Newsroom identities: Group configurations and transforming boundaries during the introduction of a web edition

Abstract

Since the birth of the modern newspaper there has been an inherent balancing act between the journalistic aim and the commercial imperative. In the newsrooms of today the boundary between journalistic values and commercial necessity is as debated as ever. At a daily newspaper in Sweden, the task of publishing a web edition gave rise to a new way of organizing; something that highlighted the ongoing construction of social identities and the boundaries between journalistic and commercial activities. The empirically observed shift of balance in the web group towards a more market-, as opposed to content-oriented understanding of the newspaper business, had consequences for all newsroom actors. When boundaries were transformed and transgressed, the ongoing reflexive project of the collective and individual identities became increasingly intensified. This illustrates the dynamics of identity construction, a process in which issues related to deeply rooted values and power, together with the need for cognitive order seem to be driving forces.

This is a narrative of how journalists and sales people make sense of these processes, where the everyday practice of “scrutinizing and cuddling” (as opposed to scrutinizing or cuddling) is an expression of their intermingling activities in a new hybrid working field.