Actor-Network Theory and Digital Journalism

Abstract

This article explores the potential contribution of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to the study of digital journalism. It argues that current usage of ANT within digital journalism studies tends to centre on the symmetry principle, or the idea that humans and nonhumans may be actors in an actor-network. In a review of the broader theory, the essay shows that the symmetry principle is one tool among others that may benefit the study of digital journalism. It then suggests that ANT’s non-spatial understanding of society may be especially helpful. ANT’s conception of social space has four principal advantages. It imagines news production as a series of news assemblages rather than a unified profession; it allows that not every actor in a news assemblage is a journalist; it does not equate proximity with meaning; and, it encourages assessment of the relative “strength” of a news assemblage in terms of recruitment and dissemination rather than cohesion and agreement. The essay concludes with a brief discussion of common criticisms of ANT.