Newsroom Managers Research Articles

The Emotional Impact of Journalistic Images Depicting Natural Disasters on Affected Populations

ABSTRACT This study analyses journalistic images of the volcanic eruption of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) in 2021. We prioritized the perspective of image reception to find out the audience”s feelings and level of satisfaction. We also investigated the application of ethical recommendations and the presence of new trends in journalism in the coverage of this natural disaster. We surveyed a sample of individuals who were asked about their feelings, emotions, and level of satisfaction with the journalistic images of the event. The results reveal that journalism driven by spectacle and emotion prevailed over preventive, constructive and solution-oriented journalism. A noteworthy conclusion highlights the need for the ethical training of journalists and newsroom managers to promote modern, quality journalism. This necessity arises due to the increasing numbers of natural disasters affecting populations.

Transparency and fact-checking in open societies

Transparency is more than a motto for professional fact-checkers; it is a professional requirement that permeates their daily practice. Although transparency has been theorised and critiqued extensively in journalism studies, there has been less research on its practical implications for news workers. This paper aims to fill this gap by focusing on fact-checking practices in the Nordic countries. The paper highlights the double-edged sword of transparency by drawing on 14 semistructured interviews with fact-checkers and newsroom managers from the four independent fact-checking organisations in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Transparency is seen as a means to achieve accountability and credibility in reporting and as a tool to hold public figures accountable. However, transparency does not protect Nordic fact-checkers from criticism or harassment for delivering uncomfortable truths. This study also links fact-checkers discourses with the material traces of transparency on their respective websites, showing that transparency can be approached differently in practice. This research provides valuable insights into the nuanced role of transparency in fact-checkers’ daily routines while acknowledging its limitations in that transparency is not without flaws, even in societies characterised by a culture of openness and transparency.

What Is the Problem with Misinformation? Fact-checking as a Sociotechnical and Problem-Solving Practice

ABSTRACT Misinformation is a complex and global problem of social and technical dimensions. It is a problem that is exacerbated and sought to be solved by using diverse technologies. It is also a problem that flourishes on platforms and can lead to partnerships with platform companies. These sociotechnical dimensions of misinformation as a problem involve different actors. Some actors create or contribute to the problem, while others perceive it as their problem to solve and work to address it. Identifying the problem of misinformation is at the heart of the issue of problem-solving in fact-checking, as different actors have interests in how problems are discursively presented. This article draws on an international interview study conducted throughout 2020–2022 with 46 fact-checking actors (21 fact-checkers, 14 journalists, and 11 newsroom managers). This article analyzes how these actors reflect on “misinformation problems,” and how these problems become “fact-checking problems” for the actors to work with and solve. Ultimately, the article argues that fact-checking must be approached as a sociotechnical and problem-solving-oriented practice. Doing so highlights specific obstacles in information distribution and platform affordances.

“Let’s Not Tank the Reputation of This Organization.” How Newsroom Social Media Policies Exacerbate Journalism’s Labor Crisis

ABSTRACT This study explores the tension between journalists’ personal social media accounts and newsroom social media policies to understand how newsroom managers exacerbate journalism’s labor crisis by de-professionalizing the field through restrictive policies. To analyze this tension, we conduct a critical discourse analysis of (1) managerial discourses collected from newsroom social media policies and scholarly literature and (2) journalistic discourses collected from in-depth interviews with 37 U.S. journalists. We find that newsroom social media policies require journalists to make four sacrifices in service of their organization’s reputation: individuality, opinion, voice, and privacy. This leaves journalists feeling frustrated by their lack of agency when it comes to engaging with the public and pursuing social media success. We conclude that this conflict contributes to journalism’s human resources crisis by limiting journalistic professionalism and autonomy, both of which are crucial for job satisfaction and journalism’s democratic mission.

“It was all about being ‘young,’ ‘cute,’ and ‘funny’”: how women journalists assess harassment and gender inequalities in Brazilian newsrooms

ABSTRACT The article aims to investigate how Brazilian women journalists assess harassment and gender inequalities in newsrooms. By considering an array of female professionals’ testimonials, we also examine to what extent such burdens in the workplace harm journalists’ private life and professional routines. Based on 31 semi-structured interviews, we found that the main grievances include unfair treatment regarding career opportunities, moral and sexual harassment, and the recurrent discrediting of complaints addressed to newsroom managers. According to the interviewees, the lack of support from coworkers and media organizations contributes to a culture of impunity characterizing the industry. In addition, although women comprise the majority of workers in Brazilian newsrooms, they often do not receive the same acknowledgment as male journalists for their performance. Our research provides two contributions to the scholarship by systematizing the complaints reported by female journalists. First, we discuss how to improve professional support mechanisms at the level of news companies. Second, we reflect on how harassment and gender inequalities in newsrooms jeopardize professionals’ democratic roles in hostile political environments.

Critical capabilities in local media management – the recognition and perception of technological opportunities

ABSTRACT In the wake of recent trends forcing local news organisations to adjust business models, local news publishers are often challenged with recognising new technologies as business opportunities. This contribution investigates the role of localisation technologies by using an abductive qualitative approach. We analyse how local media managers’ everyday activities shape the capability of creating, identifying, and experimenting with new business opportunities in a local news media market – discussed here for location-based services (LBS) – in a case study of a local news market with local journalists with managerial responsibilities and newsroom managers. Doing so, this contribution comments on activities undertaken concerning evolving technologies. The findings indicate that the selected local media managers do not experiment with LBS, and most organisations use LBS only for advertising. We reveal the factors explaining this finding to be the media managers’ limited information about technological developments, their lack of experimentation within core areas, and media organisations’ constraints to the acceptance of mistakes.

Marketing the construction of reality: Multiplatform production routines and the renegotiation of journalistic role identities in a legacy local television newsroom

Times have changed since Warren Breed published his famous study, ‘Social Control in the Newsroom’. Today, corporate owners are requiring newsroom managers to adopt marketing strategies, launching many television newsrooms into routines similar to those of their newspaper-turned-online colleagues. This exploratory case study presents data from 6 months of observations of digital training in a legacy television newsroom, including interviews with the managers who underwent the training, conversations with newsroom staff, and a survey of that staff, all to explore how managers moderate between these corporate and journalistic needs by learning what corporations require as marketing-based multiplatform production routines and by helping journalists to reconcile their traditional role identities within these new newsroom requirements.

‘Our task is to demystify fears’: Analysing newsroom management of automation in journalism

The study explores uses of algorithmic techniques in journalists’ working environments and investigates newsroom managers’ negotiations of automation as innovation process aimed at ensuring partial or full replacement of human labour with technology. Drawing from 15 qualitative interviews with representatives of newsroom management from legacy news institutions in the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States, the study analyses their (cl)aims to maintain the newsroom as a stable, but dynamic working environment and reveals three dualist propositions when negotiating automation novelties – human journalistic agency stands in contrast to technology, skills are separated from newsworkers, and the creation of news contrasts with its presentation. The results show the interviewees re-articulate the dominance of human agency over technology, re-establish technological innovations as liberating newsworkers rather than subordinating them, and standardise news by re-evaluating the concept as both a civic bond and a commodity. Such considerations are detached from recent concerns about automation of human labour and closer to what we call algorithmic sublime, maintaining the newsroom management’s loyalty to both the professional values of journalism and the corporate goals of management.

Weathering the Storm: Occupational Stress in Journalists Who Covered Hurricane Harvey

ABSTRACTWhen a hurricane strikes, journalists provide description of what happens, keep the public up-to-date after the event, and even contribute to the recovery and resiliency of their community. These efforts place journalists in a position to suffer not only physical, but psychological stress symptoms. Using the Holistic Model of Occupational Stress as a framework, 30 local journalists who covered Hurricane Harvey were studied to discover the occupational stressors, emotional responses and mental health impacts associated with covering a hurricane where you live. Lack of schedule, few breaks from the tragedy, and long hours were significant organizational stressors while interactions with victims caused the most task-related stress. Focusing on the importance of what they were doing was the most significant positive emotional response. Additionally, 20% had storm related PTSD and 40% had depression. Implications for disaster coverage planning and newsroom managers are discussed.

Do Women in the Newsroom Make a Difference? Coverage Sentiment toward Women and Men as a Function of Newsroom Composition

Positive or negative media coverage may have important consequences for individuals’ lives and ability to succeed. One potential factor that may affect the tone of coverage, in particular for women, is the gender of newsroom managers. Some scholars have suggested that women in key editorial and managerial roles should have a positive effect on the overall coverage of issues in the news, and specifically on the coverage of women. We used fixed effects regression to analyze panel data on the coverage sentiment of 212 U.S. newspapers from various cities and states between 2004 and 2009 to examine the effects of the gendered composition of newsrooms on coverage tone for both men and women. Our results showed that individuals with female names receive more positive coverage than those with male names do in every section of the newspaper. We also found that increases in female representation on newspapers’ editorial boards resulted in coverage for women that is moderately more positive. However, there is no evidence that under female executive editorship coverage sentiment favors women. Our findings are consistent with the work of gender sociologists and media scholars who have highlighted the media’s rigid gender structures and their resistance to change.

Managerial competencies among first-line newsroom managers at small to medium-sized mainstream media enterprises in South Africa

Changes in the South African media and management environment have had distinct influences on especially small to medium-sized mainstream media enterprises (media SMEs) which often have to compete with bigger media organisations for the same news stories. Moreover, these media organisations are commonly faced with unique challenges related to human and other resources. This situation adds to the importance of effective and efficient management practices at these media sites. The management practices of first-line news managers in media SMEs are qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated in this paper by considering six managerial competencies found in general management theory. These competencies relate to communication, planning and administration, teamwork; strategic action, global awareness and self-management.

Rethinking accountability in contemporary media organizations

The recent past has shown that media organizations were not only unable to anticipate the international crisis, but also ill-equipped to help its audiences reflect on its implications. In this study, we analyze how the identity crisis that increasingly characterizes contemporary media industries impacts the traditional way news professionals deal with the questions of accountability. We set up three focus groups in South-Africa, France and USA involving newsroom managers to discuss their post-crisis perceptions of the changes in their professional conception of accountability. In this paper, we first explain and justify the use of this specific research method. Then we sketch the two main results emerging from the focus groups. Finally we embark on a philosophical analysis of the changes in the media industry by drawing on the work of Paul Virilio, in order to explore the acceleration in the media industry as a threat to accountability. In conclusion, we present the concept of relational credibility as a new form of professional accountability that makes journalists, publishers and readers co-responsible for the editorial content.

DI BALIK LAYAR BERITA KRIMINAL TELEVISI

Crime news is one of the programs that is still retained by several television stations in Indonesia. The policy implementation about this certainly comes with a reason. This paper draws the result of research on editorial policies of crime news programs on television stations in Jakarta, such as Indosiar, RCTI, SCTV, TPI, and Trans7. This research revealed variety of things that become the consideration why the television station managers still broadcast that program. Data were collected through indepth interview with the media newsroom managers. The results showed findings on crime news programs fluctuation, variety of criminal events that were aired, the determination on editorial policy of criminal programs, the factors that shaped the editorial policy, and the way media workers implemented the editorial policy at a practical level.

The News Organization in Uncertain Times: Business or Institution?

This study compares rational-choice economics approaches with institutional theory in assessing the ways news organizations respond to uncertainty. Rational-choice approaches suggest newsroom managers facing uncertainty will pursue “tight coupling” by monitoring audiences and collaborating with the newspaper's business side, while institutionalism suggests uncertainty will lead organizations to buffer themselves from their market environments and to mimic other news organizations. Findings from a national survey of editors and a content analysis of interactive features from newspaper Web sites reveal both institutional-ist and rational-choice tendencies. News managers are monitoring audiences, but monitoring is not strongly affecting decisions about content and online features.

The Challenge to Incorporate Teamwork as a Managerial Competency: The Case of Mainstream South African Newsrooms

This article outlines dimensions of teamwork as a managerial competency in South Africa’s transitional mainstream media newsrooms. It highlights differences on perceptions of the importance and implementation of this competency among respondents from reporter and first-line newsroom manager tiers, given media management transformation in a post-apartheid society. Moderately and practically significant effect sizes were calculated between the two respondent groups on all dimensions of the teamwork competency. Results emphasized the need to improve first-line newsroom managers’ teamwork abilities in efforts to improve professional newsroom operations.

Changes in News Work: Implications for Newsroom Managers

This article explores managerial changes at two basic levels, i.e., the task of managing and the resulting impact on the role of management. It begins by discussing the coming convergence, digitization, and industry change that directly impact the newsroom. The authors then deduce the main, functional shifts that will occur in the central management duties as well as the transitional skills that newsroom managers will need to develop. More importantly, it sets the stage for examining new roles and attitudes that newsroom managers and their organizations will find strategically and tactically essential—if somewhat cumbersome and not all together welcome.

Five Ws and an H: Digital Challenges in Newspaper Newsrooms and Boardrooms

It is no news to anyone involved with the media, from the newsroom to the boardroom to the classroom, that journalism is at a crossroads as an occupation, a business, a content form, and a public good. This is perhaps particularly true of journalism in the traditional news medium of record, the newspaper, where enormous uncertainty surrounds virtually every facet of the enterprise as it adjusts to being part of a digital network. This essay uses a framework familiar to journalists and journalism educators -- the traditional “five Ws and an H” of who, what, when, where, why, and how -- to address some of the significant issues facing corporate and newsroom managers, as well as journalists themselves.

The global village in a local context. Implementing global awareness as a managerial competency within South Africa's multicultural mainstream media newsrooms

Purpose: As part of a national research survey into the importance and implementation of six managerial competencies, this article aims to investigate the importance a national sample of reporters and first-line newsroom managers in South Africa's mainstream media attach to global awareness as a managerial competency. It also aims to establish gaps between the importance attached to and current implementation thereof by the latter. Design/Methodology/Approach: Qualitative and quantitative research designs were combined to obtain the most comprehensive view on the research problem. Quantitative data was compiled through self-administered questionnaires among first-line newsroom managers and reporters employed by the country's mainstream media. Qualitative data was obtained through semi-structured interviews and observational research. These sets of data were combined triangularly to improve validity and reliability. Quantitative data was analysed through factor analysis and effect size analysis, while qualitative data was analysed through qualitative content analysis.Findings: It was found that both respondent groups perceive first-line newsroom managers unable to implement the skills associated with the global awareness competency (given the importance they attach to it). While in some cases first-line newsroom managers themselves were more aware of their shortcomings, reporters highlighted other instances where they perceive their superiors unable to perform as expected. Implications: Given the challenges associated with globalisation, media managers need skills to identify and realise the impact of national and international changes on their business activities. South African media managers must also identify and address the challenges associated with the multilingual and multicultural backgrounds of their newsroom staff. Originality/Value: The dimensions of global awareness as a managerial competency are rooted in general management theory. In this article, these dimensions were applied in a media newsroom management context. There search thus investigated ways in which the effective and efficient implementation of these dimensions could contribute towards professional media output by South Africa's mainstream media.

The Sustainable Newsroom of the Future: Can Media Newsrooms Become Sustainable and Still Break the News?

This article is a case study examining the media's commitment to sustainability in one southern state. The researchers surveyed both broadcast and print newsroom managers in South Carolina and observed student run newsrooms within the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina. Interestingly, both print and broadcast news managers indicated that their organizations were committed to sustainability in the workplace. However, data suggest that sustainability appears to be basically disregarded in South Carolina newsrooms both professionally and student driven. However, the data did reveal results that could aid in the implementation of environmental friendly practices in a newsroom environment. Based upon their findings, researchers suggest a basic ten point plan for newsroom sustainability.

Influencing creativity in newsrooms: Work space matters to newspaper & web designers

This research examines the influences on the creativity of news designers. Results show that one of the most important predictors of high creativity levels was the type of office designers had. An office of one's own, or one shared with a few others, was significantly associated with higher creativity. A cubicle and no workstation that designers could call their own were related to lower creativity. In addition to the delicate task of nurturing the personality characteristics that are consistently predictive of creativity, newsroom managers should be encouraged to provide designers the kind of work situation that also is significantly associated with higher creativity. This is a much easier order to fill.