Journalism researchers have tended to study journalistic roles from within a Western framework or... more Journalism researchers have tended to study journalistic roles from within a Western framework oriented toward the media’s contribution to democracy and citizenship. In so doing, journalism scholarship often failed to account for the realities in non-democratic and non-Western contexts, as well as for forms of journalism beyond political news. Based on the framework of discursive institutionalism, we conceptualize journalistic roles as discursive constructions of journalism’s identity and place in society. These roles have sedimented in journalism’s institutional norms and practices and are subject to discursive (re)creation, (re)interpretation, appropriation, and contestation. We argue that journalists exercise important roles in two domains: political life and everyday life. For the domain of political life, we identify 18 roles addressing six essential needs of political life: informational-instructive, analytical-deliberative, critical-monitorial, advocative-radical, development...
Drawing on Bourdieu's field theory, this study explores how journalistic doxa and cultural ca... more Drawing on Bourdieu's field theory, this study explores how journalistic doxa and cultural capital come to be discursively formed. The study culls references to journalistic transparency from a broad range of US journalism trade publications and sites from 1997 to 2015 in order to examine the discursive construction of transparency within the journalistic field. The analysis focuses on what members of the journalistic field in the United States mean by transparency and how transparency is or is not discursively legitimized. Implications for field theory are considered.
GamerGate is a viral campaign that became an occasion, particularly from August 2014 to January 2... more GamerGate is a viral campaign that became an occasion, particularly from August 2014 to January 2015, to both question journalistic ethics and badger women involved in game development and gaming criticism. Gaming journalists thus found themselves managing a debate on two fronts: defending the probity of gaming journalism and remediating attacks on women. This study explores how gaming journalists undertook paradigm maintenance in the midst of the controversy. This was analyzed through interviews with gaming journalists as well as a discourse analysis of the texts responding to GamerGate that were produced by their publications. Although gaming journalists operate within a form of lifestyle journalism, the journalists repaired their paradigm by linking their work to traditional journalism and emphasizing a paternal role.
Comparative studies of journalism have gained considerable currency in recent years, and are ofte... more Comparative studies of journalism have gained considerable currency in recent years, and are often considered to be at the cutting edge of journalism studies. Yet, there has been relatively little systematic examination of the growth of comparative journalism studies or in-depth analysis of the power relations within the field in relation to, for example, trends in authorship or dominant methodologies and paradigms. This article reports the results of a systematic review of comparative studies of journalism published between 2000 and 2015, a key growth period for the field. By examining in detail a population of 441 articles published in 22 key journals, we demonstrate that comparative journalism studies is a dynamic field that has developed considerable structure over time, and outline some key patterns, such as a continuing focus on Western authorship, the study of Western countries and elite media, quantitative methods of analysis and political aspects of journalism.
This study utilizes interviews with 53 full-time digital journalists to understand how they const... more This study utilizes interviews with 53 full-time digital journalists to understand how they construct their identity. With social identity theory as a framework, the study found that medium, organizational backing, and role conception represent characteristics essential to being a digital journalist (the in-group). While the journalists also identified blogging, social media, and citizen journalism as characteristics that, in some cases, exclude persons from calling themselves digital journalists (the out-group). These results are then interpreted through the lens of social identity theory.
This study examines the actions of readers as press critics and, therefore, as potentially powerf... more This study examines the actions of readers as press critics and, therefore, as potentially powerful shapers of journalism’s cultural capital. An analysis of 2 years’ worth of online reader comments on the ombudsman columns of three national news organizations reveals readers’ support of – and even nostalgia for – mainstream journalism values such as objectivity, echoing earlier research suggesting the stability of the journalistic field in the face of challenges from new players such as bloggers. But commenters’ critiques of journalistic performance also employed social, and not only professional, values, representing a potential challenge to journalist autonomy.
Abstract This study examines a normative shift from objectivity toward a transparency-oriented jo... more Abstract This study examines a normative shift from objectivity toward a transparency-oriented journalistic field. US newspaper journalists (N= 228) whose work is published online were surveyed to ascertain their adherence to truth-telling strategies of objectivity ...
ABSTRACT The study of journalistic role conceptions rests on the assumption that these conception... more ABSTRACT The study of journalistic role conceptions rests on the assumption that these conceptions shape the news stories that journalists create. However, limited empirical evidence exists to support this assumed linear relationship between role conception and role enactment. This exploratory study compared role conceptions deduced from survey data of 56 journalists with a content analysis of those same journalists' articles (N=270). The findings suggest that this assumed linear relationship between role conception and role enactment should be questioned rather than presumed.
The study of journalistic role conceptions rests on the assumption that these conceptions shape t... more The study of journalistic role conceptions rests on the assumption that these conceptions shape the news stories that journalists create. However, limited empirical evidence exists to support this assumed linear relationship between role conception and role enactment. This exploratory study compared role conceptions deduced from survey data of 56 journalists with a content analysis of those same journalists' articles (N=270). The findings suggest that this assumed linear relationship between role conception and role enactment should be questioned rather than presumed.
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2020
This study explores the discursive, normative construction of gamification within journalism. Roo... more This study explores the discursive, normative construction of gamification within journalism. Rooted in a theory of discursive institutionalism and by analyzing a significant corpus of metajournalistic discourse from 2006 to 2019, the study demonstrates how journalists have negotiated gamification’s place within journalism’s boundaries. The discourse addresses criticism that gamified news is a move toward infotainment and makes the case for gamification as serious journalism anchored in norms of audience engagement. Thus, gamification does not constitute institutional change since it is construed as an extension of existing institutional norms and beliefs.
Journalism researchers have tended to study journalistic roles from within a Western framework or... more Journalism researchers have tended to study journalistic roles from within a Western framework oriented toward the media’s contribution to democracy and citizenship. In so doing, journalism scholarship often failed to account for the realities in non-democratic and non-Western contexts, as well as for forms of journalism beyond political news. Based on the framework of discursive institutionalism, we conceptualize journalistic roles as discursive constructions of journalism’s identity and place in society. These roles have sedimented in journalism’s institutional norms and practices and are subject to discursive (re)creation, (re)interpretation, appropriation, and contestation. We argue that journalists exercise important roles in two domains: political life and everyday life. For the domain of political life, we identify 18 roles addressing six essential needs of political life: informational-instructive, analytical-deliberative, critical-monitorial, advocative-radical, development...
Drawing on Bourdieu's field theory, this study explores how journalistic doxa and cultural ca... more Drawing on Bourdieu's field theory, this study explores how journalistic doxa and cultural capital come to be discursively formed. The study culls references to journalistic transparency from a broad range of US journalism trade publications and sites from 1997 to 2015 in order to examine the discursive construction of transparency within the journalistic field. The analysis focuses on what members of the journalistic field in the United States mean by transparency and how transparency is or is not discursively legitimized. Implications for field theory are considered.
GamerGate is a viral campaign that became an occasion, particularly from August 2014 to January 2... more GamerGate is a viral campaign that became an occasion, particularly from August 2014 to January 2015, to both question journalistic ethics and badger women involved in game development and gaming criticism. Gaming journalists thus found themselves managing a debate on two fronts: defending the probity of gaming journalism and remediating attacks on women. This study explores how gaming journalists undertook paradigm maintenance in the midst of the controversy. This was analyzed through interviews with gaming journalists as well as a discourse analysis of the texts responding to GamerGate that were produced by their publications. Although gaming journalists operate within a form of lifestyle journalism, the journalists repaired their paradigm by linking their work to traditional journalism and emphasizing a paternal role.
Comparative studies of journalism have gained considerable currency in recent years, and are ofte... more Comparative studies of journalism have gained considerable currency in recent years, and are often considered to be at the cutting edge of journalism studies. Yet, there has been relatively little systematic examination of the growth of comparative journalism studies or in-depth analysis of the power relations within the field in relation to, for example, trends in authorship or dominant methodologies and paradigms. This article reports the results of a systematic review of comparative studies of journalism published between 2000 and 2015, a key growth period for the field. By examining in detail a population of 441 articles published in 22 key journals, we demonstrate that comparative journalism studies is a dynamic field that has developed considerable structure over time, and outline some key patterns, such as a continuing focus on Western authorship, the study of Western countries and elite media, quantitative methods of analysis and political aspects of journalism.
This study utilizes interviews with 53 full-time digital journalists to understand how they const... more This study utilizes interviews with 53 full-time digital journalists to understand how they construct their identity. With social identity theory as a framework, the study found that medium, organizational backing, and role conception represent characteristics essential to being a digital journalist (the in-group). While the journalists also identified blogging, social media, and citizen journalism as characteristics that, in some cases, exclude persons from calling themselves digital journalists (the out-group). These results are then interpreted through the lens of social identity theory.
This study examines the actions of readers as press critics and, therefore, as potentially powerf... more This study examines the actions of readers as press critics and, therefore, as potentially powerful shapers of journalism’s cultural capital. An analysis of 2 years’ worth of online reader comments on the ombudsman columns of three national news organizations reveals readers’ support of – and even nostalgia for – mainstream journalism values such as objectivity, echoing earlier research suggesting the stability of the journalistic field in the face of challenges from new players such as bloggers. But commenters’ critiques of journalistic performance also employed social, and not only professional, values, representing a potential challenge to journalist autonomy.
Abstract This study examines a normative shift from objectivity toward a transparency-oriented jo... more Abstract This study examines a normative shift from objectivity toward a transparency-oriented journalistic field. US newspaper journalists (N= 228) whose work is published online were surveyed to ascertain their adherence to truth-telling strategies of objectivity ...
ABSTRACT The study of journalistic role conceptions rests on the assumption that these conception... more ABSTRACT The study of journalistic role conceptions rests on the assumption that these conceptions shape the news stories that journalists create. However, limited empirical evidence exists to support this assumed linear relationship between role conception and role enactment. This exploratory study compared role conceptions deduced from survey data of 56 journalists with a content analysis of those same journalists' articles (N=270). The findings suggest that this assumed linear relationship between role conception and role enactment should be questioned rather than presumed.
The study of journalistic role conceptions rests on the assumption that these conceptions shape t... more The study of journalistic role conceptions rests on the assumption that these conceptions shape the news stories that journalists create. However, limited empirical evidence exists to support this assumed linear relationship between role conception and role enactment. This exploratory study compared role conceptions deduced from survey data of 56 journalists with a content analysis of those same journalists' articles (N=270). The findings suggest that this assumed linear relationship between role conception and role enactment should be questioned rather than presumed.
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2020
This study explores the discursive, normative construction of gamification within journalism. Roo... more This study explores the discursive, normative construction of gamification within journalism. Rooted in a theory of discursive institutionalism and by analyzing a significant corpus of metajournalistic discourse from 2006 to 2019, the study demonstrates how journalists have negotiated gamification’s place within journalism’s boundaries. The discourse addresses criticism that gamified news is a move toward infotainment and makes the case for gamification as serious journalism anchored in norms of audience engagement. Thus, gamification does not constitute institutional change since it is construed as an extension of existing institutional norms and beliefs.
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