Labouring the news: Management control strategies and work intensification in the digital newsroom

Hayes, Kathryn J; Sullivan, Michelle O'

doi:10.1177/14648849231174059

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The use of analytics, for instance, allows newsroom management to surveil, control, and monitor journalists’ work and performance along criteria that align with the profit motive (Gandini, 2019). The audience, in this scenario, is used as a negotiating tool, a “phantom player” (Hayes & O’Sullivan, 2023, p. 12).…”

Section: The Union Revivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Adding to the market pressures transforming news production, the internet challenges journalists’ status as a source of information and knowledge, while multimedia production hubs lead to a further division of labor, altering professional identities and boundaries (Compton & Benedetti, 2010; Witschge & Nygren, 2009). These pressures come both from internal and external sources such as the diffusion of audience metrics into the newsroom that has journalists feeling surveilled and controlled by their employers, as well as by their audiences (Cohen, 2019; Hayes & O’Sullivan, 2023; Petre, 2018).…”

Section: The Union Revivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

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We’ve Got a Union, Now What?

Assmann

2024

Journalism & Communication Monographs

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Precarious economic conditions, low pay, layoffs, and dwindling job security motivated journalists to organize in record numbers in the 2010s and 2020s. Cohen and De Peuter’s 2020 research on newsworkers’ motives and organizing strategies in digital newsrooms finds that economic, political, and cultural factors play a role. Pay equity, a more diverse and inclusive newsroom, and a voice in editorial and strategic decision-making are often cited as arguments for union membership. This monograph asks how newsworkers assess the effect of unionization and guild membership on their work, working conditions, and culture. Interviews with 45 journalists in 16 U.S. newsrooms with unions, both established and recently organized, suggest that several goals, such as pay equity, diversity, and inclusion, have not been achieved. Nevertheless, the act of organizing and the managerial work accomplished by union leadership in the newsroom is creating both institutional change and opportunity. A parallel organizational culture is emerging that mitigates poor leadership and human resource management and serves as training ground for a new class of journalists.

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Section: The Union Revivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Union Revivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

We’ve Got a Union, Now What?

Assmann

2024

Journalism & Communication Monographs

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Audience analytics and tensions in digital news work: evidence from Swiss news media

Omidi,

Dal Zotto,

Picard

2024

ITP

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PurposeTracing audience preferences via audience analytics software has become a vital strategy for many news organizations to ensure their competitiveness in media markets. Extant research also confirms the growing presence of these tools in digital news work in recent years across many local and international news media. However, little is understood about the analytics-driven tensions emerging among journalists and media managers. This paper aims to address this gap by drawing on the labor process theory, which critically analyzes labor and workplace transformations under capitalism.Design/methodology/approachThe present study employs an interview-based qualitative methodology to deeply understand the factors at the base of the emerging tensions between news workers and managers brought about by audience metrics tools.FindingsResults show how some perceptions, activities and contextual triggers related to analytics could make relationships between workers and managers problematic. The pressures felt by some journalists stemmed from the way their media managers introduced, interpreted, communicated and applied analytics in the workplace, which were not tied to the quality and learning goals related to journalists’ aspirations. As our evidence suggests, the analytics-induced tensions among news workers were rather an outcome of managerial deficits than of systematic plans to exploit journalists.Originality/valueBy identifying the nature of fundamental analytics-driven tensions in newsrooms, this paper contributes to our understanding of how media managers can embrace more effective approaches toward audience analytics, workforce and organizational performance.

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The managerial and future-oriented role of audience data in data-informed news organisations

Ahva,

Salonen,

Ovaska

et al. 2024

Journalism

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One sign of datafication in journalism is that newsrooms utilise insights from audience data and related metrics in their decision-making. In professional discourse, this often alludes to the notion of ‘data-informed newsrooms’ in which organisations are managed with the help of data. This article focuses on the managerial role of audience data in such organisations: What types of audience data inform newsrooms, which domains of newsroom management are being informed by data, and what kinds of visions motivate the future of data use in news organisations? These questions are answered based on empirical material from three different research projects (2020–2022) in Finland, including both qualitative interviews and survey results featuring the views of varied journalism professionals on data use. The theoretical framework draws from conceptualisations of anticipatory governance. Professionals’ interpretations of audience data reveal the basic elements of data sources, types, systems and storages that inform the organisations. Such audience data are used for four main management purposes–leading individuals, work processes, the news product, and the audience. The role of audience data in the future preferably includes elements of predictability, fairness, usability, and depth. However, there are discrepancies between the visions themselves as well as the views of the managers and journalists, which results in an ongoing negotiation about the suitable role of audience data in news organisations.

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Labouring the news: Management control strategies and work intensification in the digital newsroom

Cited by 3 publications

References 50 publications

We’ve Got a Union, Now What?

We’ve Got a Union, Now What?

Audience analytics and tensions in digital news work: evidence from Swiss news media

The managerial and future-oriented role of audience data in data-informed news organisations

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