JOURNALISM (May 1 2005, Volume 6, No. 2)

Un novo e moi (moitísimo) interesante número de journalism

Crafting cultural resonance. Imaginative power in everyday journalism
James S. Ettema
Northwestern University, j-ettema@northwestern.edu

To offer mythic appeal or ritual value, news must be framed not only to make certain facts and interpretations salient but also to resonate with what writers and readers take to be real and important matters of life. Paralleling salience as an effect of selectivity in fact-gathering and emphasis in news-writing, this study argues that resonance is an effect of those same practices when accomplished with eloquence. Continuing coverage of a particular news event provides the opportunity to study the recurring narrative structures and rhetorical strategies that just seemed to work in telling the story. That story, a poignant death and its aftermath, illustrates three resources for crafting resonance - all of which point to an ultimate source of resonance in the complexities of human desire.
Key Words: frame • gaze • irony • myth • narrative • news • reflexivity • resonance • ritual • social action
[Reprint (PDF) Version of Ettema]


‘Blogs of war’. Weblogs as news
Melissa Wall
California State University-Northridge, melissawall@earthlink.net

This article examines current events weblogs or blogs that were particularly active during the second US war with Iraq, in the spring of 2003. Analysis suggests that these blogs are a new genre of journalism that emphasizes personalization, audience participation in content creation and story forms that are fragmented and interdependent with other websites. These characteristics suggest a shift away from traditional journalism’s modern approach toward a new form of journalism infused with postmodern sensibilities.
Key Words: blog • Iraq war • online journalism • postmodern journalism • weblog
[Reprint (PDF) Version of Wall]


The political j-blogger. ‘Normalizing’ a new media form to fit old norms and practices
Jane B. Singer
University of Iowa, jane-singer@uiowa.edu

This study explores how the increasingly popular blog format, as adopted by journalists affiliated with mainstream media outlets, affects long-standing journalistic norms and practice. It focuses on non-partisanship, transparency and the gatekeeping role, using a content analysis of 20 weblogs dealing with politics or civic affairs. Although expressions of opinion are common, most journalists are seeking to remain gatekeepers even in this highly interactive and participatory format. Political j-bloggers use links extensively - but mostly to other mainstream media sites. At least in their early use, journalists are ‘normalizing’ the blog as a component, and in some ways an enhancement, of traditional journalistic norms and practices.
Key Words: blogs • gatekeepers • internet • journalists • objectivity • politics • transparency • web
[Reprint (PDF) Version of Singer]


Identity, contingency and rigidity. The (counter-)hegemonic constructions of the identity of the media professional
Nico Carpentier
Catholic University Brussels (KUB) and Free University Brussels (VUB), Nico.Carpentier@kubrussel.ac.be

This article uses key notions of the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe to analyze the identity of the media professional. Within their post-structural framework, this identity is seen as over-determined, contingent and constructed but at the same time subjected to a hegemonic articulation, based on four nodal points: objectivity, autonomy, management of resources and employee-employer relations. Combined with a theoretical discussion on the (counter-)hegemonic articulations, this allows for the field of discursivity that surrounds the identity of the media professional to be (re)constructed, resulting in four dimensions that offer potential points of identification. This field of discursivity is then used and put to the test as a series of sensitizing concepts for the analysis of the seven phone-in broadcasts the program Ter Zake (on VRT - the North Belgian public broadcasting company) has organized, illustrating both the contingency of the identity of the media professional and the rigidity of the hegemonic articulation.
Key Words: audience discussion program • current affairs program • discourse theory • hegemony • identity • media professional • nodal points • objectivity • phone-in
[Reprint (PDF) Version of Carpentier]


News about the EU Constitution. Journalistic challenges and media portrayal of the European Union Constitution
Martin Gleissner
University of Amsterdam
Claes H. de Vreese

This multi-method study investigates how news media in Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands covered the Convention’s preparation of the European Union Constitution. The study draws on interviews with Brussels correspondents and a content analysis of television news and national newspapers. Results show that the Constitution entered and vanished from the media agenda, the tone of the coverage was predominantly negative, and the issue was reported from a European angle. Explanations of these results come from journalists’ relations with EU institutions, their home news organizations, and their perception of the audience.
Key Words: Brussels correspondent • Constitution • EU Convention • EU news • media analysis • referendum • television news


Books Review:

Ingrid Volkmer
Book Review: Global News Production Journalism 2005 6: 243-245. [PDF]

Brian McNair
Book Review: Media and Power in Post-Soviet Russia Journalism 2005 6: 245-246. [PDF]

Vivian B. Martin
Book Review: Qualitative Research in Journalism: Taking It to the Streets Journalism 2005 6: 247-248. [PDF]

Dominic Wring
Book Review: From Bevan to Blair: Fifty Years’ Reporting from the Political Front Line Journalism 2005 6: 249-250. [PDF]

Philip Castle
Book Review: The Man Who Died Twice. The Life and Adventures of Morrison of Peking Journalism 2005 6: 250-252. [PDF]