Toward Hybridity? Nationality, Ownership, and Governance of News Agencies in Europe

Terhi Rantanen

doi:10.1177/1077699020923605

Abstract

This article explores the nationality, ownership, and governance of news agencies in Europe, and suggests that we need to rethink and problematize the categories previously used when studying these. Drawing on recent data from a pan-European study, the article suggests that the concept of hybridity could be applied to analyzing news agencies’ nationality, ownership, and governance. It reviews the concept through different fields: (a) cultural studies, (b) organizational studies, and (c) political-regime and media-system studies, each of these contributing to a complementary understanding of the concept of hybridity. It concludes that (a) the previously fixed categories of national and international news agencies have become more integrated, (b) the different ownership forms of national news agencies have been partly amalgamated in terms of both owners and clients, and (c) ownership category alone cannot determine whether governance is democratic or nondemocratic, so we also need to look at governance. The article suggests that, by using the concept of hybridity when analyzing news agencies, we are able to see crossing boundaries of earlier ideal types and even developing possible alternative approaches to studying news agencies in future.

Highlights

Witschge et al (2019) have recently argued that the field of journalism studies has overused the concept of hybridity, and that it is time to move toward new concepts
News agencies were largely a European invention and, apart from the Associated Press (AP) in the United States, most of the early national news agencies were founded in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Rantanen, 2009)
It has long been taken for granted that national news agencies have a “nationality,” as their names reflect—for example, Norsk Telegrambyra (Norwegian Telegraph Agency [NTB]), or Agence Telegraphique Suisse/ Schweizerische Depeschenagentur (Swiss Telegraph Agency [SDA])—and that the nationality and/or location is a crucial factor in analyzing their influence (Tunstall, 1977)

Summary

Introduction

Witschge et al (2019) have recently argued that the field of journalism studies has overused the concept of hybridity, and that it is time to move toward new concepts. Nationality, ownership, governance, hybridity, cooperative, private, state, public, Europe, organizations The concept of hybridity can be used in regime and media-system studies in three different ways: (a) to challenge the set-in-stone division between democratic and undemocratic regimes or (b) to challenge the separation of older and newer media logics, or (c) to argue for a blurring of boundaries between the system’s key components, such as news agencies, including organizational structures.

Results

Conclusion