“What we do is not actually journalism”: Role negotiations in online departments of two newspapers in Slovenia and Serbia

Abstract

This study offers insights into articulations between the normative and the empirical in online journalists’ self-negotiations concerning their roles in people’s assimilation of information, the daily provision of news and their institutional status in online departments. In-depth interviews with online journalists from two leading newspapers, Delo in Slovenia and Novosti in Serbia, are used to investigate their negotiations with respect to their societal role. The analysis reveals troubled negotiation processes among interviewed online journalists when they consider what is regarded as “true” journalism, news production requirements and their institutional status. This indicates that rearrangements of political–economic relations in both post-socialist societies have increased journalism’s responsibility to the media owners and power holders and surpassed its normatively defined responsibility to the public. Both case subjects are compared through the prism of the processes of negotiation of normative principles of journalism in the social, national and institutional contexts of the two newspapers.

Keywords

Online journalists societal roles identity political relevance institutional status news production Slovenia Serbia

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

ABC Serbia (2012) Audit Bureau of Circulations Report. Available at: www.abcsrbija.com/portal/ (accessed 15 June 2013).

Bauman

(2000) Globalization. New York: Columbia University Press.

Boczkowski

(2004) Digitizing the news. London: MIT Press.

Boczkowski

(2009) Materiality and mimicry in journalism field. In: Zelizer

(ed.) The Changing Faces of Journalism. London: Routledge, pp.56–67.

Boczkowski

(2010) News at Work. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Boczkowski

(2011) Epilogue. In: Domingo

Paterson

(eds) Making Online News. 2nd ed. New York: Peter Lang, pp.161–166.

Bruns

(2005) Gatewatching. New York: Peter Lang.

Christians

. (2009) Normative Theories of Media. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Colson

Heinderyckx

(2008) Do Online Journalists Belong in the Newsroom? In: Paterson

Domingo

(eds) Making Online News. New York: Peter Lang, pp.143–156.

10.

Dahlgren

(2009) Troubling evolution of journalism. In: Zelizer

(ed.) The Changing Faces of Journalism. London: Routledge, pp.146–161.

11.

Dahlgren

(2013) The Political Web. New York: Palgrave MacMillan

12.

Deuze

(2005) What is journalism? Journalism 6(4): 442–464.

13.

Deuze

(2007) Media Work. Cambridge: Polity Press.

14.

Deuze

(2008) Toward a sociology of online news. In: Paterson

Domingo

(eds) Making Online News. New York: Peter Lang, pp.199–210.

15.

Deuze

(2009) Journalism, citizenship, and digital culture. In: Papacharissi

(ed.) Journalism and Citizenship. New York: Routledge, pp.15–28.

16.

Deuze

Paulussen

(2002) Online journalism in the low countries. European Journal of Communication 17(2): 237–245.

17.

Deuze

. (2007) Preparing for an age of participatory news. Journalism Practice 1(2): 322–338.

18.

Domingo

. (2008) Participatory journalism practices in the media and beyond. Journalism Practice 2(3): 326–342.

19.

Donsbach

Klett

(1993) Subjective objectivity. Gazette 51(1): 53–83.

20.

Dupagne

Garrison

(2006) The meaning and influence of convergence. Journalism Studies 7(2): 237–255.

21.

Flick

(2006) An Introduction to Qualitative Research. London: Sage.

22.

Fortunati

. (2009) The influence of the internet on European journalism. Journal of Computer-mediated Communication 14(4): 928–963.

23.

Friend

Singer

(2007) Online Journalism Ethics. New York: ME Sharpe.

24.

García

(2008) Print and online newsrooms in Argentinean media. In: Paterson

Domingo

(eds) Making Online News. New York: Peter Lang, pp.45–60.

25.

Gitlin

(2009) Journalism’s many crises. In: the journalism in crisis conference, London, Westminster University.

26.

Hallin

Mancini

(2004) Comparing Media Systems. New York: Cambridge University Press.

27.

Hanitzsch

. (2011) Mapping journalism cultures across nations. Journalism Studies 12(3): 273–293.

28.

Hartley

(2008) Journalism as a human right. In: Löffenholz

Weaver

(eds) Global Journalism Research. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, pp.39–51.

29.

Hermida

(2013) #Journalism. Digital Journalism. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2013.808456#.UepAEY2LAuc (accessed 15 June 2013).

30.

Hermida

Thurman

(2008) A clash of cultures. Journalism Practice 2(3): 343–356.

31.

Internet World Stats (2011) Serbia. Available at: http://www.internetworldstats.com/euro/rs.htm. (accessed 15 June 2013).

32.

Jakubowicz

(2007) Rude Awakening. Cresskill: Hampton Press.

33.

Jones

Salter

(2012) Digital Journalism. London: Sage.

34.

Josephi

(2005) Journalism in the global age. Gazette 67(6): 575–590.

35.

Kopper

. (2000) Research review: Online journalism. Journalism Studies 1(3): 499–512.

36.

Lee-Wright

. (2012) Changing Journalism. London: Routledge.

37.

Legard

. (2003) In-depth Interviews. In: Ritchie

Lewis

(eds) Qualitative Research Practice. London: Sage, pp.138–169.

38.

Mabry

(2008) Case study in social research. In: Alsuutari

. (eds) The Sage Handbook of Social Research Methods. London: Sage, pp.214–227.

39.

Malik

Scholl

(2009) Eine besondere Spezies. In: Neuberger

. (eds) Journalismus im Internet. Wiesbaden: VS, pp.169-196.

40.

McNair

(2006) Cultural Chaos. New York: Routledge.

41.

Meikele

Redden

(eds) (2011) Online News. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

42.

Milivojević

(1993) Novinarski profesionalizam. Gledišta 1(6): 87-94.

43.

Milivojević

(2006) Televizija u tranziciji. In: Mihailović

(ed.) Pet godina tranzicije u Srbiji. Beograd: Fondacija Friedrich Ebert, pp.272–285.

44.

Milojević

Ugrinić

(2011a) Sloboda novinarstva u Srbiji pod pritiskom politike i novca. CM 6(20): 41–59.

45.

Milojević

Ugrinić

(2011b) Spremnost novinarske zajednice u Srbiji za tehnološke pomene. In: Veljanovski

(ed.) Verodostojnost medija. Beograd: Čigoja štampa, pp.133-151.

46.

Milosavljević

Kerševan

(2012) MDM: Slovenia. Ljubljana: Open Society Foundations.

47.

Milosavljević

Vobič

(2009) Das Mediensystem Sloweniens. In: Hasenbrink

Schulz

(eds) Internationales Handbuch Medien. Hamburg: Nomos, pp.630–642.

48.

Mitchelstein

Boczkowski

(2009) Between tradition and change. Journalism 10(5): 562–586.

49.

Oblak Črnič

(2007) Spletno novinarstvo skozi optiko novinarjev. Družboslovne razprave 23(54): 43–64.

50.

Papacharissi

(ed.) (2009) Journalism and Citizenship. London: Routledge.

51.

Paterson

Domingo

(eds) (2008) Online News Making. New York: Peter Lang.

52.

Poler

(1996) Ethics and professionalization of Slovene journalism. Javnost/The Public 3(4): 107–121.

53.

Poler Kovačič

(2005) Kriza novinarske odgovornosti. Ljubljana: FDV.

54.

Poler Kovačič

(2009) Semi-investigative journalism in Slovenia. Medijska istraživanja 15(1): 95–119.

55.

Poler Kovačič

Erjavec

(2008) Mobi journalism in Slovenia. Journalism Studies 9(6): 874–890.

56.

Pöttker

(2012) Quo Vadis Journalism? In: 30th EURICOM communication & culture colloquium, Piran, Slovenia.

57.

Quandt

(2008) News tuning and content management. In: Paterson

Domingo

(eds) Making Online News. New York: Peter Lang, pp.77–98.

58.

Quandt

. (2006) American and German online journalists at the beginning of the 21^st century. Journalism Studies 7(2): 171–186.

59.

Radojković

(2012) Novinarstvo i medijska industrija u Srbiji. CM 7(24): 59–74.

60.

Robinson

(2011) ‘Beaming up’ traditional journalists. In: Domingo

Paterson

(eds) Making Online News. 2nd ed. New York: Peter Lang, pp.31–44.

61.

Rosen

(2012) People formerly known as the audience. In: Mandiberg

(ed.) The Social Media Reader. New York: NYU Press, pp.13–16.

62.

Schudson

(2011) The Sociology of News. 2nd ed. New York: Norton&Company.

63.

Scott

(2005) A contemporary history of digital journalism. Television & New Media 6(1): 89–126.

64.

Sennett

(1998) The Corrision of the Character. New York: Norton&Company.

65.

Singer

(2003) Who are these guys? Journalism 4(2): 139–164.

66.

Singer

. (eds) (2011) Participatory Journalism. Malden, Oxford, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

67.

Slovenian Advertising Chamber (2012a) Revidirana prodana naklada 2012 [Revised Sold Circulation].

68.

Slovenian Advertising Chamber (2012b) Nacionalna raziskava branosti [National Readership research].

69.

Slovenian Advertising Chamber (2012c) Merjenje obiskanosti spletnih strani [Website Visiting Measurement].

70.

Splichal

(2000) Novinarji in novinarstvo. Javnost/The Public 7(supplement): 47–56.

71.

Splichal

(2001) Imitative revolutions. Javnost/The Public 8(4): 31–58.

72.

Splichal

Sparks

(1994) Journalists for the 21^st Century. Norwood: Ablex.

73.

Spyridou

Veglis

(2008) Exploring structural interactivity in online newspapers. First Monday 13(5). Available at: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/2164/1960 (accessed 15 June 2013).

74.

Stake

(1995) The Art of Case Study Research. London: Sage.

75.

State of the Media (2006) Project for excellence in journalism 2006. Available at: http://stateofthemedia.org/2006/ (accessed 15 June 2013).

76.

Steensen

(2011) Online journalism and the promises of new technology. Journalism Studies 12(3): 311–327.

77.

Ugrinić

(2012) Novinarstvo i medijska industrija u Srbiji. CM 7(24): 75–91.

78.

Vecchi

(2004) Introduction. In: Bauman

(ed.) Identity. Cambridge: Polity, pp.1–8.

79.

Veljanovski

(2006) Osujećena medijska tranzicija. In: Mihailović

(ed.) Pet godina tranzicije u Srbiji. Beograd: Fondacija Friedrich Ebert, pp.254–271.

80.

Veljanovski

(2009) Medijski sistem Srbije. Beograd: ČIGOJA.

81.

Vobič

(2009) Normativne vrste novinarstva in poročanje o politiki skozi optiko slovenskih novinarjev, politikov in državljanov. Javnost/The Public 16(supplement): 21–40.

82.

Vobič

Dahlgren

(forthcoming) Participatory journalism in the age of the internet. Medijska istraživanja 19(2).

83.

Vobič

Milojević

(2012) Societal roles of online journalists in Slovenia and Serbia. Participations 9(2). Available at: http://www.participations.org/Volume%209/Issue%202/26%20Vobic.pdf (accessed 15 June 2013).

84.

Volčič

Erjavec

(2012) A continuous battle. Global Media Journal 7(2): 1–9.

85.

Vujnovic

. (2010) Exploring the political-economic factors of participatory journalism. Journalism Practice 4(3): 285–296.

86.

Weaver

(1996) Journalists in comparative perspective. Javnost/The Public 3(4): 83–91.

87.

Weaver

. (2006) The American Journalist in the 21st Century. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

88.

Yin

(2003) Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

89.

Zelizer

(2004) Taking Journalism Seriously. London: Sage.

90.

Zelizer

(ed.) (2009) The Changing Faces of Journalism. London: Routledge.