my work leads me to be in conversation with people and communities away from my keyboard more often.

While journalists may find Instagram as a way to curate a more polished online personality, Twitter as a platform for journalists can be a powder keg. Twitter is a social media site with an affinity for attracting divisive reactions and can be a hotbed for criticism and lots of opinions. A journalist’s nightmare can quickly materialize by becoming the author of a trending story. If you search on Google News “Twitter+journalist” the stories found will usually involve the words: abuse, fierce debate, harassment, or tirade.

While the social media platform is often used by journalists to promote their stories or share their personal opinions on the news it has also become a way for netizens and anonymous users to interact directly with writers they may disagree with. Sometimes this can even result in a mass targeting of an individual over an article they wrote and even tweets they publish. New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz covers internet culture and is the go-to authority when it comes to reporting on TikTok trends and popular personalities. Lorenz has amassed quite the following on Twitter with over 230,000 followers. Though the attention is not always positive. Her Twitter has been of recent controversy, becoming the target of anonymous trolls and even Fox News. Lorenz recently came under fire when she tweeted about the attacks she has been receiving online.

“For international women’s day please consider supporting women enduring online harassment. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the harassment and smear campaign I’ve had to endure over the past year has destroyed my life. No one should have to go through this” tweeted Lorenz on March 9.

The online criticism shortly ensued. Journalist Glenn Greenwald quoted her tweet with: “Taylor Lorenz is a star reporter with the most influential newspaper in the US, arguably the west. Her work regularly appears on its front page. Her attempt to claim this level of victimhood is revolting: she should try to find out what real persecution of journalists entails”.

Lorenz’s tweet also caught the attention of Fox News host Tucker Carlson who called the journalist in a televised segment “much less talented” than previous New York Times reporters and then went on to criticize and belittle her statement. These reactions, online and televised, resulted in the New York Times issuing a statement supporting the journalist: “Taylor Lorenz is a talented New York Times journalist doing timely and essential reporting. Journalists should be able to do their jobs without facing harassment” stated the New York Times.

For investigative journalist Emmanuel Felton, his reporting for Buzzfeed News centers around the fact, though nothing is truly safe from criticism on the internet. On Twitter, Felton promotes stories he’s written and interacts with his readers. He also uses the site to sometimes share his own opinions. And anyone with a blue checkmark next to their name can tell you the risks of partaking in opinionated conversations online. “There's this weird blurring of personal and professional on Twitter that you don't see on other sites. I think that helps humanize reporters but I also think it gives people more to attack” says Felton.

Felton often uses Twitter to keep up with the news as well as a tool for coming up with stories. In January, Felton wrote an article published by Buzzfeed News titled “ These Black Capitol Police Officers Describe Fighting Off ‘Racist-Ass Terrorists’ ”. Felton got the idea for the article from a video he saw posted on Twitter of Eugene Goodman, a Black Capitol police officer, fending off a mob alone. When Felton shared the article on his Twitter, it went viral, gaining over 25 thousand likes and over 14 thousand retweets. Quote tweets and comments lauded the article for its inside look into the experiences of Black police officers. Some comments were more critical. “Of course, always making it about race” one user commented. “I don’t believe you” tweeted another.

Felton is no stranger when it comes to online criticism. On dealing with negative attention and backlash from viral tweets while trying to promote his work, Felton seems to have figured out a compromise. “Most of my viral tweets have been me posting stories I've written. Those tweets have driven a lot of traffic to my work so I just kind of ignore all of the negativity that comes with it” says Felton. But still, there isn’t a clear balance between promoting your work online and dealing with hateful messages and Felton is all too aware of that. “As a race reporter, my mentions can get very nasty very quickly. I really don't have a solution for that. I'm not going to change what I cover or what I tweet about, but I mute a lot of conversations”.

Twitter can be harmful to journalists. The platform allows for more anonymity and can breed a mob mentality at times. Journalists can be directly tweeted at, messaged, and harassed on a more effective scale than other platforms. Whether it be targeted hate concerning a tweet or a published article, Twitter is grounds for attacks from all sides. It doesn’t matter if the writer is a household name, when a tweet goes viral, the gates are opened for all kinds of opinions and hateful speech from all corners of the Twitterverse.

On the other side of journalists on Twitter, the platform can also be helpful for writers looking to promote their pieces. Journalists often link their recently published works through tweets allowing for comments, likes, and retweets. This method can lead to more positive interactions from supportive comments to users sharing the story by retweeting. Retweets of articles can help them gain more traction, ensuring more eyes will be reached. Twitter can be useful for disseminating important stories as well as picking them up. Oftentimes trending topics can contain stories to be reported on. Journalists crowdsource information, keep up with the freshest news, and can even find sources through Twitter.

Felton shares that Twitter has helped him in coming up with new stories as well as reaching an audience he may not have been able to without the website. When asked about a universal experience for journalists on Twitter he has this to say: “You are going to get attacked. People are going to make it personal. But honestly short of doxxing and death threats, I think it's a net good to be in conversation with readers through Twitter”.

Twitter has been a tool for journalists for years, Instagram has seen more recent evolutions in terms of online journalism but it’s not necessarily new to the scene. What is the next step for the writer on social media? TikTok may be the answer. TikTok has produced its own news stories in the past year from the potential banning of the short video platform from the U.S. to breakout stars landing Hollywood contracts. For some, TikTok is an enigmatic powerhouse of indecipherable trends with teenagers at the helm. Others have found their footing on the video-sharing app.