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Thursday, November 10
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JOS02
Journalists and Their Sources: Practices and Perceptions
PP 078
Journalists and Techno Actors in the Newsroom: The Unbearable Lightness of Producing Together
J. Canavilhas
1
, I. Satuf
1
, D. Luna
1
, V. Torres
2
, A. Marques
3
, A. Baccin
4
1
UBI, Communication and Arts, Covilha, Portugal
2
UFBA, Salvador, Brazil
3
UnB, Brasília, Brazil
4
UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil
The processes of convergence and hybridization caused by media digitalization (Manovich, 2001, 2013; Merrin, 2014) are making journalism face new and
different challenges. One of these challenges takes place in the professional area, attending to the emergence of new actors in the newsrooms, including
multimedia designers and programmers. Canavilhas Satuf, Luna & Torres (2014) use the neologism "techno actors" to frame these professionals who have
a key role in the online newspapers, changing the previous power relations inside the newsrooms. In the traditional model observed by Breed (1955),
the newsroom had a vertical power structure where journalists negotiated to decide the covered subjects and the news production settings. Later studies
linked to the classical approach of newsmaking reinforced the central role played by journalists as control agents on the production and distribution of in‑
formation (Ericson, Baranek, & Chan, 1987; Gans, 1979; Tuchman, 1978). The presence of techno actors in the newsroomwith a key intervention at the level
of the news genres and languages based on image and databases has the potential to change this structure. From an instrumental point of view, techno
actors dominate the programming languages and the news edition software that affect the journalistic work in online newsrooms. In addition to these
instrumental questions, there is also a professional culture clash, since relationships between journalists and techno actors tend to create tension zones with
significant implications in the development of journalism: "Engineers who rarely think about journalism cultural or impact or democratic responsibility, are
making decisions every day that shape how news is created and disseminated" (Bell, 2015, p. 36). Journalists, who lead the traditional media newsrooms,
now need to establish negotiation mechanisms with designers and programmers, with its own logic and professional cultures, and work with the same
goal: to produce relevant journalistic information .. Royal (2012) raises some pertinent questions related to this new environment in the newsrooms: 'By
merging these cultures, what emerges in terms of a hybrid dynamic? How do the actors, their backgrounds and training, their processes and the organiza‑
tional structure affect the products they deliver?”(p. 8). In this research we add other issues: Can we still say that journalists are the centre of the working
network inside the newsroom? Could the emergence of new actors interfere with journalistic production mechanisms? Do designers and programmers
share with journalists the same concept of 'news”?To answers these questions, our research is carried out through interviews with journalists, designers and
programmers from six Brazilian and Portuguese online newsrooms. The interviews are structured with questions that seek to understand the negotiations
between the different actors (Robinson, 2011). The study shows that overcoming the difficulties depends on obtaining basic knowledge of the different
functions that would improve communication in newsrooms and improve news production. The interviews also indicate that the present and the near
future of online journalism depend on the presence of professionals with different backgrounds that dominates a kind of "liminal knowledge", although
professional hybridization is yet looked upon with reservation.
PP 079
Collective Memory, (Dis)Continuities and Journalism – How Journalists Shape the Past Within the Boundaries of Today’s News Media
D. Prandner
1
1
University of Salzburg, Communication Studies, Salzburg, Austria
From the horrors of World War 2, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to the Arab spring or the nuclear disaster of Fukushima it often falls to journalists to shape,
disseminate and maintain the collective memories specific societies associate with specific events. Although the just listed examples are globally discussed
developments, this is also true for many regional developments like hundred year floods or smaller political upheavals, which are embedded in the collec‑
tive memory of smaller communities. Even though there is a substantial number of research projects and scientific publications dealing with the relation
of journalism and collective memory (e.g. Zelizer & Tenenboim-Weinblatt (eds.) 2014) the discussion has been mostly concerned with journalistic output –
articles, news stories, reports etc. – which are seen as part of the "social framework of memory”(Olick 2014, 27).The role of journalists – both, as a group as
well as individuals –, who are responsible for the creation of these news, has been largely marginalized and seldom the focus of empirical research. In many
cases general concepts about the work of journalists are used as frame of reference, but explicit work on how journalists are involved in shaping collective
memories remains largely theoretical. Therefore, it is argued in accordance to sociologist Jeffrey C. Alexander (2012, 16 & 22) that it is necessary to take
a more specific look at journalists, as they are to be understood as core carriers with a societal claim to establish meaning (Alexander 2012, 16) within their
corresponding public spheres. By doing so it becomes possible to discuss with the following questions, which shall help understand the relevance of the in‑
dividual journalist for the emergence and maintaining of collective memory: • How are journalists shaping and maintain the meaning associated with pasts
events?What kind of sources are used to do so?What institutional and societal influences and boundaries are core in this process? • How is the work on anni‑
versaries or commemorative events affected by the individual journalist’s normative predispositions? Does a journalist’s interpretation of a past event relate
to his or her work on a topic? • How do journalists deal with discontinuities, as interpretations of past events become problematic because of contemporary
political and societal developments? To do so, the paper will draw upon data from a recent research project (2012–2015), during which Austrian journalists
from quality newspapers "Der Standard" and "Die Presse”, the Austrian public service broadcaster "ORF”as well as the news magazine "Profil”(n=26, long
form narrative interviews) were questioned about their anniversary and commemoration reporting of past events – both national as well as international
– while also being confronted with their own past work that dealt with such commemorative events. References: Alexander, J. C. (2012). Trauma: A Social
Theory. Polity. Olick, J. K. (2014). Reflections on the underdeveloped relations between journalism and memory studies. In Journalism and Memory (pp.
17–31). Palgrave Macmillan. Zelizer, B., & Tenenboim-Weinblatt, K. (Eds.). (2014). Journalism and memory. Palgrave Macmillan.