Book Reviews
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10.1515/nor-2017-0406 Nordicom Review 38 (2017) 1, pp. 127-135 Book Reviews Editors: Ragnhild Mølster & Maarit Jaakkola Martin Eide, Helle Sjøvaag & Leif Ove Larsen (eds.) Journalism Re-Examined: Digital Challenges and Professional Orientation (Lessons from Northern Europe) Intellect Ltd., 2016, 215 p. The question of a sustainable path for journal- because of its institutional nature. Chapter ism has been the subject of interest for many 5 by Jan Fredrik Hovden is a good example observers, both in the Nordic countries and of this. Despite many changes in the market beyond. The book Journalism Re-Examined and working conditions, the values of inves- presents a number of well-researched and em- tigative journalism persist and they are even pirically enlightening case studies that show becoming more influential. Hovden’s impres- the depth and variety of the journalistic pro- sive systematic approach and large amount of fession, which is a helpful invitation to think quantitative data from surveys with Nordic about the topic in terms of institutional theory journalism students from 2005-2012 enable and to see journalism as an institution or field, him to conclude that ‘the slimming down of and thus more than a mere profession. the multifaceted task for journalist in modern Two of the editors, Martin Eide and Helle society is ambiguous not only in its causes Sjøvaag, set out the new institutionalist theo- but also in its consequences’. This he sees in retical framework, which they propose as a terms of increased specialisation and as an helpful tool to analyse the challenges facing example of the re-orientations of journalism journalism in a digital age. They present the in the modern age. different case studies and thus the chapters The book, like previous examples of analy- of the book and they argue cogently through sis of new challenges facing journalism in a their chapter that new institutionalism is digital world, shows how slow change is and particularly fruitful, because it allows more why we as scholars need to constantly compare room for human agency and the duality of the new and the old when researching jour- structure and agency than older institutional nalism and journalistic practices. Even digital approaches. challenges and struggling business models do The theoretical arguments build on the not seem to change the fact that print identities previous work of David Ryfe (2006) and the are strongly present online, as Helle Sjøvaag editors highlight that many of the chapters shows in her comprehensive analysis of online paradoxically show that despite the digital and offline content (chapter 7). challenges facing journalism and the profes- Especially original and intriguing are the sion, no profound changes can be detected chapters on algorithms in the newsrooms 127 Nordicom Review 38 (2017) 1 (chapter 6), online debates (chapter 9), in- in levels of mediatisation. However, the chap- terpretative journalism (chapter 10) and the ter also illustrates that institutional theory analysis of the relations between blogs, books does not factor in the complex hierarchies and journalism (chapter 11). These chapters of production and reception of media con- are taking the first and important steps to- tent, which is likely to influence the variation wards including different genres and areas observed between the coverage, number of into research on journalism, as these areas sources and the different levels of originality have not previously been seen as traditional discussed in Ørsten’s chapter. journalism and thus not subjects relevant for The new institutional approach is mainly journalism research. It is interesting and in- discussed in the opening chapter ‘Journalism deed important to show, like Brita Ytre-Arne as an institution’, where Eide and Sjøvaag ar- does in her chapter, how the blogosphere can gue that despite the challenges that are mak- be viewed as being made up of overlapping ing institutions re-orientate themselves, one thematic communities and as sub-publics that sees more stability than change. The authors can give new voices to marginalised groups introduce concepts of ‘border maintenance’ and provide potential for power and agency (Gieryn 1983) to explain this structural stabil- between journalistic institutions and those ity. But the book only provides a few empirical overlapping it. examples of how this maintenance work on The case study chapters are however mainly the borders of journalistic institutions actu- empirical and leave little space to discuss the ally take place. overall new institutional framework. And a Examples of what could be seen as bound- discussion of the limits and challenges to this ary maintenance is provided in some of the theory in the light of the different conclusions interview examples in Tania Bucher’s chap- would have been welcome, especially as this ter (6). She investigates algorithms as actors theoretical framework is a specific focus of the in the news production from a Science and book. For example, the chapters of Rodney Technology Studies perspective (SNS), by in- Benson (chapter 3) and Jan Fredrik Hovden terviewing directors, editors and developers (chapter 5) provides a framework of analysis from large Scandinavian news organisations. partly based on Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory. She provides an excellent analysis of how the But the ongoing discussion of the concepts of algorithms are both material and discursive in field and institutions (see for example Benson, ways that might contest and change existing 2006) can be merged and how they differ in ways of doing and thinking about journal- focus is by large ignored, even though hav- ism. It would have been interesting to consider ing both approaches in a book with a focus whether new institutional theory could have on new institutional focus might invite this provided the same focus on the material ob- discussion. It is worth noting that institutional jects of analysis, in this case the algorithm? theory originates in organisational theory, This touches upon the question of agency while field theory originates in practice-ori- which the editors argue is exactly the contri- entated sociology. bution of new institutional theory. Reading Institutional theory has been criticised for the different chapters, however, we find little not explaining heterogeneity and homoge- evidence for agency, as that which we do find neity across media organisations. However, seems to come from outside the journalistic Mark Blach Ørsten’s chapter (11) uses the new institution, at least if you define the institution institutionalist framework to highlight such as the journalistic profession, for example, in variation of different news beats in great de- the case of blogs or in the case of newspa- tail. Ørsten brings the concept of mediatisa- pers debates on social media. These changes tion into the analysis and the conclusion thus are framed well in the other main theoreti- illustrates the challenges to the mediatisation cal chapter by Martin Eide, which suggests theory, as it is unable to explain the variation re-orientations as a concept to capture the 128 Book Reviews changes that challenge the journalistic ontol- ond volume. Keeping these questions in mind, ogy. It leaves us with the question of whether I would recommend the book to both students we can speak of one overall journalistic ontol- and scholars who are not already familiar with ogy? In this chapter, it is a little unclear how new institutional approaches and to anyone the institution of journalism differs from the concerned with the re-orientations of journal- concept of a journalistic profession, as these ism in a digital age. two concepts seem to be used interchange- ably. Eide, for example, distinguishes between Jannie Møller Hartley citizen journalists and professional journalists, Associate Professor and the definition of the last group seems to Department of Communication and Arts be that they are part of the journalistic insti- Roskilde University tution. But as many have asked, ‘what con- stitutes a field?’ similarly we can ask, ‘what References constitutes the institution?’ How can we use the micro-level framework of rules and norms Benson, Rodley (2006). News Media as a ‘Journalistic Field’: What Bourdieu Adds to New Institution- that new institutionalism offers to empirically alism, and Vice Versa. Political Communication, examine what the journalistic institution is 23(April 2006): 187-202. and if journalistic professionalism is actually Gieryn, Thomas F. (1983). Boundary-Work and the a form of maintenance control? Similarly, we Demarcation of Science From Non-Science: might ask what the relations are between the Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of Scientists. American Sociological Review, different institutions overlapping with the in- 48(6): 781-795. stitution of journalism? There are thus many Ryfe, David M. (2006). The Nature of News Rules. more theoretical questions to tackle in a sec- Political Communication 23(2): 203-214. Elisabet Björklund & Mariah Larsson (eds.) Swedish Cinema and the Sexual Revolution: Critical Essays Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2016, 248 p. The image of ‘Swedish sin’ has its roots in tion, edited by Elisabet Björklund and Mariah Swedish cinema of the 1950s and ‘60s, which Larsson, address the reception in the U.S. and saw the birth and success of films such asOne in Sweden of a selection of these films, while Summer of Happiness, Summer with Monika, also providing context, background and some I Am Curious (Yellow), as well as in a subse- of the influences to explain the sensuality and quent wave of sex films in the 1960s and early sexuality in Swedish films from this period. 70’s. Or rather, the image of Swedish film as In so doing, the seventeen essays in the book sexually liberal or ‘dirty’ (and, by extension, provide a nuancing of stereotypes and mis- of Sweden as a land of sexual revolution) conceptions regarding the ‘sinful’ Swedish stems from the reception of these films, in cinema, along with fruitful discussions of Sweden as well as abroad.