The Book
Making Online News:
The Ethnography of New Media Production
Edited by Chris Paterson and David Domingo
Published by Peter Lang in May 2008. Order directly from Peter Lang or at you favourite online or offline bookstore.
________________________
The objective of Making Online News is to bring the rich tradition of news production sociology to investigate the production of online journalism. This is the first edited collection of ethnographies of online newsrooms.
Enter the online newsroom
Until now, publications on the developing arena of online media have mostly consisted of theoretical discussions, descriptive overviews and empirical research focused on content, producer’s attitudes, and audience behaviours. Little has been published about the daily work of online journalists, how it differs from traditional media production, and what consequences it has for the character and quality of online news. We aim to fill this void. Research has tended to stay outside the doors of online newsrooms, and there is a lot to learn from entering.
Understand the development of online journalism
The chapters in the volume go beyond the usual discussion in online news debates on what the new medium could be; they show how the Internet has actually been incorporated to newsrooms and what decisions online editors and journalists have made. They explain that many factors constrain the development of online news; factors that we need to be aware of to take online journalism to the next step.
They describe, for example, how from the many ideals about how the Internet could make journalism better, only one, namely immediacy, has been widely adopted by online newsrooms. The professionals are exploring other ideals, such as interactivity, with reluctance. A reason identified by authors in the book is that immediacy resonates more easily with existing journalistic culture than engaging in a dialogue with the audience.
Ethnography let the authors understand the role of professional culture, business pressures, organizational change, competition, reporters’ technical skills and their image of the audience in shaping online news as we know it today.
A toolbox for professionals, scholars and students
Online editors often complain that they are exploring the Internet as a new medium without a map, and online journalism instructors say that they have a hard time explaining to their students the work routines of online newsrooms. This book offers tools for both of them: to make informed decisions and to describe in detail current developments and practices.
For scholars, this book is an invitation to follow the path of ethnography (usually neglected because it is time-consuming and offers results only after a long-term analysis) and counter the technologically deterministic approaches that are still often behind many studies of online news.
First-hand data, international scope
The book provides revealing, current qualitative data and innovative theory based on that data, with an international perspective that offers the reader the opportunity to understand the commonalities and differences of online journalism in countries such as the US, the UK, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Australia and China.