Engaged Journalism and News Work: A Sociotechnical Analysis of Organizational Dynamics and Professional Challenges

ABSTRACT

Building upon the sociotechnical perspective presented by Lewis and Westlund (2015, “Actors, Actants, Audiences, and Activities in Cross-media News Work: A Matrix and a Research Agenda.” Digital Journalism 3 (1): 19–37. doi:10.1080/21670811.2014.927986), this study examines organizational dynamics, technological affordances and professional challenges of engaged journalism practices by analyzing how Hearken, one of the most celebrated audience engagement companies, and its tools and services are being implemented in 15 U.S. news organizations. This framework identifies Hearken and organizations like it as important “external actors” providing technological “actants” that are shaping how newsrooms report the news by providing ways for audiences to be brought into producing the news, particularly during the earlier phases of the reporting process. Based on in-depth interviews, we find that nearly every news organization in our sample reports some measure of success by using Hearken for involving audience members throughout the production of news. At the same time, we also identify how this implementation is significantly shaped by organizational imperatives and the models particular organizations create for producing audience-centric news work. Ultimately, this study presents a partial update to the decades-long literature on participatory journalism by suggesting that engaged journalism practices actually create opportunities for meaningful audience involvement.     

Journalism in Disguise: Standpoint Theory and the Ethics of Günter Wallraff’s Undercover Immersion

ABSTRACT

Deception is a key element of immersive undercover journalism, achieved through the omission of information, the perpetuation of misconceptions, or possibly the assumption of a false identity. Usually when proponents defend going undercover, they use the-ends-justify-the-means arguments; that despite the journalist’s duplicity, public benefit outweighs the dishonesty that lies at the heart of the practice. Yet, such statements are usually made in the absence of in-depth theoretical analysis. This paper seeks to redress this by applying Standpoint Theory, testing it against the work of Günter Wallraff, Germany’s lauded but controversial undercover journalist who uses disguises to report on that country’s marginalized and disadvantaged. While the authors applaud Wallraff’s exposure of the deplorable illegal and immoral dealings he uncovers, and do not seek to dismiss the significant results he has achieved, this paper uses the case study of his work to test the applicability of Standpoint Theory to undercover journalism, concluding that even under this accommodating theory, there may be ethical limits to journalism’s most ethically contentious practice.     

道德和法律视野下记者拒证特权的思考

记者的拒证特权是其职业道德的最高要求,有极大的合理性和合法性,但和公正审判发生冲突,妥协是必然的,而世界各国法律对此划的界限也不尽相同。本文试图探索这一制度对我国的借鉴意义。     

事实客观性与新闻真实性的再解读

本文从事实客观性与新闻真实性的密切关联角度,通过对已有新闻真实性的若干论述剖析,结合马克思主义哲学原理和现实新闻事例,阐释了"新闻真实性是对事实客观性的反映"这一命题。     

Beyond Framing

Visual news media's framing has been well studied; however, production factors and cultural conditions involved in photographer–subject interactions have attracted less scholarly attention although they are no less influential in determining the depiction. Guided by social constructionism theory, in-depth interviews with staff photojournalists at a daily community newspaper in the Midwest and an analysis of their work revealed 22 variables that impact how and why images look the way they do. Photojournalists have complete control of only two of these variables, share partial control of 13, but have no control over the remaining seven. The photographers also shared insights into how to improve their journalism's verisimilitude when dealing with reactive subjects. The results support concepts of social constructionism that the subjects of photographs are most comfortable with photographers who share similar characteristics, but that some characteristics can have greater influence. The results also highlight areas where photographers might focus in pursuit of authenticity in journalistic photographs.     

Travel Journalists and Professional Identity

Online resources are increasingly facilitating research for those traveling for business or leisure. Professionally produced articles and guides are now consulted alongside TripAdvisor, blogs, wikis, and other non-professional sources. This research seeks to understand the role of travel journalists, to explore their occupational ideology and how they distinguish themselves from other content creators. Through content analysis and interviews with English-speaking journalist and bloggers who focus on Paris as a destination, researchers were able to identify an ideology specific to professional travel journalists. Ultimately they do not do anything that amateur writers cannot, and often rely on their branded publication to give them credibility. Travel journalists do, however, adopt some practices inherent to bloggers interviewed, including moving towards more personal writing and lowering reporting standards, while resisting social media. While in a moment of identity crises, travel journalists still differentiate themselves from bloggers, further research will reveal if this phenomenon is unique to a highly mediatized destination like Paris.     

Interviewing interviewers: Collecting,analyzing and generalizing from occupational life histories of journalists

This article considers the implementation of the life history approach in the study of media professionals, based on an analysis of the occupational life histories of 77 active and former Israeli journalists. The article first discusses the decisions made throughout execution of the project. Next, it explores three key features of the dynamics of life history interviewing. Finally, the article examines the ways in which data gathered through life history interviews can be generalized.