Paper meets web : how the institution of news production works on paper and online

Abstract

The dissertation investigates the institution of news production at work, on paper and online, through an ethnographic study at the largest Italian financial newspaper Il Sole-24 Ore. Building on institutional theory and taking inspiration from Bordieu’s theoretical apparatus describing how cultural capital works, the dissertation presents a framework for the way institutions work, a framework that echoes Mary Douglas’ How Institutions Think (1987). In the space created by the relationships between objects, practices and labels, institutions are at work in the alignments, disarrangements, re-alignments and new alignments among objects, practices and labels. This study examines the encounter between old and new to aid in the understanding of the workings of institutions, because the workings of institutions are made more visible in this encounter between aliens. Empirically, the occasion is the encounter between the newspaper and the website in the framework of the newspaper-website integration project at Il Sole-24 Ore. The main story line develops as follows: An old alignment around the newspaper (old object), to which old practices called journalistic (label) were aligned, is disarranged by the encounter with the website (new object), which is alien to the newspaper and carries new practices for making news. As a consequence of this encounter, the newspaper and the website vacillate between old and new practices and new alignments and realignments are formed: In these movements the institution of news production can be seen at work. This study offers a new perspective on the way institutions work, with serious consideration for the material, practical, and linguistic dimensions of institutions. It opens the black box of institutions, unpacking their workings in an attempt to clarify how stability of institutions results from the work of practices, objects and labels, which are products of institutions and at the same time produce them. Regarding news production in practice, this study aims at inspiring a reflection around what a newspaper is, a question at the very core of the industry transformation at the turn of the 21st century. By focusing on a highly debated topic, the study also offers reflections on the broader societal implications of new media for politics, business, knowledge, and professions