Examining innovation as process: Action research in journalism studies

Abstract

In this article, we discuss how ‘action research’ as an experiential research approach allows us to address challenges encountered in researching a converged and digital media landscape. We draw on our experiences as researchers, co-developers and marketeers in the European Union-funded Innovation Action project ‘INnovative Journalism: Enhanced Creativity Tools’ (INJECT) aimed at developing a technological tool for journalism. In this media innovation process, as in other media practices, longstanding delineations no longer hold, due to converging professional disciplines and blurring roles of users and producers. First, we discuss four features of innovation in the current ‘digital’ media landscape that come with specific methodological requirements: (a) the iterative nature of innovation; (b) converged practices, professions and roles; (c) the dispersed geographic nature of media production and innovation processes and (d) the impact of human and non-human actors. We suggest action research as a possible answer to these requirements of the digital media landscape. Drawing on our experiences in the INJECT project, we illustrate how adopting an action research approach provides insight into the non-linear, iterative and converged character of innovation processes by highlighting: (a) how innovation happens at various moments, in various places and by various people; (b) how perceptions and enactments of professions change over time and (c) how roles are (re)combined and expanded in such a way that clear delineation is not easy. Ultimately, we argue that experiencing convergence through action research enables us to do justice to the complexity of the current media landscape.

Data Journalism as a Service: Digital Native Data Journalism Expertise and Product Development

“…One example of this was a project to develop a data mining system for a large newspaper in Tampere, Finland, that failed to gain acceptance in the newsroom. The failure of technology adoptions in newsrooms is a common thread in research (Wagemans & Witschge, 2019).…”

Digital media innovations through participatory action research: Interventions for digital place-based experiences

“…However, participatory action research can be developed and adjusted to meet the conditions of a specific research subject and aim. Within media and communication studies, for example, participatory action research is considered to contribute a useful approach to the study of media, allowing researchers to capture nonlinear processes, work in an interdisciplinary manner, as well as research ongoing phenomena (Wagemans & Witschge, 2019). Action research has been used to conduct research within the development of media, media practices, and design and communication processes: in and with media organisations (e.g., Buschow, 2020;Deuze & Witschge, 2020;Morlandstø, 2019;Nyre et al, 2018) and in community and social development for empowerment to provoke social change (see, e.g., Löwgren & Reimer, 2013;Shea, 2012).…”

“…In this setting, conducting action research allowed us to engage with the messiness and layers of data that a place holds, from contemporary social media platforms to historical archives, previous social and cultural everyday practices, and the entanglement with diverse media practices and representations. Action research allows for insights into these phenomena in a real-life setting (Reimer, 2018;Styhre & Sundgren, 2005), experimenting at the site of development (Wagemans & Witschge, 2019). We identified dissonances in practices, understandings, and representations, which gave insight into complex asymmetries of visible and invisible power structures, different aspects of privileges, and roles in a community.…”

Towards an Experientialist Understanding of Journalism: Exploring Arts-based Research for Journalism Studies

“…. Knowledge from within the field: Recognising and embracing the need for experiential knowledge (Wagemans and Witschge 2019), we here explore ways to tap into the knowledge of those we are studying in such a way that their insights and knowledge queries are at the heart of the research, rather than an addendum. Including "practitioners as partners in the work of knowledge creation" (Bradbury-Huang, cited in Wagemans and Witschge 2019, 214), we explicitly position and consider those involved in the making process as partners rather than "mere" research participants.…”