Studying journalists in changing times

Abstract

Industry insiders and media academics often voice unease about the transformations taking place in the global news industry. Despite its usefulness in drawing attention to the twists and turns of organizational change and innovation in news production, much of the research on this topic shows less interest in journalists’ situated experience than is helpful. This article suggests that academic attention might be usefully refocused to the changing nature and experiences of journalists as they encounter the changes taking place in their industry. Such a focus can be justified on theoretical grounds: the implications of change in the news industry for its traditional democratic role cannot be understood without understanding in detail what journalists do and how they do it. While acknowledging that news production takes place in the context of competitive commercial enterprise, the authors argue that fruitful avenues for empirical enquiry can be opened up by adopting a more practice-centred analysis. The article concludes by introducing recent research that joins this pursuit.

Finding an emergent way through transformational change: a narrative approach to strategy

“…For academics, understanding strategic management in the media industry as a practice and focusing on the ways in which strategies emerge provides an important avenue for further research. It may shift the focus from prescriptive knowledge towards a richer description of the experiences of journalists and managers, encountering changes in their profession and industry (Dickinson, Matthews, & Saltzis, 2013). For practitioners, this conception provides a basis to work confidently with the future, and facilitate a narrative engagement with the potentialities of their organization.…”

An analysis of journalism convergence in legacy media organisations & online news start-ups

“…With respect to this dimension, this thesis aims to investigate how Professional Convergence affects media corporations and smaller newsrooms, explore whether advantages of professional polyvalence exist, and understand the attitudes of journalists' towards professional polyvalence in both types of news organisations. Although its merits were not discussed in the Infotendencias Group's (2012) study, other research has underscored the positive aspects of professional polyvalence, which include greater work satisfaction, greater autonomy and increased levels of efficiency and productivity(Dickinson, Matthews & Saltzis, 2013;Lin, 2012;Raviola & Hartmann, 2009).The Infotendencias Group (2012) omitted the examination of audience engagement from its typology Domingo et al (2007),. however, argued that the digital environment allows for new and novel avenues of engagement between journalists and their audience, and it is crucial that convergence studies examine these "new possibilities offered by the media to promote [audience] involvement" (p. 12) in the news construction process.…”