Just When I thought I was in

In this paper I explore the process of access as it was gained, and sometimes denied, during an extensive ethnographic research made on a surprisingly overlooked strand in news production—the international production processes of news pictures. Through an interpretive analysis, I demonstrate the various access challenges “second-wave” news ethnographers might face, as well as the additional access skills they may require, to explore fully today's news labour in future news production ethnography.     

Newsrooms and Transparency in the Digital Age

Facing a decline in public credibility, news organizations have been encouraged to embrace transparency to combat rising public distrust. In this paper, we examine how journalists at six leading news outlets in the United States grapple with the concept of transparency and its implementation in their newsrooms. Our data indicate that news outlets engage in a limited and strategic form of transparency that enable them to appear transparent without offering substantive insights into the journalistic process.     

Partners in Power

This historical analysis examines the relationship between investigative journalists and official sources through the prism of Pulitzer Prize archive materials from 1917 through 1960. Most prize research has focused on the content of winning stories, but this study provides a fuller picture of the process of newsmaking—and policymaking—through an exploration of deliberative material created by prize juries. While the role of the press in these decades and beyond has been conceptualized alternately as a passive lapdog or an aggressive watchdog, this essay offers a more nuanced view of newspapers that are fully entangled with power in society—sometimes collaborating with a faction of power, sometimes confronting a faction, and, often, both at once. Detailed jury notes on the nominations tell the stories behind the investigations, revealing a press that sometimes leads and other times takes the lead from those in positions of official power. The paper adds to the literature on policy and media agenda building, arguing that through investigative reporting, journalists have often been active rather than passive partners in systems of community standard maintenance.     

An Empirical Study of Factors that Influence the Willingness to Pay for Online News

Drawing on the theory of the economics of information, this study sheds light on the factors that influence willingness to pay for online news, using a telephone survey of 570 US (from the Pew Research Center) adults selected at random. Results of the logistic regression analysis revealed relationships between paying intent and predictor variables such as demographics (age and income), purchase of other digital products (online movies or TV content, software programs, eBooks and applications) and media use (Twitter). However, independent variables such as gender (demographics), video games and music files (purchase of other digital products) were not statistically significant. Future research on the economics of news may take into account these findings focused on studying paying intent.     

USING CITIZENS FOR COMMUNITY JOURNALISM

Hyperlocal journalism is thriving. This article describes the case of a Belgian regional newspaper experimenting with citizen journalism and user-generated content (UGC) for hyperlocal news coverage. For each municipality of the region, an online news page has been created where all citizen contributions are published side by side with professional stories on local community news and events. The fact that the UGC is not separated from the professional articles makes it an interesting case to examine commonalities and differences between both types of community reporting. The findings, based on a content analysis of 474 news items, suggest that the newspaper seems to use citizen volunteers primarily as a means to outsource the “soft”, “good” and “small” news coverage of local community life, while preserving the “hard” and “bad” news provision as the exclusive domain of professional journalists. Further, the study's findings support previous research indicating that (1) local community journalism is characterised by a mix of crime reporting and news coverage of fires and accidents, on the one hand, and positive human-interest stories about social club activities, cultural events, health and sports, and school life, on the other; and that (2) citizen journalists tend to rely heavily on first-hand witnessing and personal experience due to a general lack of access to official sources of information.     

Journalism Meets Management

The development of news production over the last decade has accentuated the negotiation between two forces of change: professional discourse and managerial discourse. The first characterizes journalistic identity by normative ideals and serves to legitimize journalists as an autonomous and self-regulating group. Managerial discourse, on the other hand, expresses the globalization of values and economy in the labour market, as well as in the area of communication, streamlining organizational models, and suggesting a business thinking common to several industries, in addition to an evolving view of the individual as an entrepreneur. Managerialism has implications for all levels of news work and, above all, emphasizes audience orientation, as the will of the audience becomes imperative. It promotes a form of leadership rather new to Scandinavian news organizations by strongly bringing the key values of profit and efficiency to the negotiating table. This article focuses on the constant negotiation between discourses by drawing empirical support from three survey studies of editors-in-chief and journalists in Sweden. It describes how editors-in-chief perceive their own role to be changing and why, and attempts to relate the new forms of leadership to current professional developments in journalism.     

Measuring Effectiveness in a Virtual Library

Measuring quality of service in academic libraries traditionally includes quantifiable data such as collection size, staff counts, circulation numbers, reference service statistics, qualitative analyses of customer satisfaction, shelving accuracy, and building comfort. In the libraries of the third millennium, virtual worlds, Web content and remote customer populations mean that traditional measures of quality service are no longer complete. Applying methods to quantify effectiveness is vital to future success, and is a necessary precursor to examining quality of service. This case study of a small, virtual academic library, created to serve a non-traditional student population, faculty, and community, illustrates the use of measures such as the saturation rate of student population, the percentage of bibliographic sessions and orientations compared to number of courses offered, and Web site traffic patterns. As library services are affected by factors such as self-sufficient customers, declining physical collections, staff cuts, and increases in virtual traffic, all types of academic libraries may find it useful to implement the relatively uncomplicated data analysis explored in this article, in addition to established methodologies.     

High Res at High Speed: Automated Delivery of High-Resolution Images from Digital Library Collections

As primary source materials in the library are digitized and made available online, the focus of related library services is shifting to include new and innovative methods of digital delivery via social media, digital storytelling, and community-based and consortial image repositories. Most images on the Web are not of sufficient quality for most media outlets, so what happens when patrons require high-resolution versions of images for use in their print publications or projects? Until recently, patrons at the University of Houston Libraries used a clunky, paper-based request process for high-resolution images that was frustrating for them and time-consuming for staff. The authors of this article outline how an interdepartmental team of University of Houston Libraries staff used Drupal to develop an automated patron request system that is modeled after online shopping cart experiences and integrates with the CONTENTdm-based University of Houston Digital Library. The article provides suggestions for libraries with digital collections about how to create a system that efficiently captures patron requests and streamlines staff delivery of high-resolution files.     

Interpreting Scores from Standardized Tests

This essay seeks to establish a metaphor of the professional practice of teaching to the attributes and training of an offensive lineman in the game of American football. Effective classroom instruction does not rely exclusively on a rare set of talents but rather rests on the commitment to the work of teaching. Like the position of offensive lineman, the profession of teaching is one of service. And more, it is one in which the person's performance can blossom through intense determination. An invitation is offered to serve as an effective teacher.