Operationalizing Carey—An Approach to the Cultural History of Journalism

Notes on a Cultural History of Reporting

“…Like most discipline-shaking arguments, Jim's has attracted its share of thoughtful critics. Compelling cases have been made that Carey paid too little attention to the influence on journalists of economic and institutional power (Nord 1988), that he never sufficiently integrated the social role of technology into his concept of culture (Marvin 1990;Schudson 1990), that he failed to fully appreciate that even a cultural history must be rooted in solid, nuts-andbolts data derived from content analysis and research into professional journalistic practices and behaviors (Schwarzlose 1975;Marzolf 1975;Erickson 1975). Also vexing has been the question of exactly what Carey meant by the word he repeatedly invoked as the linchpin of his idea of journalism history as cultural history.…”