In the digital transition within American newspapers, newsroom librarians were among the first newsworkers to have their labor automated. In response, these practitioners operating in converged newsrooms shifted their on-the-job routines and roles to align with the increasing centrality of machines in journalistic production. Using an actor-network approach, this research integrates in-depth interviews to explore how American newsroom librarians interface with machines in acting as guardians of institutional knowledge within news organizations. Examining the modern duties of newsroom librarians can provide broader context for the next generation of industry automation in journalistic practice.
AutorDH (2015) Why are there still so many jobs? The history and future of workplace automation. The Journal of Economic Perspectives29(3): 3–30.
2.
AvilésJAGCarvajalM (2008) Integrated and cross-media newsroom convergence: Two models of multimedia news production—The cases of Novotecnica and La Verdad Multimedia in Spain. Convergence14(2): 221–239.
BucherT (2016) ‘Machines don’t have instincts’: Articulating the computational in journalism. New Media & Society19(6): 918–933.
7.
BusternaJCHansenKAWardJ (1991) Competition, ownership, newsroom and library resources in large newspapers. Journalism Quarterly68(4): 729–739.
8.
CarlsonM (2015) The robotic reporter: Automated journalism and the redefinition of labor, compositional forms, and journalistic authority. Digital Journalism3(3): 416–431.
9.
CarlsonMUsherN (2016) News startups as agents of innovation. Digital Journalism4(5): 563–581.
10.
ClerwallC (2014) Enter the robot journalist: Users’ perceptions of automated content. Journalism Practice8(5): 519–531.
11.
CoddingtonM (2015) Clarifying journalism’s quantitative turn: A typology for evaluating data journalism, computational journalism, and computer-assisted reporting. Digital Journalism3(3): 331–348.
12.
CottleSAshtonM (1999) From BBC newsroom to BBC newscentre: On changing technology and journalist practices. Convergence5(3): 22–43.
13.
De MaeyerJLe CamF (2015) The material traces of journalism: A socio-historical approach to online journalism. Digital Journalism3(1): 85–100.
14.
DeuzeM (2005) What is journalism? Professional identity and ideology of journalism reconsidered. Journalism6(4): 442–464.
15.
DomingoDMasipPCostera MeijerI (2015) Tracing digital news networks: Towards an integrated framework of the dynamics of news production, circulation and use. Digital Journalism3(1): 53–67.
16.
Domínguez-DelgadoRHansenKAPaulN (2019) Educating journalism students about news archives: A global comparison with special focus on Spain and the United States. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator74(1): 3–16.
17.
EndresFF (1985) Daily newspaper utilization of computer data bases. Newspaper Research Journal7(1): 29–35.
18.
ErdalIJ (2011) Coming to terms with convergence journalism: Cross-media as a theoretical and analytical concept. Convergence17(2): 213–223.
19.
GoodeWJ (1961) The librarian: from occupation to profession?The Library Quarterly31(4): 306–320.
20.
GreenwoodKThomasR (2015) Locating the journalism in citizen photojournalism. Digital Journalism3(4): 615–633.
21.
GrintKWoolgarS (2013) The Machine at Work: Technology, Work and Organization. Cambridge: Polity.
22.
HammondP (2017) From computer-assisted to data-driven: Journalism and big data. Journalism18(4): 408–424.
23.
HansenKAPaulN (2015) Newspaper archives reveal major gaps in digital age. Newspaper Research Journal36(3): 290–298.
24.
HansenKAPaulN (2017) Future-Proofing the News: Preserving the First Draft of History. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
25.
HansenKAWardJMcLeodDM (1987) Role of the newspaper library in the production of news. Journalism Quarterly64(4): 714–720.
26.
HardtH (1990) Newsmakers, Technology and Journalism History. Critical Studies in Mass Communication7: 346–365.
27.
HemmingwayE (2007) Into the Newsroom: Exploring the Digital Production of Regional Television News. London: Routledge.
28.
HopkinsRL (1995) Countering information overload: The role of the librarian. The Reference Librarian23(49–50): 305–333.
29.
HuangEDavisonKShreveS, et al. (2006) Facing the challenges of convergence: Media professionals’ concerns of working across media platforms. Convergence12(1): 83–98.
30.
JacobsonTLUllmanJ (1989) Commercial databases and reporting: Opinions of newspaper journalists and librarians. Newspaper Research Journal10(2): 15–25.
31.
JönssonAMÖrnebringH (2011) User-generated content and the news: Empowerment of citizens or interactive illusion?Journalism Practice5(2): 127–144.
32.
JulienHGeniusSK (2011) Librarians’ experiences of the teaching role: A national survey of librarians. Library & Information Science Research33(2): 103–111.
33.
KahnRLWolfeDMQuinnRP, et al. (1964) Organizational Stress: Studies in Role Conflict and Ambiguity. Oxford: John Wiley.
34.
LanierJ (2014) Who Owns the Future?New York: Simon and Schuster.
35.
LatourB (2005) Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
36.
LewisSCKaufholdKLasorsaDL (2010) Thinking about citizen journalism: The philosophical and practical challenges of user-generated content for community newspapers. Journalism Practice4(2): 163–179.
37.
LewisSCWestlundO (2015) Actors, actants, audiences, and activities in cross-media news work: A matrix and a research agenda. Digital Journalism3(1): 19–37.
38.
LindeC (2008) Working the Past: Narrative and Institutional Memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
39.
LindenCG (2017) Decades of automation in the newsroom: Why are there still so many jobs in journalism?Digital Journalism5(2): 123–140.
40.
MartinN (2016) Information verification in the digital age: The news library perspective. Synthesis Lectures on Emerging Trends in Librarianship2(1): 1–51.
41.
McCainE (2015) Plans to save born-digital news content examined. Newspaper Research Journal36(3): 337–347.
42.
MontalTReichZ (2017) I, Robot. You, Journalist. Who is the Author? Authorship, Bylines and Full Disclosure in Automated Journalism. Digital Journalism, 5(7): 829–849.
43.
NapoliPM (2014) Automated media: An institutional theory perspective on algorithmic media production and consumption. Communication Theory24(3): 340–360.
44.
ÖrnebringH (2010) Technology and journalism-as-labour: Historical perspectives. Journalism11(1): 57–74.
45.
PavlikJV (1999) New media and news: Implications for the future of journalism. New Media & Society1(1): 54–59.
46.
PavlikJ (2000) The impact of technology on journalism. Journalism Studies1(2): 229–237.
PlesnerU (2009) An actor-network perspective on changing work practices: Communication technologies as actants in newswork. Journalism10(5): 604–626.
49.
PrimoAZagoG (2015) Who and what do journalism? An actor-network perspective. Digital Journalism3(1): 38–52.
50.
QuandtTSingerJ (2009) Convergence and cross-platform content production. In: Wahl-JorgensenKHanitzschT (eds) The Handbook of Journalism Studies. New York: Routledge, pp. 130–146.
51.
RadfordMLRadfordGP (1997) Power, knowledge, and fear: Feminism, Foucault, and the stereotype of the female librarian. The Library Quarterly67(3): 250–266.
52.
ReevesJ (2016) Automatic for the people: The automation of communicative labor. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies13(2): 150–165.
53.
ReichZBarnoyA (2016) Reconstructing production practices through interviewing. In: WitschgeTAndersonCWDomingoDHermidaA (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Digital Journalism. Los Angeles: SAGE, pp. 477–493.
54.
RobinsonS (2011) Convergence crises: News work and news space in the digitally transforming newsroom. Journal of Communication61(6): 1122–1141.
55.
SalcettiM (1995) The emergence of the reporter: Mechanization and the devaluation of editorial workers. In: HardtHBrennenB (eds) Newsworkers: Toward a History of the Rank and File. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 48–74.
56.
Schmitz WeissADomingoD (2010) Innovation processes in online newsrooms as actor-networks and communities of practice. New Media & Society12(7): 1156–1171.
57.
SingerJB (2004a) Strange bedfellows? The diffusion of convergence in four news organizations. Journalism Studies5(1): 3–18.
58.
SingerJB (2004b) More than ink-stained wretches: The resocialization of print journalists in converged newsrooms. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly81(4): 838–856.
59.
SouleG (1977) What Automation Does to Human Beings. New York: Ayer Co Publishing.
60.
SpyridouLMatsiolaMVeglisA, et al. (2013) Journalism in a state of flux: Journalists as agents of technology innovation and emerging news practices. International Communication Gazette75(1): 76–98.
61.
SpryidouLVeglisA (2016) Convergence and the changing labor of journalism: Towards the ‘Super Journalist’ paradigm. In: LugmayrAZottoCD (eds) Media Convergence Handbook Volume 1: Journalism, Broadcasting, and Social Media Aspects of Convergence. Berlin: Springer, pp. 99–116.
62.
SusskindRSusskindD (2015) The Future of the Professions: How Technology will Transform the Work of Human Experts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
63.
ThurmanNDörrKKunertJ (2017) When Reporters Get Hands-on with Robo-Writing: Professionals Consider Automated Journalism’s Capabilities and Consequences. Digital Journalism, 5(10): 1240–1259.
64.
TurnerF (2005) Actor-networking the news. Social Epistemology19(4): 321–324.
65.
UsherN (2017) Venture-backed news startups and the field of journalism. Digital Journalism5(9): 1116–1133.
66.
Van DalenA (2012) The algorithms behind the headlines: How machine-written news redefines the core skills of human journalists. Journalism Practice6(5–6): 648–658.
67.
WardJHansenKA (1991) Journalist and librarian roles, information technologies and newsmaking. Journalism Quarterly68(3): 491–498.
68.
WardJHansenKAMcLeodDM (1988) The new library’s contribution to newsmaking. Special Libraries79(2): 143–147.
69.
ZelizerBTenenboim-WeinblattK (2014) Journalism and Memory. London: Palgrave-Macmillan.
