ERDAL - Cross-Media (Re)Production Cultures

Cross-Media (Re)Production Cultures
Ivar John Erdal
Convergence 2009; 15; 215
DOI: 10.1177/1354856508105231
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Abstract

Complex media organizations contain a number of different journalistic cultures, and the introduction of convergence and cooperation across media platforms poses a number of challenges related to this. 

This article looks at production cultures in an integrated news broadcasting organization. What happens when convergence strategies meet the web of inter-organizational subcultures associated with television, radio and the web? One significant development is that of new journalistic hierarchies related to increased reuse of content in news production processes.

One of the main arguments for cross-media journalism from a management perspective is that
spending fewer resources on republishing and updating news makes it possible to channel resources towards doing ‘real journalism’. As a result, old hierarchies are supplemented by new ones. 

One of them is the emerging division between those reporters being given more time to research their own stories and do ‘real journalism’, those working mainly with updating or developing news stories that are already made, and those reproducing content for a different platform.

Conclusions

Complex media organizations contain a number of different inter-organizational sub -cultures. This article has discussed some of the challenges that arise when these journalistic cultures meet as a result of convergence and cooperation across media platforms.

Research question 1 asked about how the tension between organizational and professional culture in?uences cross-media practices. What we see is a marked ambivalence towards convergence in the organization, expressed by different opinions about the topic amongst professional subcultures. These differences, combined with the traditional hierarchical culture of broadcast journalism, represent significant challenges for cross-media cooperation.

The tradition of rivalry between television and radio goes way back in news broad-casting. This conflicting duality creates hostile fronts between cultures of production and complicates cross-media culture, even as the number of media platforms increase. 

Another factor complicating the strategy of creating a shared, cross-media culture, is the tension between cooperation and internal competition. Although the NRK is one news organization, internal competition proliferates. The production cultures of journalism honour the exclusive story. Cooperation across media platforms within the NRK is there-fore closely linked to competition. There is a marked difference between what is regarded as ‘common news’, news that is shared by all media, and exclusive stories, though this is less pronounced at the regional office than at the central newsroom.

Related to this are journalistic identities and notions of ‘quality’. Do reporters identify themselves primarily with the organization or with their ‘mother medium’? The answer is that this may change according to the type of news in question. The relationship between different departments and platforms consists simultaneously of cooperation and competition. The journalistic desire for the exclusive story to be held back for their own primary medium prevails in constantly negotiated con?ict with the greater good of the organization. Journalists identify themselves to a large extent with their primary medium, but this is changing. 

The question of what defines quality journalism may slowly be changing, as the ideal of the highly specialized radio or television professional is complemented by the versatile cross-media reporter. The notion of the NRK legacy of quality being under attack from cross-media journalism is contested by arguments about the benefits for the NRK in the news battle against competitors.

We have to conclude that with regard to the question about whether convergence and increased cross-media cooperation is good or bad for media organizations and news journalism in general, the jury is still out. 

This is indicated by the differences in opinion expressed by my informants, where one group sees convergence as jeopardizing the quality of the news, while another group sees it as necessary to keep up the quality of the news. Both sides thus talk about maintaining quality journalism, but with very different answers as to how this is to be done. The convergence-negative group argues that journalists still have to be highly specialized in their medium of choice, while the positive group thinks that what is more important is the ability to see the media platforms together, and what news fits where.

These views of convergence and cross-media work correspond to findings reported by Cottle and Ashton (1999), Singer (2004) and Huang et al. (2006) in British and American newsrooms and also discussed by Deuze (2004), showing that professional subcultures are persistent over time, and across national borders.

Research question 2 asked about changes in the daily work routines and roles of reporters. What we see is a development towards increased stratification or polarization between reporters. The demand for news content has increased through new platforms and more news programmes, or slots on existing platforms. Media organizations striving for organizational and journalistic convergence therefore seek a synergetic mode of production (Boczkowski, 2004; Deuze, 2004; Erdal, 2007; Singer, 2004).

One of the strategies for achieving this synergy is to spend fewer resources on reproduction of news by doing it more efficiently. This means less customization for each platform, and more cut-and-paste journalism. As one self-reflecting editor puts it: ‘We want to have important journalism on the web. But what is really done is that you kind of feed off the journalism that is made for other media’. This makes it possible to channel resources towards ‘real journalism’. 

One group of reporters is given more time and resources to research and produce their own stories, at the expense of another group having to work more efficiently with news updates and reproduction.

In both parts of the organization, the web is marginalized in relation to a strong television/radio culture. The web is used as a reproductive platform, relying heavily on reproducing already-produced content for radio and television, not only using television footage and radio sound as part of web articles, but transcribing and reversioning news stories. While ambitions for independent production may exist, there are few or no resources for newsgathering or for independent reporters. Whereas the traditional hierarchies of broadcast journalism have been those of television versus radio, strati?cation is made more complex as increased reproduction and republication has given heightened status to those reporters given time to do investigative journalism, regardless of platform.

Klinenberg (2005: 56) points to a similar development in American newsrooms. He describes the introduction of a system of stratification where elite reporters are given time to do large projects, while other, ‘second-tier’ reporters are responsible for the daily workload. What he does not account for is the further tightening of the screw associated with digital, cross-media production, where groups of reporters are primarily working with updating and reproducing news stories for different platforms. This is especially relevant for the web, but also for radio and television bulletins. The growth in reproduction and republication has thus contributed to further stratification between reporters.

Singer argues that while web reporters may be innovators of convergence journal-ism, they are unlikely to be opinion leaders for the organization as a whole, ‘because other journalists are unlikely to look up to them’ (Singer, 2004: 16). She explains this by their being young and inexperienced. Equally important, I would argue, is the status of the web as a reproducer of content within a broadcasting logic (Deuze, 2004).

Whether these hierarchies will persist over time, or will change as the new forms of cross-media work ‘matures’ in the organization, is not easy to say. Further research is needed in order to understand the implications of these ?ndings. One perspective is that of the status of public service in a converging media environment. The NRK website, at the time of this study, was not part of the NRK’s public service remit, but discussions were held at a political level about whether it should be included. The practice of reproducing news from radio and television (which is financed by a licence fee) for the website (which is commercially financed) is highly relevant for this discussion.

NOTES (ed GGA)

In the first years of the new millennium, news journalists have experienced significant forces of change related to technological developments and convergence – both within and between media organizations.
...

•    Seen from the outside, the news output of broadcasters in general has expanded rapidly since the early 1990s, and covers a wide range of media platforms from television and radio to teletext, web and mobile phones.

•    Seen from the inside, many broadcasters have undergone profound changes in the organization and practices of production.

This is perhaps most evident with regard to production for multiple platforms in integrated newsrooms. The platforms of radio and television have been converging in terms of production processes and, later, web and other platforms such as mobile phones have been added.

Journalism for multiple media platforms has been called multimedia journalism (Deuze, 2004) or convergence journalism (Huang et al., 2004).

The present article uses the term cross-media journalism, emphasizing the relationship between different media platforms.

This concept describes

•    communication or production
•    where two or more media platforms are involved
•    in an integrated way.

The essence is whether the different media platforms ‘talk to each other’.
Of particular interest is the development towards increased reproduction of news, and its implications for the daily work routines of reporters in a converged newsroom.

Complex media organizations contain a number of different cultures (Kifng-Shankleman, 2000; Singer, 2004). The introduction of convergence and cooperation across media platforms poses a number of challenges.

This article discusses implications of the meeting between different journalistic cultures in a digital, cross-media context.

By journalistic cultures, I mean
•    how different production environments
•    conceptualize and
•    practise news journalism.

One underlying premise is the increase in reproduction of news texts across media platforms.
•    The demand for news content has increased, because of new platforms and more news programmes, or slots on existing platforms.
•    Media organizations striving for organizational and journalistic convergence, therefore, seek a synergetic mode of production (Boczkowski, 2004; Deuze, 2004; Erdal, 2007; Singer, 2004).
•    One strategy for achieving this synergy is increased reproduction of news across media platforms.

This article is concerned with the implications of this development for the everyday work routines and roles of journalists.

Why is this interesting?
•    The phenomenon has implications for most modern media organizations when it comes to
o    everyday news work conditions,
o    journalistic hierarchies,
o    the question of authorship and journalists’ control over their news stories, and
o    the development of public service broadcasting towards public service (multi)media.

Existing research on this topic can be identified along two main lines:
•    that of newsroom convergence, and that of
•    journalistic professionalization and organizational culture.

[T]heoretical and methodological ‘lens’ of culture:
•    a pattern of shared basic assumptions
•     that a group learned
•    as it solved its problems
•    of external adaptation and
•    internal integration,
•    that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore
•    is taught to new members of the group as the correct way
o    to perceive,
o     think and
o    feel
•    in relation to those problems. (Schein, 2004: 17).

o    Culture within an organization … can also consist of several distinct cultures (Singer, 2004: 14).
o    Cultural factors may encourage or hinder convergence (Quinn, 2005: 36).
o    Previous studies have shown that cooperation between traditionally separate media operations often results in conflict, misunderstandings and resistance to change (Cottle and Ashton, 1999: 29),

Singer (2004: 10) argues that the idea of convergence journalism comes into conflict with traditional newsroom values in two major areas:
o    medium-specific culture and
o    professional competition.

This relates to the difference between  corporate cultureo    how the culture of an organization is perceived by its members, and how the organization’s values, language and rituals influence their behaviour, and professional culture 
 o    the way in which professionals (doctors, professors, journalists) identify with their profession more than with their organization (Sylvie and Moon, 2007: 92).

In the case of the NRK,
o    professional culture will be that of (news) journalism, and
o    industry culture, that of broadcasting.

Inter-organizational subcultures can be based around
o    different production environments (television, radio, web) or
o    hierarchical levels (management, journalists).

Since Cottle and Ashton’s (1999) seminal study of changing journalist practices at the BBC in the wake of digitization, ‘newsroom convergence’ has emerged as a sub-field of media studies in general, and production studies in particular.

Boczkowski (2004) and Klinenberg (2005) have both studied digital technologies in newsrooms from the view-point of the digitalization of print media and the production of content for multiple platforms.

Others have noted the divergence, or fragmentation, in news journalism following convergence processes (Deuze, 2004, 2007; Singer, 2004).

In the body of research into newsroom convergence, two particular themes stand out.
o    A technologically oriented branch is occupied with analysing the role of new (digital) technology in news work (Boczkowski, 2004; Boczkowski and Ferris, 2005; Huang et al., 2004; Pavlik, 2004; Ursell, 2001). Another,
o    more organizationally oriented branch concerns itself rather with studying newsroom convergence from a sociological point of view (Dupagne and Garrison, 2006; Klinenberg, 2005; Silcock and Keith, 2006; Singer, 2004).

A recurring topic in both branches is whether convergence has jeopardized the quality of news journalism.

Another is how journalistic hierarchies are affected by convergence. Arguably, traditional stratifications have a strong influence on production cultures in a cross-media environment, and television is usually still regarded as the goal of a broadcast journalist’s career (Cottle and Ashton, 1999). After convergence, a new polarization has formed, where multimedia journalism is generally seen as less prestigious than working for one medium (Deuze, 2004: 145). Studying a regional office of the BBC, Cottle and Ashton (1999: 33) however found that convergence led to flattened hierarchies.


Definitions of convergence in a journalism context sometimes strive towards an ideal of ‘full convergence’ where
o    ‘the key people, the multi-media editors,
o    assess each news event on its merits and
o    assign the most appropriate staff for the story’ (Quinn, 2005: 32)
or
o    ‘hybrid teams of journalists . . .
o    work together to
o    plan,
o    report, and
o    produce a story,
o    deciding along the way
o    which parts of the story are told most effectively
o    in print,
o    broadcast, and
o    digital forms’ (Daily et al., 2005: 5).

This article adopts a more pragmatic definition, like the one provided by Deuze, who sees convergence journalism as
o    ‘(increasing) cooperation and
o    collaboration
o    between formerly distinct
o    media newsrooms’ (Deuze, 2004: 140).

Research Questions  

Two research questions,

o    one focusing on the tensions between different subcultures,
o    the other examining how the increase in repurposing of content affect journalistic hierarchies:
RQ1:     How does the tension between organizational and professional culture influence
    Cross-media work practices at the NRK?
RQ2:     How does the increase in reproduction of news content across media platforms
    influence journalistic hierarchies and the roles of different reporters at the NRK?


The Case

My approach to the field of cross-media news journalism is an intrinsic case study (Stake, 2000) of a single news organization: the Norwegian public service broadcaster NRK.

The cases studied are two parts of the NRK news division (NYDI):
o    the central newsroom at Marienlyst and
o    the regional office ?stlandssendingen, both located in Oslo.

- The news output of the NRK has increased significantly from 1995 to 2007
- News for television, radio and teletext were produced in separate departments within the NRK.
- In 2007, the NRK produced and broadcast news for four radio channels (one of which is 24-hour news radio), two television channels, teletext, web and mobile media. The production of news for different media was integrated in one department.

The two cases were selected for two reasons.
o    One was to cover the complexity of the NRK as a news organization, and not only focus on the central newsroom.
o    The other reason was the possibility for a comparative perspective, seeing the similarities and differences between a large and a fairly small newsroom.

My aim is to say something about the sphere of cross-media news journalism through a study of two NRK newsrooms. To what extent is this possible? …
o    the status of convergence in Norwegian news journalism varies greatly from one media organization to the next (Hjeltnes et al., 2007: 13).
o    the ‘levels of convergence’ range from almost completely separate to closely integrated in terms of cooperation between media platforms.

Nordic public service organizations are situated in …..the North European Democratic Corporatist Model.
o    high degree of political parallelism in the media (considerably weakened during the last generation),
o    a high level of journalistic professionalization, and
o    a tradition for self-government and limits to state power over the media
(Hallin and Mancini, 2004: 144–5).

Organizational Versus Professional Culture in a Cross-Media Environment

Research question 1

Managers expressed a desire to strengthen the NRK as a news provider, regardless of media platforms.

The strategy is, in other words,
o    to strengthen the organizational culture of the NRK news department and
o    ease con?icts between subcultures within the organization;
o    to emphasize the interests of the NRK as a multi-platform media organization and not a set of individual departments.

What happens when this strategy meets the diverse intra-organizational subcultures associated with television, radio and the web?
o    Some of the challenges in integrating these departments into one organization, as perceived by the NRK management, was, and still is, related to the identities of journalists being closely connected to their primary medium (Erdal, 2007).
o    Several editors describe the experience of trying to integrate the cultures of radio and television during the ?rst phase of convergence journalism as highly challenging.
o    While reporters belonging to radio and television were physically relocated, it proved dif?cult to get from just sitting side by side to actually cooperating:

There was a lot of secrecy. Hush hush. You didn’t tell others about things, and saw each other as competitors. It was a professional and social milieu, but if you had a good story going for [television], you didn’t tell the radio people about it, and vice versa. (Specialized section editor)
This conflict was less pronounced at the regional of?ce. Originally making only radio, this of?ce started television news production almost overnight. There was thus no issue of merging two strong, separate, cultures into one.

This, so far, is the management or editorial view.


Conflicting Views of Cross-Media Work

How do reporters relate to this? .. reporters are roughly divided into three:
o    those that are positive,
o    those that are negative, and
o    those that are positive in theory but reluctant in practice.

The positive group

o    have a distinct tendency to think of the NRK as the most important entity, not each single media platform
o    The general view amongst this group of informants is that the legacy of the NRK as a news institution is best continued by cooperation.
o    This group of informants report that they make an extra effort to make material available for the web desk, or write web articles themselves, either because
o    they feel an obligation for making the NRK bene?t from their work, or
o    because they want their news stories as widely published as possible: ‘I write articles for the web because I like it’, and ‘I think this is important for the NRK as an organization. We are a team, and the NRK should sort of be best on all platforms, not only one of them’, as one television reporter put it.

The majority of this group consisted of younger radio reporters.

The negative group

Television reporters dominate the negative group, and
o    express a strong identi?cation with their prime medium.
o    the general view … is that cross-media journalism is degrading the quality of the news, and
o    that the legacy of the NRK as a news institution is best continued by specialization:

The reluctantly positive group
o    express the same positive arguments about cross-media journalism as the positive,
o    but argues that, in a usual day, the workload and time pressure do not allow for a lot of thinking about anything other than your primary medium and the next deadline.

One of the elements frequently cited by informants as important for creating a shared identity across the entire NRK news department is knowledge about the other platforms and their needs.

A majority of the informants see it as an asset or a quality in a journalist of being able to master different platforms. Even while not working for several platforms on a regular basis, the understanding of ‘how things are done’ in other platforms facilitates cooperation and sharing of information:


Same Goal, Different Solutions 

… the conflict between organization and medium …is also about what editors and journalists perceive to be best for the NRK as a news organization; in other words, how they de?ne ‘quality‘ in terms of public service broadcasting and news production.
o    The main argument of the cross-media-negative subculture is that cross-media journalism affects the quality of the end product, the news, in a negative way. … … quality goes down when the journalist is not able to focus on one medium.
o    The cross-media-positive subgroup emphasizes the value of cross-media work and cooperation for the NRK as a whole; to make the NRK product the best possible in the news battle against competitors.

The attitude towards cross-media journalism is divided along media lines.
o    Radio reporters are generally more positive, while
o    television reporters are more sceptical.

The majority of informants say that cross-media cooperation is desirable on the research stage of the ‘convergence continuum’ (Dailey et al., 2005): ….. in the planning and information gathering stages . (Television reporter)

Another bump in the road towards convergence has to do with journalistic ambition and competition. The professional culture of journalism hails the exclusive story (Singer, 2004:10). Cooperation across media platforms within the NRK therefore is closely linked to competition.

This mixture of cooperation and competition is described by Dailey et al. (2005) as ‘coopetition’.

There is a marked difference between what is regarded as
o    ‘common news’, that is, news that is shared by all media, and
o    exclusive stories (Fj?rvik, 2007).

When a news story is the result of extensive research, however, the media platform, or indeed the specific programme, gets more important.
o    This is partly due to programme identity,
o    partly because this kind of news is not expected to be picked up by other media, hence no need to get it out there before anyone else.
If you have a good news story going for radio, you keep it to yourself (radio reporter).

As these interview statements indicate, reporters have a fair amount of autonomy regarding how much they wish to embrace cross-media cooperation.
o    When developing investigative stories, editors discuss whether it should go out ?rst on radio or television.
o    In case of disagreement, the golden rule is that the medium where the reporter in question works has the rights to the story. Medium identity is given more weight than institutional identity.
In the coverage of common news, however, the organizational culture gets the upper hand. Then it is more about beating the external competitors; publishing as fast as possible, regardless of platform.

Professional Culture and Journalistic Hierarchies: Who is Doing ‘Real’ Journalism?

Research question 2 asked how the increase in reproduction of news content across media platforms in?uences journalistic hierarchies and the roles of different reporters.

As mentioned, traditional hierarchies have a lingering in?uence on production cultures in digital environments.

According to my findings, convergence has not led to flattened hierarchies at the NRK.
o     As one television reporter puts it: ‘Every-body wants to work for television.’
o     The web has a far lower status.
o    In the opinion of a radio reporter ‘it is two different cultures, I think, television and radio. It is like Dagsrevyen is the big thing traditionally, that there is a kind of a hierarchy in the air’.

Some of this can be explained by external factors
o    such as visibility and
o    audience ratings,
but also
o    production costs.

Usually, reporters learn the craft and routines on radio, where it is less dangerous to do something wrong. Television has a tighter production schedule, and it is more expensive to throw a television report in the bin.

Visibility is also used against [TV reporters] by radio reporters arguing that the simplicity of the radio platform allows more time to concentrate on journalism.

At the regional office, this line of argument is taken further, and is re?ected in the roles of the different platforms in the total news output (Erdal, 2007).
o    Resources for investigative journalism are allocated to radio and news stories run ?rst on radio.
o    It seldom happens that something runs on television without it ?rst being broadcast on radio: tele-vision reporters mainly follow up the stories that have run on radio during the morning.
o    The web feeds on the information going through the radio desk editor, and makes versions of radio stories for the web.
At the central newsroom, … a brain drain from radio to television.
o    Radio takes care of recruitment and training and, after a while,
o    many of them move over to television, never looking back

Cross-mediality challenges some fundamental myths at the NRK, being that at the top of the hierarchy is television reportage for Dagsrevyen. And then you have some kind of invisible status ladder below that.

New Hierarchies of Reproduction

One of the quality-related concerns often raised in relation to multiple platform publishing is that the same content is reproduced for several media; that content convergence prevails over plurality.
o    As the number of platforms and programmes increase, more slots have to be ?lled with news.
o    More resources are put towards reproducing or reversioning news for different programmes and platforms: ‘There’s a lot of cut-and-paste going on among the different desks.
o    While the demand for news, and for new versions for other programmes and platforms, has increased tremendously, resources have not:
o    ‘We have to work more efficiently, and that is where cross-mediality comes into the picture. If we can spend fewer resources on news updates, which is important, we can spend more on long term, investigative journalism’ (special section editor).

.. old hierarchies are supplemented by new ones;
o    one of them being the emerging division between reporters given more time to research their own stories and do ‘real journalism’, and
o    those working mainly with updating or developing news stories that are already created.
o    digital cross-media news production has added a new step at the bottom of the ladder for those reporters mainly working with reversioning already-produced news stories for a different platform. This last category is mainly associated with the web, but is also found in less prestigious slots on other platforms.

At both the central newsroom and the regional of?ce, the web is treated or used as a reproductive platform. The news that is published on the web is based on what is produced by the rest of the organization, for radio and television. The web desk has one reporter on duty to write independent news articles, but that reporter is generally used to fill holes in the work schedule

What we have seen is a complex web of stratifications that not only distinguish
o    between media, but also
o    between
o    reporters who are given more time to research their own stories and do ‘real journalism’ and
o    those working mainly updating or developing news stories that are already made.
o    At the bottom of the ladder are those reporters mainly reversioning already-produced news stories for a different platform.