Journalists as Communities of Practice

In this article, we examine how journalists address and tackle online harassment by connective practices that involve joint action with peers and editors that we find are particularly effective in addressing the emotional effects of harassment. Theoretically, we bridge community of practice research with theories of emotional labour to develop a novel perspective to examine online harassment. Drawing on 22 interviews with Finnish journalists, we find three categories of connective practices that are particularly effective in tackling harassment: (1) supportive connection between the journalist and the editor; (2) shared collegial practices among peers in the newsrooms and (3) emotional engagement among peers outside the newsroom. All three categories illustrate how journalists as a community of practice develop new practices through dynamic processes innovation, improvisation, trial and error, reciprocal learning and mutual engagement. Importantly, emotional labour forms an important dimension of these practices as the journalists jointly address and tackle the emotional effects of harassment. We posit that the effectiveness of these connective practices largely stems from their ability to provide emotional support. While addressing feelings of fear, anger and shame, these shared practices also help consolidate the newly acquired knowledge and the professional identity under attack. Finally, we offer recommendations for newsrooms and journalists on how to collectively counter harassment and develop policies to address it.

Section: Professional Community Of Practice Responding To Online Hara...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Tackling the emotional toll together: How journalists address harassment with connective practices

Kantola

Harju

2021

“…Each time new roles are envisioned or new practices are introduced, they are derided and rejected by journalists who have, at that moment, epistemic power within the field. In fact, journalists within various niches or “communities of practice” are “tasked with constantly and faithfully redefining their domain as their practice evolves” (Meltzer and Martik, 2017: 221). Through this redefinition, journalists well within the profession’s supposed boundaries dismiss emerging practices, such as how to cover elections (McDevitt, 2020; McDevitt and Ferrucci, 2018) or how opinion or “talk” is becoming a norm in the field (Meltzer, 2019).…”

Section: Review Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accordingly, when professionals in a community of practice such as resistance journalism emerge, they often look to others in the community to publicly deliberate—often through metajournalistic discourse—and discuss which new practices are within or outside the profession’s normative ethos. These deliberations can then shape and redefine the field (Meltzer and Martik, 2017). Therefore, the discursive conversation examined in this study not only reveals something about resistance journalism, but also provides insights about the future of journalism.…”

Section: Review Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Resisting the resistance (journalism): Ben Smith, Ronan Farrow, and delineating boundaries of practice

Ferrucci

Canella

2021

In May 2020, New York Times media columnist Ben Smith critiqued Ronan Farrow, charging Farrow with practicing “resistance journalism.” Smith’s column generated significant discussion among journalists. This article analyzed the metajournalistic discourse that emerged following Smith’s column to examine how journalism’s boundaries are negotiated and contested. “Resistance journalism” has three main elements: it is unobjective, targeted, and truth-bending. “Resistance journalism” falls outside of the boundaries of journalism, according to the discourse, due to three practices: it lacks verification, focuses on narrative, and has a propensity to advocate. We argue that the current political economic and technological disruptions within digital media and networked society are creating new spaces for the rhetorical competition over journalism to occur, upending journalistic routines and creating hybrid journalism cultures.

“…In contrast to Meltzer and Martik’s (2017) theorization of journalists as communities of practice, approaching journalists as mobile communities means overcoming the emphasis on practice to pay more attention to how instant messaging is being used to develop more horizontal and meaningful relations among news workers. Unlike Zelizer’s (1993) notion of journalists as interpretative communities, this conceptualization stresses the perpetual, 24/7, character of news workers’ social interactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Journalists as mobility agents: Labor mobilities, individualized identities, and emerging organizational forms

Reyna

2021

As mobility is becoming a distinctive feature of 21st century journalists, this theoretical article proposes a mobility turn in journalism studies. Drawing on sociological perspectives on mobilities, individualization, and turnover, it puts forward a shift from the analysis of news workers as static and fixed to the organizations that employ them to their analysis as mobility agents. By stressing that their capacity to move is transforming their employment and identities, it invites contemporary journalism scholars to recognize how this bottom-up disruption is reshaping the institution, the organizations and the labor of journalism. Since journalism’s corporate and industrial structures have not fully crumbled, this article’s emphasis on labor, physical and virtual mobilities offers an alternative to current theorizations of change in journalism.