Doctoral Degrees (Journalism)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Journalism) by Author "Jordaan, Marenet"

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    Newswork in transition : An ethnography of Netwerk24
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-12) Jordaan, Marenet; Botma, Gabriel; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Journalism.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explores how journalists at Netwerk24, as Afrikaans news website and national newsroom, experience and describe newswork during a time of disruption and transition. Situated within the field of journalism studies, this newsroom ethnography analyses how newsroom culture is structured by, and structures, the way journalists interact with each other and with non-human actors, such as digital media technologies. A thorough literature review indicates that digital media technologies can, on the one hand, change newswork on a structural level. On the other hand, such technologies can also, often simultaneously, become naturalised parts of existing newsroom practices and routines. What becomes clear, however, is that a technocentric view of changes to the newsroom is too limited, and that the role of culture and context should also be considered. As such, a novel theoretical framework is used in order to address the historical dispositions that influence journalists’ actions, while simultaneously addressing the current associations that develop amongst journalists and between journalists and the so-called material “stuff” they use during newswork. The study thus relies on a combination of the basic tenets of Bourdieu’s field theory, more specifically the professional journalistic habitus, and Latour’s actor-network theory. The argument pursued in this study is that journalists who were and are socialised in a specific professional manner into newsroom culture are actors within an unstable news-producing network; a network where digital media technologies also play an active role. By using an ethnographic research design, this exploration of Netwerk24 adds to existing studies from within the newsroom; an approach that allows the researcher to open the so-called “black box” of newswork. More than 250 hours’ worth of participant observation field notes from four different geographical newsroom offices, in combination with semi-structured interviews with purposively selected research participants contribute to a better understanding of what happens where news is produced for Netwerk24. More importantly, the analysis of findings – using ATLAS.ti version 7 – provides insight into why the cultures, practices and routines at Netwerk24 are structured the way they are. The research findings reveal that digital media technologies (such as Facebook and WhatsApp), while key to newswork, are not the main drivers of change and disruption within the Netwerk24 newsroom. These technologies enable, or force, the journalists to be multi-skilled and thus add to their workload. Yet the Netwerk24 journalists appear to have accepted and incorporated these non-human actors quite naturally into their newswork. What is of more concern for the journalists are the culture and communication in the newsroom. A lack of clarity about radical changes, the influence of specific newsroom personalities, an inability to share the vision for Netwerk24 due to a perceived lack of internal communication, and other challenges to newswork seem to cause more uneasiness amongst journalists than technological disruptions. The study thus concludes that while most journalists are willing to adapt to change and accept the uncertainty of a future in journalism, they often hold on to traditional conceptualisations of journalism and crave to know where they fit into the Netwerk24 newswork network.