Journalism in Crisis?, Vol. 22 - 2015, No. 4
Journalism in Crisis?
This article considers several questions pertaining to the current state of journalism. The discussion explores the meaning of journalism and journalists, as well as considering the role of journalists in an increasingly digital environment. The article concludes by exploring journalism in the future and why this all matters. A major theme of this discussion (and the articles in this special issue) is whether journalism is currently in crisis. Finally, an example is offered exemplifying the complexity of issues that surround journalism today.
Journalism's Crisis of Hegemony
Although usually considered a longstanding tradition, journalism is a relatively recent assemblage of standards and values governing the news environment. This article discusses the formation of journalism as an ism in the context of the industrialisation of the news media. It situates journalism as an ideology of expert observation within struggles over the power of news media in the first half of the twentieth century. Noting that the ability of journalism to discipline the news depended on bottlenecks in the media system, the article traces the crisis of hegemony that has accompanied the digital transformation of media infrastructure. It concludes by imagining a new hegemonic journalism.
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Mass Communication Is More Than A One-Way Street: On the Persistent Function and Relevance of Journalism
In contrast to traditional mass communication, online communication is conceived as interactive and more participatory. Due to new technological possibilities and cultural changes, the audience is said to now play a crucial role in public discourse. Many scholars argue that journalists have lost their gatekeeping role and should strengthen user participation by giving voice to individual citizens. Yet research has shown that user participation accounts for only a small part of everyday media practices. Moreover, the visibility of ordinary citizens in media coverage is still low. This paper offers an explanation for these findings and sets out to rethink the structure and processes of mass communication as well as the ways in which users are participating in public discourse. Drawing on a discursive approach developed in early communication research, we highlight the genuine interactive nature of mass communication. Interactivity in this sense is not realised by the expression of every single individual, but by the exchange of statements between the representatives of diverse groups in society. Representation is crucial for journalism to fulfil its core function of providing a concentrated but comprehensive overview of the ongoing social discourse. The article concludes by discussing research needs and future challenges of journalism.
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Reflective Practices for Future Journalism: The Need, the Resistance and the Way Forward
In newsrooms journalists encounter numerous constraints accelerated by increasing technological and economic pressures. The complexity of the job and the need for (constant) innovation coupled with the rising call for transparency and accountability ask for journalists who “reflect-in-action”. Newsroom ethnographies consistently suggest that journalists experience a gap between the wish for increased self-reflection and its actual practice. Additionally, both newsroom research and journalists’ expressions in the trade press show significant resistance against reflection as being a largely academic exercise, or simply too time-consuming. We propose that considering reflection primarily from a learning perspective can overcome this resistance. Secondly, the article acknowledges that in order to enable professionals to fit reflection into their precarious practice, critical reflection should develop out of the practice itself. Reflection only makes sense if it starts from the sense of immediacy and autonomy within journalistic practice, recognises the constraints that journalists face and acknowledges the aversion among journalists against standardised protocols in their craft. Outlining the basic tenets of reflective practice, journalism's current precarity and the learning perspective, we propose further research in how informal reflective practices can enhance professional autonomy.
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Are You A Journalist? New Media Entrepreneurs and Journalists in the Digital Space
This article reports on findings from a research project that is examining alternative paths for media producers. The researcher has interviewed media producers in the digital space, including bloggers, online magazine producers, broadcasters and website producers, to discover what skills are required to work in a digital space, what business models are successful and what technologies are being employed. One of the questions asked of each of the respondents was “Do you consider what you are doing journalism?” Responses have shown that there is often a particular view of journalism and what it is and who can be called a journalist: those who have worked as journalists in traditional media still call themselves journalists while others who have come into the space via other professions are cautious about using the term. The article draws on the respondents’ comments from the research in an attempt to further understand how such definitions around journalism and journalist are informing media producers and their understanding of these terms in a splintering media epoch.
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If We Are All Journalists, Can Journalistic Privilege Survive?
The breaking down of the technological and economic barriers to reporting news and information creates the potential for any citizen to reach large audiences; however, it does not make all information-sharing activity “journalism”, nor does it make everyone a “journalist”. The challenge is to draw meaningful distinctions in this new environment that fully recognise and honour the democratisation of the information ecosystem, while at the same time preserving the ethical and legal standards and practices that distinguish journalism and journalists. Special protections or rights for journalists, if defined in narrow terms, are inconsistent with today's media ecosystem, where many independent voices have potential access to large audiences and the opportunity to contribute to civic debate. At the same time, a privilege is by definition not available to all. The existence of a journalistic privilege requires that a defined category of journalist exists. Dispute over the definition of journalist in the Executive Session provision of the Oregon Public Meetings law and the efforts to define journalists in state and federal confidential source protection statutes, court rulings and proposed legislation give us rich examples of the challenges faced in attempting to craft journalistic privileges for today's media environment.
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