Today�s globalized network communication initiates new interactive formats, transforming not only the dissemination, but - increasingly - the production of news. The �one-way� flow of news from a news outlet to the audience has been replaced by a network structure. Following Castells� concept of the �network� (1996) as the central model of information structures, I perpetuate this paradigmatic shift and suggest that networks also transform the professional journalism sphere in many world regions. A revised sphere of journalism is taking shape in which an increasingly global flow of news is evolving and a multiple platform structure of journalism is taking shape in which boundaries between traditional media outlets of print, radio, and television and between national and �foreign� journalism are blurring. Furthermore, I argue that a globalized journalistic network sphere is emerging which involves �traditional� journalistic outlets and bloggers, media activists, so-called citizen journalists, or user-generated content providers alike. These new journalistic spheres of connectivity establish new (and continuous) links between journalists, their sources as well as their audiences. This fundamental change creates new professional levels of connectivity on one hand and on the other, has severe strategic and organizational implications for the management of print, broadcast and online news outlets.
Within this new �network� sphere of journalistic practice, the roles of journalistic outlets change. This work suggests a framework that helps to understand journalistic organization today, with innovative work structures based on digital technologies transforming the character and in effect substituting the model of �top-down� journalism models by a model that is far more complicated. I argue that within an evolving global news sphere, information flows are multidirectional. Decentralization and non-linearity become the key parameters defining news flows at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The character of this network in the journalism sphere is transnational, crossmedia, and cross professions. Based on results of thirteen qualitative interviews with media practitioners in Germany, the US and the UK, I argue that a new geography of journalism is taking shape in which journalistic outlets are being transformed into nodes.
These nodes are arranged in a dense net of information gathers, producers and disseminators and the interactive connections among them constitute what I want to call network journalism.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/266378 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Heinrich, Ansgard, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Otago. Department of Media, Film and Communication Studies |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://policy01.otago.ac.nz/policies/FMPro?-db=policies.fm&-format=viewpolicy.html&-lay=viewpolicy&-sortfield=Title&Type=Academic&-recid=33025&-find), Copyright Ansgard Heinrich |
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