Reflections on Scholarship on Online News
William H. Dutton
Quello Professor of Media and Information Policy
Michigan State University
Notes on Presentation for ‘Remaking (Digital) News’ Symposium, Northwestern University, 11 April 2015.
Pablo Boczkowski & Eugenia Mitchelstein: Scholarship …
Major Strides in 25 Years • Trojan Horse Threat to the Field• Burgeoning Source of Scholarly Research on Journalism
Interdisciplinary• Problem Focused• Theories from Different Fields• Methodologically Pragmatic, from Ethnography to Big Data
BUT Importing v Exporting Ideas• Problem for Communication Research Generally• Key Issue / Goal for this Field: Another Level of Impact
Rodney Benson: Searching for a Good Explanation
• Framing explanatory v descriptive questions• But, arguably lack facts relative to theory (Galbraith)
New Descriptivism
• Add ‘Interesting’? [Murray S. Davis, 1971]• Debate Generalizing: Cases Generate Theory v Validate• Beware of ‘Simplify and Exaggerate’ – Anon. v Research
Four Criteria for Good Explanations
• Techno-economic determinism v prof ethics and civic morals• Democratic elitism & populism – bringing the audience back
‘Cultural Power’ Jeff Alexander – a model?
Chris Anderson: Technology without History
Ahistorical Research• Techno Determinism Prioritizes Focus on the Future• Internet Studies Facing Similar Issues, but Visions Matter• Growing Significance will Erode this Limitation
Historical Amnesia• Innovation Amnesia – Dutton (1995)• Functional in Fields (video phone, videotext, online news)
Complementary Historical Perspectives• Innis, McLuhan, et al• Add Bell (codification) re algorithms and computational analytics, Castells?
Ethnography v History – Multiple Methods• Persisting Culture of Journalism• Organizational Time Travel an Intriguing Focus
Pablo Boczkowski & Eugenia Mitchelstein: Moving Beyond
Market & Historical Context• New Business Models• Historical Perspectives innovation (Reuters – from carrier pigeons to digital; whistleblowing)
Journalistic Practices• Field Work to Screen Work• Fact Finding to Information Curation• Acceleration, Immediacy, Always Available (Wacjman ‘Pressed for Time’)
Professional Dynamics• More Open and Transparent Organizations• Accountability (4th and 5th Estate, whistleblowing)• Distinguishing Networked Institutions ‘Journalism’ v Networked Individuals?
Relation with Audiences• We Know What People Read• People telling media what to think about – transforming agenda-setting• Dynamics of Gatekeeping in Science, Organizations, Education, …
Deciding What’s
Scholarship
Interesting?
Explanatory?
In Context but Not
Ephemeral?
Sound Innovative Methods?
Significant for and beyond
Journalism?
Reflections on Digital Journalism Research
William H. Dutton
Quello Professor of Media and Information Policy
Michigan State University
Notes on Presentation for Online Journalism Conference, Northwestern University, 11 April 2015.
