News media logic in a New Institutional perspective

Abstract

Media logic is the key to understanding mediatization and its driving forces. Since news organizations simultaneously are market and non-market organizations, media logic is conceived of as an institution that is both normative and market driven. Consequently, the definition of news media logic rests on assumptions from both the normative and the rational choice approach to institutions. Two sets of institutional rules are identified: professional norms based on values (independence and objectivity) and professional standards based on rules for the production of news (craft rules and form rules). The institutionalization of news media logic is conceived of as an evolutionary process, where the norms and standards are assumed to have emerged and become established endogenously. Thus, the process of institutionalization is believed to be explained primarily by processes of institutional learning. In order to justify the power of journalists, the very meanings of the norms of independence and objectivity have been widened, and the professional standards have become increasingly refined. My main conclusion is that news media logic has emerged as a single coherent institution in most Western democracies, and that the biggest democratic challenge is not the performance of the media, but the fact that journalists today can exercise a lot of power without any actual counterweights.