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jillian on Mar 30, 2007 in
Issue no.2, March 2007,
Volume 06 |
Comments Off on Creative Cycling of News Professionals
Astrid Gynnild, Ph.D. Abstract The theory of creative cycling emerged from my PhD study of news professionals in Norway. The study was carried out according to classic grounded theory principles (Glaser and Strauss 1967, Glaser 1978, 1998, 2001, 2005), and the area of interest was the performance of news journalism in the multimedia age. The theory runs counter to widespread tendencies of industrial age thinking in news media. It emphasizes news professionals’ search for meaning in their daily work, and suggests that their main concern is self-fulfillment through original contribution. The dilemma and resolution, creative cycling, is a basic social process continuously going within inner and outer framings. It consists of three interrelated dimensions: productive processing, breaks and shifts and inspirational looping. Key words: multimedia, news journalism, productive processing, inspirational looping, knowledge workers, selfmonitoring. Introduction News reporters worldwide are facing the most extensive changes in media history. Digitalization and global networks have provided new options for instant news dissemination, and many news reporters are seeking to establish new work practices and exploring means of orientation and adjustment across publishing platforms. Multitasking, instant publishing and staff reductions require skill crossovers and new work approaches. Being a news reporter and a manager for many years myself, I was quite curious about news journalists as shapers of new knowledge in the multimedia age. In my own career, I frequently experienced that many aspects of daily news production are taken for granted and as such, they tend not to be identified or conceptualized. News production is still an underresearched field. By studying news reporters I also hoped to get in touch with tendencies in the job market that might apply to other groups of knowledge workers. To the extent that media organizations can be considered showcases for upcoming business trends, the tendency is clear: Competition in the job market is increasing; individuals tend to be more concerned about losing their jobs, more and more news reporters earn their living as freelancers, and the socio-economic motivation to be a skilful and attractive journalist is stronger than ever due to greater investment and stiff competition between news media. The theory of creative cycling was generated from a grounded theory all-is-data-approach: oral, written, and observational data from a wide array of sources; visits to more than a dozen Norwegian newsrooms including multimedia corporations, newspapers, online newspapers, radio and TV; about 20 qualitative interviews with news reporters; many informal talks with news journalists, face to face and by phone, and data gathered from books, chronicles, magazines, news stories and the web. When referring to individuals I have, for practical reasons, consistently called them “he”. Gender did not appear to be of significant importance to the theory so “he” is simply used as a unisex term. Moreover, the reader will find that the terms news professional, news reporter and journalist are used synonymously. The terms include writers, photographers, managers, graphic artists, producers, designers, copy editors and editors, in practice all professionals involved in daily news making. The Theory of Creative Cycling The main concern of news reporters is self-fulfilment through original contribution. Their aspiration is the development and realization of talents and capabilities through professional journalistic work. The main concern is resolved through creative cycling, which is a cyclic social process simultaneously going on at psychological and structural levels. Creative cycling is the opportunity and basic need for moving in and out, back and forth within and between inner and outer framings in such a way that individual...