Organizations as Innovations: Examining Changes in Journalism Through the Lens of Newly-Emerging Organizations

Abstract

This article argues that the growing variety of new journalistic organizations and their diversification beyond the traditional newsroom may offer a deeper and broader understanding of change and innovation within journalism. Newly emerging organizations play a multifaceted role in journalism: They are both drivers and results of change; they serve as indicators of the ways in which the structures of journalism and its production processes are evolving; they reveal industry trends early on and enable longitudinal research. Despite the emergence of non-traditional organizations in journalism, existing studies on these new entities remain fragmented and have yet to coalesce into a sustained research program. Against this background, this conceptual article aims to contribute to the ongoing theoretical progress in journalism studies in three ways. First, it identifies key factors of why organizational innovations happen. Second, it systemizes recent studies exemplifying the plurality of new organizations in journalism according to different levels from organization studies, including the field level, the level of organizational populations, and the level of the single organization. Finally, the article proposes a research agenda for establishing “organizations as innovations” as a novel conceptual lens for understanding change and innovation in journalism studies.

Transforming science journalism through collaborative research: a case study of the German “WPK Innovation Fund for Science Journalism”

“…With funding of approximately one million euros, spread over a three-year period until 2025, it not only offers financial support but also coaching and training. Understood as a novel organizational form [Buschow & Suhr, 2024] for the discovery of journalistic innovations, the Innovation Fund is orchestrated by the Wissenschaftspressekonferenz (WPK) and financially supported by a consortium of foundations including the Joachim Herz Stiftung, Rudolf Augstein Stiftung, Schöpflin Stiftung, Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, VolkswagenStiftung and ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS.…”