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personal experience (see alsoWahl-Jorgensen, 2014, 2015). By adding the study of emotion and affect to the conceptual tool set of journalism studies, we
not only acknowledge an important set of transformations and empirical findings, but also open up for a new research agenda which enables us to better
appreciate the widening horizons of journalistic storytelling. References: Chouliaraki, L and Blaagaard, B (2013) Introduction: Cosmopolitanism and the new
news media. Journalism Studies 14(2): 150–155. Papacharissi, Z (2014) Affective Publics: Sentiment, technology, and politics. Oxford University Press.
Coward, R (2013) Speaking Personally: The rise of subjective and confessional journalism. Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Wahl-Jorgensen, K (2014)
Changing technologies, changing paradigms of journalistic practice: Emotionality, authenticity and the challenge to objectivity. In Zimmerman, C and
Schreiber, M (eds) Technologies, Media and Journalism. Campus/Yale University Press, pp. 264–283. Wahl-Jorgensen, K (2015) Resisting epistemologies
of user-generated content? Cooptation, segregation and the boundaries of journalism. In Carlson, M and Lewis, S (eds), Boundaries of Journalism. London
and New York: Routledge.
PN 322
Journalism as Practice
T. Witschge
1
, F. Harbers
2
1
University of Groningen, Media Studies and Journalism, Groningen, Netherlands
2
University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
This paper will explore practice theory as a conceptual framework to theorize and examine the way journalism is developing in the 21
st
century. Traditional
news journalists have long been the ones who decide on the news of the day, but in the current digital age their monopoly on publishing information is
challenged fundamentally. With information abundant, and many new providers of news and information, there is not only increased competition for
audiences, but also for the understanding of journalism as cultural practice. The ways in which journalism is defined and how the journalistic profession
is conceptualised are in flux, and journalistic norms, work routines and audience interactions are changing. To make sense of these developments, and to
understand what journalism is, we argue, we need to let go of research approaches that use a priori definitions of what journalism or its societal function is.
Such perspectives put blinders on journalism scholarship, showing an overemphasis on journalism practice within traditional organizations. Furthermore,
traditional approaches to researching journalism generally regard journalism as a set of coherent practices, in which norms govern routines and routines
direct the characteristics of the output. This fails to acknowledge the non-coherent and at times arbitrary nature of practices, in which strategic claims and
everyday practices are not necessarily aligned and lofty ideals clash with commercial and practical constraints. We propose a practice theory approach to
study journalism as an open practice, acknowledging the very diverse range of actors with different ideas and approaches to journalism. Building on Gherar‑
di (2009) we consider practice as a form of collective taste-making. Journalism practices are the productive embodiment of ethical and aesthetic ideas about
what journalism should be and do. Yet, practices are not an instrumental expression of a set of preordained norms, but should be seen as an integral part
of the creative act of conceptualizing and constituting a practice. The performance of journalism practice and its appraisal constitute an ongoing process
of (re)negotiating and refining this practice. In the paper we draw on a diverse set of cases (drawing on interview data and content analysis), including
traditional and emerging forms of journalism, to show how journalism practice is an ongoing and reciprocal exchange between the actual journalistic per‑
formance and assessment of this performance. To put it in practice theory terms: we include both the sayings and the doings of journalism. Moreover, we
consider how this shapes and is shaped by their commercial, institutional and cultural environments and is part of a wider normative debate on journalism
and knowledge production at large. Ultimately we argue that studying journalism from a practice theory perspective does more justice to journalism as
an open, diverse and dynamic practice and is particularly suitable as an approach to journalism in the current period of fundamental change. References:
Gherardi, S. (2009). Practice? It’s a Matter of Taste! Management Learning, 40(5), 535–550.