From gardeners to revolutionaries: The rise of the liquid ethos in political journalism

Abstract

In many newsrooms, journalistic work has increasingly been reorganized in ways that make it more flexible, multi-skilled and assertive, or even 'liquid'. Empirical studies on liquid journalism, however, are scarce. This article examines how the rise of liquidity can be seen in the work-related ethos of Finnish political journalists. The article is based on 25 in-depth interviews of political journalists. In the findings, three generational groups -the solid moderns, the liquefying moderns, and the liquid moderns -emerge divided roughly by age. These differences reflect a more general change, whereby the organizations of the solid industrial modernity have been flattened and decentralized and, in many professions, the expertise and career prospects have been questioned. In the course of this change, political journalists are developing an anti-institutional and flexible ethos accentuated by opinionated assertiveness -in effect, an ethos of liquid revolutionaries.In today's newsrooms, the only certainty seems to be a sense of uncertainty and change. Journalists face new technologies, organizational restructuring and new audience preferences, and they are reformulating their work practices and normative ideals. Here, I examine how Finnish political journalists and their work-related ethos are changing in the current climate.

Putting a Face on It

“…In short, how to make medical and health information more accessible by using human elements, 1 photos or illustrations, info graphics, conversational tone and metaphors, whilst avoiding medical terminology and simplifying complex technical information (see Hinnant et al (2012) for comprehensive discussion) is the problem. For journalists and various stakeholders in the health sector, the personal narrative represents a tool to make socially important issues more interesting for modern audiences through personalization, storytelling, case histories and model histories (Kantola, 2012). It is also appealing in that it helps readers identify with the story, reduce stigma (for certain conditions or illnesses), ground learning and make health information more accessible, and in this way affects the public (Hinnant & Len-Rios, 2009, p. 104).…”

Viestinnän ammattilaiset promootioyhteiskunnassa: <br>aktivisteja ja ajatusjohtajia

“…Onkin huolestuttavaa, että samaan aikaan kun nämä uudet keinot ja niitä keksivät PR-koneistot ovat vahvistuneet, journalismi on vaikeuksissa (Kantola 2013a). Konsultit tunnistavat myös journalistien lisääntyneen kiireen: toimituksissa ollaan ehkä entistä avoimempia valmiille aineistolle ja aiheille, koska journalistien työtahti on kasvanut.…”

Liquid Modern Journalism with a Difference

“…Based on Kantola (2011Kantola ( , 2013 and Koljonen (2013aKoljonen ( , 2013b, we divide journalists into two groups according to their self-definition and occupational ethos: high modern and liquid modern journalists. By ethos, we refer to the shared discursive resources in terms of which journalists identify the core ideals of their profession and negotiate its permanence and change (Koljonen 2013b).…”

“…As Kantola (2013) stresses, the demarcation is not straightforward: solid and liquid practices are intertwined in the newsroom. However, differences in the practice-related work ethic are evident and appear to be generational, 1 as illustrated in Table 1. Kantola's analysis is based on an empirical study and interviews the top 25 Finnish political journalists representing different age groups, organizational positions and types of media.…”

“…As journalism has been called a paradigmatic profession of modernity (Deuze 2005(Deuze , 2007Hallin 1992Hallin , 2006, we analyse the changing profession and ethos of cultural journalism in the light of modernization theory by drawing from the recent analyses by Kantola (2011Kantola ( , 2013 and Koljonen (2013aKoljonen ( , 2013b. They argue for a difference between two generations of journalists, or, rather, layers of journalistic ethos: those of high modernity and liquid modernity.…”