Amy Schmitz Weiss and Vanessa de Macedo Higgins Joyce
Journalism 2009 10: 587
DOI: 10.1177/1464884909106534
Abstract
This study explores how much the concept of globalization via the internet is transforming the occupation of journalists.
This research relied on the expertise of online journalists from Latin America, North America and Europe through their participation in three sets of online focus groups.
Ourfindings pointed to a perception by these specific online journalists of a compressed social distance between themselves and the audience, as well as a more compact time dimension impacting the news cycle.
This study supports similar findings of the roles, responsibilities and resources of media workers in other digital occupations, where requirements of multitasking and adaptability are necessary. This exploratory study aims to serve as a foundation to explain how this online medium is evolving and how online journalists perform and operate within it.
Conclusion
This exploratory study of the journalism profession supports similar findings of the roles, responsibilities, and resources of media workers in other digital occupations (i.e. web production houses, television and film, advertising and gaming industries) (Damarin, 2006; Deuze, 2007). As an exploratory study, the discussion presented here should not be treated as empirical evidence nor is it meant to be generalizable. What the researchers propose here is to expand the understanding of the work of online journalists from their own viewpoint. We suggest that scholars exploring this topic should conceptualize the work of an online journalist within the realm of digital occupations. As such, online journalism reflects a mixture and transfer of tasks among individuals with a form of flexibility and adaptability that requires them to focus not on a specific task but on web production as a whole.
Web work has what I have termed a 'modular' occupational structure, in which distinct sets of tasks are not permanently assigned to workers but rather mixed and matched in the composition of jobs and in the contents of careers; workers identify less with particular task sets than with Web production as a whole. (Damarin, 2006: 431)
In addition, participants of this study indicated that they share some aspects with other digital media occupations. One of these aspects is their perception of the connection between work and audience as being necessary to the production process. The required flexibility and fluidity for their performance, based on the time pressures, are also aspects that translate across other occupations in the digital media industry.
While some perceptions of the changing role of online journalists were commonly expressed by journalists of different professional cultures, other changes faced more resistance and were expressed more in terms of their localized sense of belonging.
This study sought to address the question of how much globalization is influencing an occupation, journalism, in the digital media industry. It sought a deeper understanding of international online journalists' perception ol their changing role, and how they are influenced by the resources available to them via technology used or accessed in their daily job routines. They share common characteristics with other workers in the digital media industry -the fluidity flexibility and adaptability required to do their creative work.
NOTES (ed GGA)
The internet … has also influenced the labor force with new technologies and ways of working and organizing for those in digital media occupations. One digital media occupation that can be closely examined is journalism.
In the field of journalism, globalization and the internet have generated a completely new way of transmitting information.
There are new processes for accessing information, gathering, storing and presenting news, and identifying what is newsworthy.
With journalism being part of the digital media occupation, journalists today are frequently faced with the transference of duties and additional tasks.
They are also faced with a fusion of job responsibilities and the mixing of competencies (Rintala and Suolanen, 2005; Damarin, 2006).
The environment dictates a form of flexibility and fluidity that is needed in the completion of tasks and work (Slotteroy Johnsen, 2004; Deuze, 2007).
Journalism online is perhaps the medium where the compression of time and space can be most clearly seen, with its 24/7 cycle, the lessening of social space between producer and recipient, and the potential to reach supranational audiences.
It has also created a unique opportunity for citizen participation in the news process (Reese et al., 2007). However, journalists enter this new and evolving field using traditional remnants of the industry.
…
This exploratory study aims to deepen the discussion of how globalization and technologies, through the internet, are changing the work of journalists.
- To what extent are these changes universal?
- In what instances are localized perceptions of the work of journalists in disagreement with global perspectives?
- This study builds its discussion on the analysis of the perceptions presented by an international group of online journalists, collected through a series of focus groups.
The online journalist
It's only through the greater understanding of online journalists and their daily routines that the field of journalism can be comprehended within today's world, and have its future role anticipated. …
Technological changes over the years in the journalism field have ranged from the adoption of computer pagination to computer-assisted reporting to digital photography.
In particular, technology has had an impact on the way the newsroom operates and is becoming a main factor in the newsgathering process, 'As these changes reveal, technology alters the nature of work in an organization, as well as the degree of control over the work process and sometimes the worker, by the manager' (Sylvie and Witherspoon, 2002: 48).
In particular relation to digital media work, technology can be considered using Pavlik's framework of technologies (Pavlik, 2005). His framework addresses technology from broad categories that include
- acquisition devices,
- storage technology,
- processing technology,
- distribution technology and
- display or access devices.
Method
This exploratory study relied on the expertise of international online journalists and employed online focus groups as the method. …
The method of the focus group is well established in the social sciences (Chase and Alvarez, 2000). Lunt and Livingstone found that 'the resurgence of interest in the focus group interview in social science research, including media and communications, is part of the move toward qualitative methods' (1996: 79).
They also found that the method is especially useful in discovering meanings and understandings from participants. The focus group method has been traditionally conducted face-to-face, where participants would convene in a set location for the purpose of the study. For this study, our focus groups were conducted online, facilitating a real-time interaction among our participants and allowing our multinational comparative perspective.
Compressed time in online journalism
The flexibility and fluidity that is expected in the digital media industry is based primarily on time, which brings new pressures and demands on the workers who work with the internet (Deuze, 2007).
With the internet, time has been compressed. …
In all of our focus groups, online journalists mentioned the importance of keeping content updated throughout the day. They feel the pressure of their audiences wanting updates and new information each time they visit the site.
Limitations
In concluding our results from this study, it is necessary to mention its limitations.
- These results do not represent all online journalists but serve as an expert group's insight, a small cross-national group of online journalists' perceptions and beliefs about their daily work and routines. …
- Secondly, the method utilized in this study, online focus groups, made it possible for us to unite online journalists from different countries, virtually, and have a discussion of their evolving roles.
- Finally future studies on this topic should include more participants from additional media systems and from more countries. This study only featured a few journalists from a few countries and media systems. This comparative research only skims the surface of how globalization is influencing journalists' work, their perception of how the journalism profession is changing and the direction they believe the changes should go in, and, consequently, how journalists see their role evolving.
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