Copyright by Amy Christine Schmitz Weiss 2008
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Copyright by Amy Christine Schmitz Weiss 2008 The Dissertation Committee for Amy Christine Schmitz Weiss Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The transformation of the newsroom: The collaborative dynamics of journalists’ work Committee: George Sylvie, Supervisor Mark Tremayne, or Co-Supervisor Stephen Reese Joseph Straubhaar Dawna Ballard The transformation of the newsroom: The collaborative dynamics of journalists’ work by Amy Christine Schmitz Weiss, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2008 Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my parents who have always told me to reach for my dreams with perseverance, hard work, and passion. Acknowledgements The author wishes to express her gratitude to some special individuals. First, to Dr. George Sylvie and Dr. Mark Tremayne for their time and dedication in being my co- advisers on this dissertation. The author would also to thank each of the committee members for their valuable contributions: Dr. Stephen Reese and his valuable ethnography and media sociology expertise, Dr. Joseph Straubhaar for his insight and advice on international media and comparative research, and Dr. Dawna Ballard for her guidance and expertise in group communication in organizations. The author would also like to give special thanks and appreciation to Dr. Maxwell McCombs, Prof. Rosental Calmon Alves, Dr. Paula Poindexter, the late Dr. Jim Tankard, and Dr. Ardyth Sohn for their guidance and valuable advice over the years. The author would also like to give her appreciation to the journalists of The Chicago Tribune and El Norte for their willingness and time to allow the author entry into their organizations and for the opportunity to do a case study on their online operations. The author gives special appreciation to her husband, parents, sister, and her friends for all their love, patience and encouragement over the years during the author’s journey into academia. v The transformation of the newsroom: The collaborative dynamics of journalists’ work Publication No._____________ Amy Christine Schmitz Weiss, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2008 Supervisors: George Sylvie and Mark Tremayne This study examines online news production through a cross-national comparative ethnography of two newsrooms: The Chicago Tribune in Chicago, Illinois and El Norte in Monterrey, Mexico. The researcher looks specifically at the extent of collaborative group work in the online newsroom. First, the researcher investigates the degree to which online newsrooms operate organizationally as collaborative groups when producing content for the website, as opposed to functioning individualistically when producing content for the website. The second facet examined is the cultural variability (Hofstede, 1980) of collaboration in the two online newsrooms, particularly whether the United States and Mexican online newsrooms support a collectivistic or individualistic and a high-context or low-context culture schema (Hofstede, 1980; Hall 1976). The last facet explored is how the collaborative behavior of the journalists in the two newsrooms supports or interferes with the practice of journalistic principles of verification and comprehensiveness and if this helps to make journalism better. This study found the El vi Norte newsroom has a collectivistic and high-context communication culture whereas The Chicago Tribune newsroom has an individualistic and low-context communication culture. Both newsrooms support the principles of verification and context in the news that is produced for the Website that helps to make the news accurate and comprehensive. It can be inferred, however, that the collectivistic, high-context communication culture is more supportive of a collaborative work environment that is conducive to making the journalists work together to help make the news accurate and comprehensive for the public. When the news is accurate and comprehensive, the public has better-informed citizens to make decisions in their daily lives as part of a democratic society. This study also has implications for the journalism and business industry as to the benefits of collaborative groupwork on the service or product outcome in an organization. vii Table of Contents List of Tables ....................................................................................................... xiii List of Figures ........................................................................................................xv List of Illustrations .................................................................................................xv Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................1 1.1 Transformations: Social, Economic and Technological ........................3 1.1.2 Social Transformation ..................................................................5 1.2 The Culture ...............................................................................................6 1.3 The Communication ...............................................................................8 1.4 The Content ............................................................................................8 1.5 Research Questions .................................................................................10 1.6 Outline of dissertation ..........................................................................11 Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework and Literature Review ...................................13 2.1 Theoretical Framework ...........................................................................14 2.1.2 Organizational “Classical” Theory .............................................15 2.1.3 Organizational “Modern” Theory ...............................................16 2.1.4 Organizational “Systems” Theory ..............................................17 2.1.5 Organizational Culture Theory ...................................................18 2.2 Empirical evidence of theory ..................................................................20 2.3 Organizational behavior in groups and teams .........................................24 2.3.1 Groups .........................................................................................25 2.3.2 Teams ..........................................................................................27 2.3.3 Collaboration ...............................................................................29 2.3.4 Summary of Findings ...........................................................................33 2.4 Theoretical Implications in the Newsroom .............................................34 2.5 Culture in the Newsroom ........................................................................34 2.5.1 International Cultures in the Workplace .....................................37 2.5.2 Culture promoted by professionalism in the newsroom .............47 viii 2.5.3 Culture promoted by routines in the newsroom ..........................49 2.6 Communication in the Newsroom ..........................................................52 2.6.1 Communication in Groups ..........................................................58 2.7 Culture and Communication in the Newsroom ......................................63 2.8 The Content: Accuracy and Context in the Newsroom ..........................64 2.9 Summary of Findings ..............................................................................67 2.10 Conceptualizations and Research Questions ........................................68 2.10.1 Organizational workgroup defined ...........................................69 2.10.2 Collaboration defined ................................................................70 2.10.3 News production process defined .............................................74 2.10.4 Cultural schema defined ...........................................................76 2.10.5 Journalistic principles defined ..................................................80 Chapter 3: Methodology ........................................................................................83 3.1 Selection of Case Studies ........................................................................88 3.1.1 ChicagoTribune.com (Chicago, Illinois) ....................................93 3.1.2 ElNorte.com (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon State, Mexico) ..............95 3.2 Access to the Fieldsites ...........................................................................97 3.3 Object of Study .......................................................................................97 3.4 Observation ...........................................................................................103 3.5 Rapport ..................................................................................................104 3.6 Timing ...................................................................................................104 3.7 Items of Observation .............................................................................105 3.8 Fieldnote Process ..................................................................................110 3.9 Interviews ..............................................................................................111 3.10 Documentation ....................................................................................114