The Featurization of Journalism

Feature journalism has developed from being an insignificant supplement to news journalism to a family of genres that today dominates newspapers. The present article explores the growing importance of feature journalism and attempts to understand its social function, how it has changed and why it has become so important. Based on an analysis of influential textbooks on feature journalism, the paper argues that feature journalism has traditionally been dominated by a literary discourse, and discourses of intimacy and adventure – discourses that thus have become increasingly important for newspapers, thereby transforming the social function of news in general. Today, however, the genres of feature journalism are undergoing significant changes, reflecting the technological, social, economic and cultural changes that affect the media industry and the role of journalism at large. The present article is framed by a social constructivist view of genre, and it outlines possible scenarios for future transformations of feature journalism

The Return of the “Humble I”: The Bookseller of Kabul and contemporary norwegian literary journalism

Åsne Seierstad’s The Bookseller of Kabul prompted controversy in Norway, a controversy that influences the practice of literary journalism in that country to this da

Online Feature Journalism: a Clash of Discourses

Although online journalism still is dominated by breaking news coverage, new genres are emerging that differentiate it more and more from old media journalism. This article explores the emergence of feature journalism in online newspapers. Through comparative qualitative text analysis of feature journalism in the US online newspaper palmbeachpost.com and the Norwegian online newspaper dagbladet.no, two widely different approaches to the production of feature journalism on the web are uncovered and a critical perspective on the remediation of journalistic genres in online newspapers is elaborated. The analysis shows that both these approaches display a clash between discourses of traditional feature journalism and discourses of online communication. It further reveals that genre development in online journalism is a complex process marked by contradictions and inconsistencies and that online newsrooms are struggling to find solutions on how to differentiate online journalism from old media journalis

Dealing With Covid-19 in Casual Democracies

This article reports findings from an in-depth, autoethnographic study of local communities in Denmark and England left behind by local journalism. The study was conducted during - and is thematically framed by - the Covid-19 pandemic, and it investigates how news, information, and deliberation related to this crisis were facilitated in the communities. The article embarks from ideas of informed citizenship and problems of misinformation and free speech related to the pandemic, and it aims to uncover developments in local democracy in places left behind by local journalism and dominated by platforms. The article argues that “news desert” is not an accurate term describing such places. Instead, such places and their social media platform dependency constitute what is identified as "casual democracies." In casual local democracies, who and what gets to dominate the local public spheres is difficult to predict, as are the credibility and trustworthiness of local news and information and the interests that local news and information providers serve. Such local democracies are, to a large degree, shaped by informal power structures, individual agency, and the infrastructure of platforms

Conversing the Audience: A methodological exploration of how conversation analysis can contribute to the analysis of interactive journalism

This paper argues that conversation analysis (CA) has much to offer studies of online interactions and, particularly, online interactive journalism. CA provides a methodological opportunity to closely investigate the structure of public discourse in new media platforms, and power relations between journalists and audiences in instances of interactive journalism. The paper introduces CA and discusses how it may be combined with other methods in order to pinpoint the characteristics of online interactions in general and interactive journalism in particular. In the second half of the paper, the CA-inspired methodological approach used to analyse a case study of an interactive live blog in the Norwegian online newspaper VG Nett is presente

Dialogue as a Journalistic Ideal

Discussions and practices related to participatory and interactive journalism emphasize the dialogical aspects of journalism. However, throughout history, the idea of dialogue in journalism has taken a variety of forms. This paper places dialogue as a journalistic ideal under scrutiny. Our aim is twofold: first, we map out the development and different functions of the ideal in some decisive eras in the history of journalism and in the current context of digital journalism; second, we present a model of how to best capture and understand the significance of dialogue to contemporary journalism. The model is based on an exploration of philosophical preconditions for dialogue as an ideal in journalism. We will also look at the significance of dialogue in different genres and in interactive dimensions of journalism

The limits of live fact-checking: Epistemological consequences of introducing a breaking news logic to political fact-checking

This article analyses the novel form of live political fact-checking, as performed by the Norwegian fact-checking organisation Faktisk.no during the Norwegian parliamentary election campaign in 2021. The aim of the study was to investigate the epistemological consequences of introducing a breaking news logic to political fact-checking. Through methods of participatory observation, interviews and textual analysis, the study finds that Faktisk.no used several strategies to bridge the ‘epistemic gap’ between the logics of breaking news and political fact-checking. Combined, these strategies pushed the live fact-checking towards a confirmative epistemology, implying that the live political fact-checking confirmed (1) knowledge already believed to be true and (2) hegemonic perspectives on what constitutes important and reliable information. The findings thereby point to a potential reorientation of political fact-checking from being a critical corrective of political elites to confirming the perspectives and knowledge base of the same elites.The limits of live fact-checking: Epistemological consequences of introducing a breaking news logic to political fact-checkingpublishedVersio

Når skoler og museer rigtigt arbejder sammen

Det nationale projekt "Museet i den åbne skole" - om lærende partnerskaber mellem skoler og museer og med delvis kommunal medvirken - satte et foreløbigt punktum med en konference på Hindsgavl Slot i november 2016. Spørgsmålet er, hvad der nu skal ske

The Relevance of Technology to Information Verification: Insights from Norwegian Journalism During a National Election

Growing concerns about disinformation have led to the development of new digital tools and systems designed for journalists’ verification and fact-checking needs. Despite these technological developments, research has demonstrated that emerging technologies are not utilised as often and are not as highly valued as industry narratives suggest. There are indications that the typical journalist values traditional skills such as writing and interviewing higher than digital technology skills and that many journalists do not consider the new tools to be very useful in their everyday work. This article takes on a sociotechnical approach to study the interplay between journalists, technology, organisational and professional routines. Specifically, we examine journalists’ use of verification technologies to detect disinformation during an election period. Our findings show a discrepancy between the alleged potential of new technologies and the everyday practices of newswork and fact-checking – also in the digitally advanced Norwegian media industry. We found tensions between established routines and cultures in the newsroom and the push for the renewal of journalistic methods which can be sorted under two headings: strategy vs. practice and proximity vs. distance to the beat and sources.The Relevance of Technology to Information Verification: Insights from Norwegian Journalism During a National ElectionpublishedVersio

From Permanently Hired Local Journalist to Temporary Digital Head. The Development of the Job Market for Journalists 1987–2017

Denne artikkelen presenterer en analyse av stillingsannonser i fagbladet Journalisten fra 1987 til 2017. 1628 stillings- annonser i årene 1987, 1997, 2007 og 2017 er analysert for å undersøke hvordan arbeidsmarkedet for journalister, slik det framkommer av stillingsannonser i fagbladet, har utviklet seg. Funnene viser blant annet at antall ledige jobber annonsert i Journalisten, har blitt halvert i 30-årsperioden, og at andelen faste jobber som utlyses, har gått kraftig ned, mens andelen kortere engasjementer har økt betydelig. Dette kan tolkes som at journalister er stadig nærmere å utgjøre et prekariat, det vil si en yrkesgruppe med løs og usikker tilknytning til arbeidslivet. Funnene viser også at det er faste jobber i lokalaviser som har forsvunnet fra stillingsannonsene, noe som representerer en potensiell fare for utviklingen av lokalt mediemangfold og for lokaldemokratiet.This article presents an analysis of jobs announcements in the Norwegian trade press publication Journalisten from 1987 to 2017. A total of 1628 job ads published in 1987, 1997, 2007 and 2017 are assessed with content analysis in order to investigate how the Norwegian labour market for journalists, as it is portrayed in jobs ads in the trade press publication, has developed. The findings reveal that the number of jobs advertised in Journalisten was reduced by 50 per cent from 1987 to 2017 and that permanent jobs have reduced dramatically, while short-term contracts are the new standard. This could be interpreted as journalists increasingly representing a workforce marked by precarious and uncertain relations to employers. The findings also reveal that the jobs that have vanished from Journalisten are mostly in local newspapers, and the article therefore concludes that local media diversity, and hence local democracy, is potentially endangered.publishedVersio