Journalistic Routines Research Articles

Evolving Social Media Strategies in Local Journalism: Experiences from Argentine Patagonia

Studies on journalistic work and production on social media typically focus on large media outlets in developed countries. In this article, we shift the lens to a peripheral area of a peripheral country: Argentine Patagonia. Our objective was to analyse journalistic production on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter in the eight most-followed local and regional news media outlets. We analysed the narratives, the extent to which they apply transmedia journalism, and how they have evolved compared to studies from 2021. We also conducted structured interviews with social media managers to gain insight into their professional practices. We conclude that, 15 years since the creation of the first profiles, promoting website content remains the primary goal of North Patagonian media networks. Since 2021, there have been more frequent updates but less native production, especially on Facebook and Twitter. Despite the shortage of staff and precarious working conditions, some news media outlets have been able to innovate on Instagram, introducing a variety of multimedia formats, a more conversational tone, diverse update rhythms, adapted content, and even specific content that is organised into sections. Information production for the platforms has been integrated into journalistic routines even when public interaction with the audience remains very limited.

AI Implementation Strategies in the Spanish Press Media: Organizational Dynamics, Application Flows, Uses and Future Trends

This research analyses the artificial intelligence application strategies adopted by the Spanish press media at the height of the generative AI boom, extending previous studies on integrating AI technology into journalistic routines. We studied the dynamics of implementation of AI solutions in the main newspapers in Spain, determining the departments or professionals involved, the current uses, and how AI affects their organization chart and professional profiles, as well as providing insights into the future trends of this technology in the sector. For this purpose, a qualitative methodology was employed, based on interviews with a purposive sample of executives from the 10 newspapers with the largest circulation in Spain: El País, La Vanguardia, Marca, La Voz de Galicia, As, ABC, El Mundo, El Correo, El Diario Vasco and Mundo Deportivo. The results reveal that AI is conceived in the Spanish press media as an assistant aimed at optimizing all kinds of mechanical processes and existing products, not at amplifying coverage or generating final pieces that reduce the standard of quality essential to their subscription model. Groups such as Prisa, Vocento or Unidad Editorial centralize their AI strategy, while Grupo Godó delegates this management to its headers. These newspapers consider that AI will boost the renewal of job profiles in their structures, despite the fact that they do not currently have strictly specialized professionals.

Twitter: A necessary evil? Journalistic responses to Elon Musk and the denormalization of social media

The normalization of social media (notably Twitter) into journalistic routines has been well documented in research, even as social media use sometimes remains a source of conflict with traditional journalistic values and norms. In 2022, after Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the normative implications of social media use came into sharp focus for journalists, as Musk ushered in a series of platform changes perceived as unfavorable for the journalistic profession. Focusing on the French media sector in 6-month period after Musk’s takeover, this study aims to explore what happens when journalistic digital tools are disrupted. Through a combination of semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and content analysis of French news articles, I show that Musk’s actions as CEO prompted journalists to question the broader legitimacy of social media as a journalistic tool. However, rather than abandoning Twitter entirely, journalists employed strategic disconnection in order to reconcile their continued Twitter use with their normative discomfort. These findings not only provide empirical evidence on the effects of Musk’s takeover, but also showcases how strategic disconnection can be used as a method of resistance to unwelcome influences in the media sector.

Assigning Responsibility for Depression and Diabetes: Frame Building Factors in Health Coverage

ABSTRACT Although frame building is a crucial part of framing in health communication, it is much less understood than media frames or their effects on audiences (i.e. frame setting). To address this research gap, we analyzed the individual, organizational, and external factors of influence contributing to the media’s portrayal of responsibility for two major health issues: depression and diabetes. To identify relevant factors, we conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with German journalists who regularly report on these health issues. Our findings indicate that the way in which media coverage portrays responsibilities in depression and diabetes is affected by a variety of factors. These include individual (journalist role perception, journalistic routines, academic background and personal experiences with depression, diabetes-related knowledge, and personal values and beliefs), organizational (editorial lines, space limits, time limitations and payment, and newsroom structures), and external (health news sources, audience interest, newsworthiness, and social norms) factors. Notably, there are differences between depression and diabetes coverage – especially regarding individual factors – confirming that frame building, similar to framing in general, should be examined with regard to specific issues. Nevertheless, some factors that seem important across different topics could be identified.

Arab News Sources and Practices in Times Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities for Sociology of News Research

ABSTRACT The relationship between journalists and news source has been challenged by new digital technologies, the crisis in public communication and the multiplication of sources of information and news, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which has transformed journalistic routines and audience behaviour. Existing research on news sources has contributed to our understanding of which voices dominate the news agenda in normal conditions, but there remains little research on the news sources and journalists’ relationship during crisis, particularly in non-Western contexts. In this paper, we seek to partially address the lacuna, drawing on semi-structured interviews with selected journalists from across the Arab world to address the effect of COVID-19 on journalists’ relationship with their news sources and what we call source cultivation practices in a region where traditional forms of personal networking as well as cultural norms have defined the relationship between journalists and news sources in the legacy media. In addressing these issues, this paper contributes to research on news sources during crises while drawing attention to the theoretical and methodological gaps in news sources research in the region as well as the continued dominance of Western- and media-centric paradigms in the broad field of the sociology of news production.

Exploring News Innovations, Journalistic Routines, and Role Perceptions during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Egyptian Journalists

ABSTRACT Drawing on in-depth interviews with 21 Egyptian journalists, this study offers a comprehensive understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic has reconfigured news work and journalistic routines in Egyptian newsrooms. In so doing, the paper examines the various technical and logistical challenges encountered by Egyptian journalists as well as their changing role perceptions during the emergency health crisis. It further investigates the innovative practices adopted by newsrooms, on both the news content and newsroom levels, to overcome those challenges in terms of sourcing norms, news production routines, and storytelling formats. Findings demonstrate that Egyptian journalists struggled at the beginning of the pandemic, but started to find creative solutions to overcome the many practical and infrastructural challenges. The pandemic accelerated the digitization of editorial news production systems and the unprecedented adoption of news automation and artificial intelligence technologies. More dependence on interactive digital storytelling formats and data visualization tools was reported. Journalistic innovation occurred therefore as recombination of already existing products or services, but not new inventions. In terms of role perception, there was a shift to a more facilitative role, in which science and more quantitatively oriented forms of journalism play a central role.

Framing the gig economy: Delivery riders in Spanish media (2015–21)

Riders or delivery messengers are currently a symbol of job insecurity. However, companies in the so-called gig or platform economy continue to present themselves as modern ones, technologically adapted to the new scheme that defines the twenty-first century. The article analyses, from the perspective of framing and journalistic routines, the media coverage (press) of the main delivery companies in Spain: Glovo and Deliveroo. Using a longitudinal sample of 764 pieces of news drawn from the six most important Spanish newspapers from January 2015 to December 2021, we explore the conditions under which this information is prepared and how this determines the frames of their narrative. This article exposes the principal media frames used in the news treatment of the rider phenomena and analyses its causes, focusing on structural elements in the journalistic routines from a materialist perspective. In short, this article focuses on an analysis of the collision of frames as a continuation of the capital/labour struggle in the media sphere.

“We F—ing Got Osuna”: Examining the Maintenance of Patriarchy and Journalistic Routines in A Major League Baseball Clubhouse

ABSTRACT Elite professional athletes in the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB have all been accused of domestic violence. This occurs in a cultural arena already predicated on patriarchy and capitalism and rife with toxic masculinity, which combine to create traumatic, gendered realities for women sports journalists and violent and exploitative labor norms for athletes. Through a critical discourse analysis of 76 articles from U.S. newspapers, magazines, and online news sites, this study examines the specific case of a 2019 outburst from Houston Astros assistant general manager Brandon Taubman, who directed pointed praise of an Astros player accused of domestic violence at three female sports journalists, one of whom wore a domestic violence awareness bracelet. By examining news coverage of this prominent incident — and the meta-journalistic discourse that permeated it — this study identified three problematic discursive maneuvers through which journalists avoided directly addressing the topic of patriarchy and its influence in this incident and the wider sports industry, while instead prioritizing issues of journalistic credibility and baseball culture and minimizing domestic violence as strategic distraction.

An Intersectional Analysis of U.S. Journalists’ Experiences With Hostile Sources

Given rising hostility toward journalists in the United States, this monograph illuminates how journalists experience hostility from news sources. Drawing on 38 in-depth interviews with U.S. journalists, this project uses the theory of intersectionality to understand how journalists experienced hostility and how they changed their journalistic routines in response. Participants described four forms of hostility from news sources: general distrust of the news media, boundary crossing, safety-violating hostility, and microaggressions. Boundary crossing was primarily used toward younger women, and microaggressions were used toward White women and men and women of color. Although safety-violating hostility occurred least often, it was the most intense form of hostility and was disproportionately experienced by women, whose gender, race, age, tenure, and even their geographical location worked against them to create hostile and unsafe situations. These findings should inform how news editors think about story assignments and reporters’ safety on the job so that editors empathize more with reporters and do away with more dangerous reporting scenarios, such as person-on-the-street interviews and door knocking. Finally, as many reporters were unprepared for the hostility they experienced, journalism instructors should focus on hostility as a reality journalists will likely face in the field.

Visual Framing of the Rohingya Refugees: A Comparative Examination from Newspapers in four Countries

Media depictions of refugees play a significant role in determining public attitudes toward policies and dispensation of aid. Given this centrality, the study analyzes prominent visual frames of the Rohingya refugee crisis in newspapers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, the United States, and Canada. We also examine the frames qualitatively. Findings show that overall coverage tended to focus on negative aspects by highlighting refugees’ vast numbers, vulnerability, gendered stereotypes, and dependence on Western benevolence. Results show cross-cultural appeal of frames such as “Exodus” and “mother and child,” both of which have roots in the Biblical tradition. Even though visuals came from different sources, there were not many differences among the newspapers. This suggests the role of standardized journalistic routines across multiple organizations.

A Short Honeymoon. The Italian Press and the Coverage of the Government’s Strategic Communication on COVID-19

ABSTRACT Emergency situations like the COVID-19 pandemic are key drivers of strategic communication. Governments must implement communication strategies for ensuring the well-being of citizens, to enforce social control policies responding to a health emergency. Choosing Italy as case study, this analysis focuses on the press coverage of the government’s strategic communication of such policies, during two different pandemic waves in 2020, evaluating if the press supported or hindered it. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, we identified which criteria of newsworthiness have influenced news media coverage. In other words, our focus will not be strategic communication per se, but on agenda setting. By understanding the COVID-19-related agenda of newspaper discussions, we will be able to assess whether and how “news values” have influenced the media coverage of the government’s strategic communication, and how this has influenced the perception of citizens. Our results offer a contrasting picture: during the first wave, a sort of “honeymoon” between the institutions and the press emerges. During the second wave instead, the journalistic routines of the Italian media system- partisanship and conflictual narrations- influenced the narration of the pandemic, undermining the effectiveness of the strategic communication of Covid-19 social control policies.

Eyewitness Memory in Journalistic Context: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Study Post-Event Misinformation Effects

ABSTRACT The malleability of memory has been a long-standing concern of memory scientists. Scholars have specifically warned about the dangers of misleading post-event information, because such erroneous messages could lead to reconstruction of eyewitness memory. Whereas much research on false post-event information is focused on eyewitness testimony in police investigations, the role of news media in influencing eyewitness memory has not been fully explored. Almost no eyewitness misinformation research has been placed in journalistic contexts, whereas journalists have two paths to induce false memories: they can influence eyewitness memory by asking misleading questions and by publishing false eyewitness accounts. This manuscript is intended as a call to action for interdisciplinary approaches in studying journalistic routines that may influence eyewitness memory.

INFORMATIVE PRODUCTION OF THE WRITTEN PRESS IN ECUADOR FROM A HUMAN RIGHTS PERSPECTIVE

This article presents the analysis of the news production of El Extra, La Hora and La Gaceta, three written media in Ecuador with the highest national, regional and local circulation respectively. The objective was to determine to what extent their contents are generated from a human rights perspective. Thus, two aspects were addressed: 1) informative production based on the index of violation of rights in the media, and 2) evaluations of journalistic discourse in relation to themes, sources, images and headlines. A mixed approach was used through content analysis and a focus group (FG) in which journalists participated. Among the most relevant results, the predominance of content that violates rights in two of the three media stands out in the indicators overrepresentation of reality and manipulation, although in the indicators ridicule and misuse of language there is no prevalence, there is a significant frequency of content who use language inappropriately and discriminate against individuals or groups. In addition, the differences in the organizational dynamics of the media affect journalistic routines and need to promote permanent training mechanisms on human rights.

Resisting the resistance (journalism): Ben Smith, Ronan Farrow, and delineating boundaries of practice

In May 2020, New York Times media columnist Ben Smith critiqued Ronan Farrow, charging Farrow with practicing “resistance journalism.” Smith’s column generated significant discussion among journalists. This article analyzed the metajournalistic discourse that emerged following Smith’s column to examine how journalism’s boundaries are negotiated and contested. “Resistance journalism” has three main elements: it is unobjective, targeted, and truth-bending. “Resistance journalism” falls outside of the boundaries of journalism, according to the discourse, due to three practices: it lacks verification, focuses on narrative, and has a propensity to advocate. We argue that the current political economic and technological disruptions within digital media and networked society are creating new spaces for the rhetorical competition over journalism to occur, upending journalistic routines and creating hybrid journalism cultures.

Journalistic routines as factors promoting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has reportedly been rising in polio-stricken Pakistan. Prior research reports a variety of contributing factors including information sources, particularly the newspapers readers generally consult to stay abreast of vaccine roll-out developments. This viewpoint article argues that three commonly practised journalistic routines – as explicated by Tandoc and Duffy – are promoting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Urdu-language newspaper readers in Pakistan. The first is a distinctive news sourcing routine, in which extracts of news items reporting COVID-19 vaccine campaigns from across the globe are combined in one news story, which is useful to keep readers updated but compromises the journalistic principle of completeness. Second, news values, which may determine the newsworthiness of a vaccine-related event, might reduce public trust in ongoing vaccine roll-outs. Third, an innovative news structure with striking headlines is used to make a newspaper visually appealing but may also support generalised impressions of the adverse effects associated with COVID-19 vaccinations.

The Coronavirus Pandemic as a Critical Moment for Digital Journalism

The coronavirus pandemic has had a profound impact on all spheres of society, including journalism. It has brought about dramatic changes in journalistic routines and working practices, as well as in audience behavior. In this introduction to a special issue of Digital Journalism focused on the impact of the pandemic, we make the case that it should be seen as a critical moment for journalism – a moment of significant importance and reconsideration of past, present and future. This view of the coronavirus crisis as a critical moment can reveal multiple co-occurring, partially overlapping and, in some cases, also paradox developments: it can be (a) a turning point, (b) a transformation, (c) an amplifier, (d) a starting point or (e) destruction. The articles included in the special issue reveal the multitude of profound effects the coronavirus crisis has had on journalism in a very short time span and elaborate on the potential upheaval this may bring in the future. Ultimately, the crisis represents an opportunity to rethink the meaning and practices of digital journalism. It invites journalism researchers to explore new and innovative methods, as well as the reassessment of existing categories, concepts and theories.

Subverting Journalistic Routines: When Political Satire Intervenes to Challenge Public Broadcasting National Discourses

ABSTRACT Comparing and contrasting the journalistic routines that manifest in a Zimbabwean political satire show, The Week with Cde Fatso, and those manifesting in content from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation Television, the study argues that political satire’s alternativeness as a form of journalism lies in its journalistic role performance. By subverting conventional journalistic routines, satire can offer an alternative version of journalism that is overlooked by traditional media due to different forces. Under Zimbabwe’s conditions, The Week has risen to fulfil interventionist, watchdog and civic journalism roles that have been neglected by the national broadcaster.

Native Advertising in the Chinese Press: Implications of State Subsidies for Journalist Professional Self-Identification

This article reports a case study on how government-sponsored native advertising influences everyday practices of journalism and journalists’ role identification in China. The process is the result of the state attempt to centralize control in response to digitalization that is, changing the press landscape. Building on social identity theory, we undertook an ethnographic fieldwork in a local party newspaper to observe how news organization and journalists make sense of the changes. Analyses show that, in addition to gains in material resources, the politics of native advertising also symbolizes new salient values for journalists whose professional identity swings between idealism and realism. The complexity of the phenomena under study reveals a plurality of meanings of the interplay among native advertising, journalistic routines, and the ever-shifting state-media relationship in China.

“You Had to be Reporting Constantly”: COVID-19’s impact on U.S. weekly newspapers’ journalistic routines

This study examines COVID-19’s impact on the journalistic routines of U.S. community newspapers during the pandemic’s early months. Oral history interviews with 22 journalists and state newspaper association directors indicate weekly journalists discarded entrenched journalistic routines to better serve their communities during a crisis. However, structural issues with business models, internet access and legal definitions of newspapers hinder weeklies from fully embracing the digital era during a crisis and in the long term.

Place, Power and the Pandemic: The Disrupted Material Settings of Television News Making During Covid-19 in an Indonesian Broadcaster

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant social distancing measures offer a compelling context through which to understand the changing relationship between journalism and place. Through an ethnography of news making at a major Indonesian news broadcaster, this study explored the material settings of news making during the pandemic and the consequences of the place-based realignments on journalistic practice, professionalism, and authority. Four main findings emerged. First, we found that as far as broadcast journalists are concerned there are no alternatives to the newsroom; making news in the newsroom was synonymous with their professional journalistic identity. A second finding is to highlight the key role of place in shaping press-source relations. In our case, the loss of physical proximity to government sources had major consequences for power relations between journalists and authorities. Third, certain news objects held particular meaning for journalists, and that when disrupted, can have deleterious consequences for their professional identity. Finally, our study witnessed an important shift in journalistic routines that favoured the live field report over pre-recorded packages or in-depth analysis. Findings are discussed in the context of ongoing debates about journalistic routines, identities, and the “material turn” in journalism studies.