Seizing the serendipitous moments: Coincidental creative processes in media work

Malmelin, Nando; Virta, Sari

doi:10.1177/1464884917707121

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…There is interest in the exploration of serendipity in journalism, primarily in how news readers encounter information (Yadamsuren and Erdelez, 2010;Van Damme et al, 2014). However, Malmelin and Virta (2017) searched the journalism literature and found that serendipity has not been systematically researched in the area of journalism and media work, inspiring them to study how serendipity affects the story ideation process of journalists at a single magazine.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of serendipity in the story ideation process of print media journalists

Bird-Meyer

Erdelez

Bossaller

2019

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to build upon the studies of journalism from an LIS perspective by exploring and differentiating the purposive behavior of newspaper reporters from their serendipitous encounters with information that lead to new story ideas. This paper also provides a path toward pedagogical improvements in training the modern journalism workforce in being more open to creative story ideas. Design/methodology/approach This study utilized semi-structured telephone interviews. Participants were recruited via e-mail after collecting contact information through the Cision database. The study sample was drawn from newspaper reporters who work at or freelance for the top 25 metropolitan newspapers in the USA, in terms of circulation size, based on data from the Alliance for Audited Media. A total of 15 participants were interviewed. Findings This paper provides insight into the story ideation process of journalists in that the study participants generally do not think about how they are coming up with story ideas as much as they are striving to place themselves in situations where, based on their experience and interests, they know they are more likely to encounter a good idea. Each encounter proved meaningful in some powerful fashion, which speaks to the historical importance of serendipity in achieving breakthroughs and discoveries in a wide variety of fields. Research limitations/implications The sampling frame for this study was relatively small, representing 8 percent of the total number of working newspaper journalists from the top 25 newspapers in the USA, in terms of circulation size. Therefore, the findings are not generalizable to the entire population of journalists in this country. Practical implications The findings point to the importance of a prepared mind in facilitating serendipitous episodes. In the case of journalism, that means developing a heightened news sense and cultivating routines where they place themselves in trigger-rich environments. Pedagogically, journalism education must include courses in creative storytelling to help train the modern newspaper workforce in an ever-expanding and competitive media landscape. These courses, ideally paired with techniques and models from the field of information science and learning technologies, could help train young journalists in methods that enhance their ability to identify, seek and pursue serendipitous stories. Originality/value This paper fulfills a need in journalism studies in finding variability in news routines by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach that combines journalism studies and library and information science models to probe how journalists encounter ideas incidentally. Previous research in this area has focused on how news consumers serendipitously encounter information. This paper takes a fresh approach to explore how creative ideas are encountered serendipitously in the construction of news.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of serendipity in the story ideation process of print media journalists

Bird-Meyer

Erdelez

Bossaller

2019

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“…In a study of StumbleUpon, a now defunct web service that allowed users to browse a seemingly random series of webpages, Hauff and Houben (2012) explored how certain Wikipedia articles seem to serendipitously arrest users' attention more consistently than others. Scholars have also oriented serendipity toward forms of creative work, including Malmelin and Virta's (2019) investigation of serendipity within media organizations, where attention to "the accidental discovery of something valuable" (p. 1515) can support new and innovative production processes and content.…”

Section: The Three Princes Of Serendipmentioning

confidence: 99%

You Will Perish: A Case Study of Serendipitous Literacies and Novice Video Game Design

Robinson

2023

Journal of Literacy Research

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This study focused on the digital design practices of Raul, a 15-year-old participant at a summer video game design camp for adolescents. As Raul developed his original game, You Will Perish, I wondered what his design process might reveal about (a) the practice of affectively and procedurally literate video game design and (b) the literacy pedagogies that can support such design. Guided by the concept of serendipity, I describe Raul's design practice as an open process characterized by bouts of failure, chance, and discovery, and I examine how such forces shaped the emergence of his game. Using transversal analysis, I trace Raul's design through an account of frustration and failure, perseverance and pride, showing how the challenges of the game's creator become those of the game's players. The study highlights the generative potential of serendipitous literacies wherever and whenever literacy happens.

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“…They maintained that, within journalism, a creative worker could be categorized as a person who benefits from a goal-driven personality, commercially oriented mind, and collaborative spirit. The other concept that may help our understanding of creative work in the media is "serendipity", as Malmelin and Virta (2019) contended. According to their study, media workers can develop and increase their creative skills by learning about serendipitous situations within their organizations that may stimulate their creative behaviors and ideas.…”

Section: Commonalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Nature of Work in the Media Industries: A Literature Review and Future Directions

Omidi

Zotto

Picard

2022

Journalism and Media

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Media work is a culture-making activity affecting the ways people understand the world and, therefore, workers in the media industries have a critical role in shaping collective memories, traditions, and belief systems. While studies regarding the characteristics impacting the nature of work in the media industries have significantly been increasing over the last years, the literature in this area remains highly fragmented. This paper begins to address that shortcoming by conducting an in-depth review of 36 scholarly papers in influential journals published from 2006 to 2020 to provide a comprehensive view of the literature and its approaches. This study elaborates on the concept of media work by organizing previous efforts into five subthemes, including commonalities, contested terrain, gendered profession, emerging practices, and influencing factors. Previous research has emphasized that media workers’ subjective experiences need to be explored further and more in-depth; however, if we wish to depict a more holistic but realistic picture, those experiences should be contextualized and thus linked with the specific organizational configurations and macro structures in which media work is embedded. The present review depicts how work in the media may take different meanings when addressing it through various theoretical frameworks. Our study can enrich future studies regarding the nature of media work by providing a fine-grained foundation in which researchers could understand how their given research problem(s) would be connected with the other issues that potentially impact their studies.

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Seizing the serendipitous moments: Coincidental creative processes in media work

Cited by 9 publications

References 43 publications

The role of serendipity in the story ideation process of print media journalists

The role of serendipity in the story ideation process of print media journalists

You Will Perish: A Case Study of Serendipitous Literacies and Novice Video Game Design

The Nature of Work in the Media Industries: A Literature Review and Future Directions

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