Steen Steensen

Online Journalism and the Promises of New Technology : a Critical Review and Look Ahead

Research about online journalism has been dominated by a discourse of technological innovation. The “success” of online journalism is often measured by the extent to which it utilizes technological assets like interactivity, multimedia and hypertext. This paper critically examines the technologically oriented research about online journalism in the second decade of its existence. The aim is twofold. First, to investigate to what degree online journalism, as it is portrayed in empirical research, utilizes new technology more than previously. Second, the paper points to the limitations of technologically oriented research and suggests alternative research approaches that might be more effective in explaining why online journalism develops as it does.

WHAT'S STOPPING THEM?

Findings in recent research suggest that online journalism is much less innovative than many researchers and scholars predicted a decade ago. Research into online journalism has, however, been biased towards a focus on online news journalism, thereby neglecting the magnitude of new styles and genres that are currently emerging online. In this paper the findings of a longitudinal ethnographic case study of the development of a section for feature journalism in the Norwegian online newspaper dagbladet.no is presented. The study is framed by an understanding of innovation as a process where organizational structures and individual agency interact. The findings suggest that individual action has been downplayed in previous research as a determinant for processes of innovation in online newsrooms, and that a substantive grounded theory of innovation in online newspapers is comprised of five factors: newsroom autonomy, newsroom work culture, the role of management, the relevance of new technology and innovative individuals.

Theories of Journalism in a Digital Age

This special issue introductory article investigates contemporary notions of theory in journalism studies. Many scholars have argued that we need better ways of conceptualising what journalism is and how it develops in a digital age. There is, however, a lack of knowledge regarding what the theoretical trends within the interdisciplinary domain of journalism studies are today and to what extent contemporary inquiries into journalism are framed by emerging theories and perspectives. To fill this knowledge gap, we have conducted an analysis of more than 9000 metadata keywords and 195 abstracts found in the first 14 volumes (2000–2013) of the two most internationally acknowledged journals dedicated to journalism studies: Journalism—Theory, Practice and Criticism and Journalism Studies. The findings indicate that there has been a move towards greater theoretical awareness in journalism studies since 2000 and that the variety of theoretical approaches has increased.

The shaping of an online feature journalist

This article explores the professional role and normative demands of online feature journalists. Through a longitudinal ethnographic case study of the work practices of feature journalists in the Norwegian online newspaper dagbladet.no, the article uncovers how the normative demands of a new professional role are negotiated within the online newsroom of a newspaper. It further reveals how the role of journalists is shaped by two axes: a historical axis of factors that have shaped the role of journalists throughout history, and a contemporary axis of the particulars of labour in modern society at large. The findings suggest that online feature journalists practise a more audience-driven and source-detached kind of journalism than their print counterparts. They further suggest that the remediation of feature journalism online yields increased status to the role of online journalists at large.

What's stopping them? : towards a grounded theory of online journalism

Findings in recent research suggest that online journalism is much less innovative than many researchers and scholars predicted a decade ago. Research into online journalism has, however, been biased towards a focus on online news journalism, thereby neglecting the magnitude of new styles and genres that are currently emerging online. In this paper the findings of a longitudinal ethnographic case study of the development of a section for feature journalism in the Norwegian online newspaper dagbladet.no is presented. The study is framed by an understanding of innovation as a process where organizational structures and individual agency interact. The findings suggest that individual action has been downplayed in previous research as a determinant for processes of innovation in online newsrooms, and that a substantive grounded theory of innovation in online newspapers is comprised of five factors: newsroom autonomy, newsroom work culture, the role of management, the relevance of new technology and innovative individuals.

Theories of Journalism in a Digital Age: An exploration and introduction

This special issue introductory article investigates contemporary notions of theory in journalism studies. Many scholars have argued that we need better ways of conceptualising what journalism is and how it develops in a digital age. There is, however, a lack of knowledge regarding what the theoretical trends within the interdisciplinary domain of journalism studies are today and to what extent contemporary inquiries into journalism are framed by emerging theories and perspectives. To fill this knowledge gap, we have conducted an analysis of more than 9000 metadata keywords and 195 abstracts found in the first 14 volumes (2000–2013) of the two most internationally acknowledged journals dedicated to journalism studies: Journalism—Theory, Practice and Criticism and Journalism Studies. The findings indicate that there has been a move towards greater theoretical awareness in journalism studies since 2000 and that the variety of theoretical approaches has increased.

COZY JOURNALISM: The rise of social cohesion as an ideal in online, participatory journalism

In recent years applications like CoveritLive have diffused with great speed throughout online newsrooms. Such technologies create an interface where audience participation and journalistic reporting potentially merge into a text-production system marked by a high degree of immediacy and interactivity. This paper investigates the consequences of such practices for the professional ideology of journalism. What norms and ideals do journalists who initiate and partake in such practices adhere to? To what degree does their practice conflict with traditional ideals of journalistic reporting? The paper analyses the “live” coverage of football matches in the two most popular Norwegian online newspapers, VG Nett and dagbladet.no. The findings suggest that the merger of audience participation and immediacy creates conflicts of ideals for the journalists involved, and that ideals of subjectivity and social cohesion are promoted by such practices of journalism.

ONLINE FEATURE JOURNALISM

Although online journalism is still dominated by breaking news coverage, new genres are emerging that differentiate it more and more from old media journalism. This article explores the emergence of feature journalism in online newspapers. Through comparative qualitative text analysis of feature journalism in the US online newspaper palmbeachpost.com and the Norwegian online newspaper dagbladet.no, two widely different approaches to the production of feature journalism on the Web are uncovered and a critical perspective on the remediation of journalistic genres in online newspapers is elaborated. The analysis shows that both these approaches display a clash between discourses of traditional feature journalism and discourses of online communication. It further reveals that genre development in online journalism is a complex process marked by contradictions and inconsistencies and that online newsrooms are struggling to find solutions on how to differentiate online journalism from old media journalism.

Conversing the audience: A methodological exploration of how conversation analysis can contribute to the analysis of interactive journalism:

This paper argues that conversation analysis (CA) has much to offer studies of online interactions and, particularly, online interactive journalism. CA provides a methodological opportunity to closely investigate the structure of public discourse in new media platforms, and power relations between journalists and audiences in instances of interactive journalism. The paper introduces CA and discusses how it may be combined with other methods in order to pinpoint the characteristics of online interactions in general and interactive journalism in particular. In the second half of the paper, the CA-inspired methodological approach used to analyse a case study of an interactive live blog in the Norwegian online newspaper VG Nett is presented.

Dialogue as a Journalistic Ideal

Discussions and practices related to participatory and interactive journalism emphasize the dialogical aspects of journalism. However, throughout history, the idea of dialogue in journalism has taken a variety of forms. This paper places dialogue as a journalistic ideal under scrutiny. Our aim is twofold: first, we map out the development and different functions of the ideal in some decisive eras in the history of journalism and in the current context of digital journalism; second, we present a model of how to best capture and understand the significance of dialogue to contemporary journalism. The model is based on an exploration of philosophical preconditions for dialogue as an ideal in journalism. We will also look at the significance of dialogue in different genres and in interactive dimensions of journalism.