Coddington-Dissertation-2015

Copyright by Mark Allen Coddington 2015 The Dissertation Committee for Mark Allen Coddington certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Telling Secondhand Stories: News Aggregation and the Production of Journalistic Knowledge Committee: Stephen D. Reese, Supervisor C. W. Anderson Mary Angela Bock Regina G. Lawrence Sharon L. Strover Telling Secondhand Stories: News Aggregation and the Production of Journalistic Knowledge by Mark Allen Coddington, 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 2015 Dedication For Dana, whose patience, sacrifice, and grace made this project possible and inspire me daily. Acknowledgements This dissertation is not mine alone, but a product of the contributions of so many people who have guided and aided me throughout its progress, and through my development as a scholar more generally. I am deeply indebted and profoundly grateful for their encouragement, wisdom, and help. I alone bear responsibility for the shortcomings of this project, but they deserve credit for bringing it to fruition and for their rich contributions to my growth as a scholar and a person. I am grateful to have learned under a remarkably wise and supportive faculty at the University of Texas over the past five years, most notably my adviser, Stephen Reese. Dr. Reese has been an ideal supervisor for both my master’s thesis and dissertation, continually nudging me forward and honing my ideas while giving me space to grow as a thinker. I always emerged from meetings with him with a clearer focus, sharper insights, and greater curiosity and excitement about new connections and directions for my projects. I am thankful, too, for the way he has modeled for me the discipline, rigor, and creativity of the academic life. I will always be grateful for his mentorship and guidance during such a formative time in my intellectual life. Each of the other members of my committee have also made an indelible mark on this project and my intellectual growth. Regina Lawrence has been a great source of inspiration and stimulation, exhibiting an almost preternatural ability to prod my thinking and challenge my assumptions while being unfailingly encouraging. She leaves a deep v imprint at the University of Texas as she moves on to new opportunities. Chris Anderson has been a gracious friend and invaluable guide, drawing me into the community of scholars doing fascinating work on online journalism and treating me like I belonged among them, well before I actually did. His insights and advice have been crucial to my understanding of what this study means and how it fits into the field. Mary Bock has provided essential advice on the practical work of carrying out a qualitative dissertation; her openness about her own experiences producing a fieldwork-based dissertation has been a great help and encouragement to me. Finally, I am fortunate to have taken two of Sharon Strover’s courses on interactivity, technology, and culture during my time as a doctoral student and to have been able to receive her advice during the comprehensive examination and dissertation process. Her wisdom and thoughtfulness have pushed me toward a richer and fuller perspective on the relationship between journalists and technology. Other professors and colleagues have been instrumental in my development as a scholar. Seth Lewis and Nikki Usher offered assistance and insight at key junctures of the project, especially early on, as I mapped out my plans for it. I am grateful for the kindness and wisdom of several other UT professors at various points during my time as a graduate student, particularly Homero Gil de Zúñiga and Paula Poindexter. And the professors under whom I served as a teaching assistant — Tracy Dahlby, Wanda Cash, and Robert Quigley — taught me much about what it means to make journalism come alive for students. I’ve also been carried along through graduate school by the affirmation, companionship, and empathy of my fellow students, who have proved an vi extremely collegial and kindhearted group. I’m especially thankful for the friendship of Logan Molyneux, Kathleen McElroy, Avery Holton, Ji Won Kim, Shannon McGregor, and Rachel Mourão, who all enriched my time at UT with their sympathetic ears, sound advice, and infectious joy amid trying circumstances. Each of them has my great appreciation and thanks. I’m also indebted to the participants in this study, who so generously gave their time and insight when I had so little to offer them in return. I am unable to mention several of my most instrumental informants by name, but I am especially grateful for the people at SportsPop and VidNews, and Anthony De Rosa of Circa, who offered me access there and who spent significant amounts of their day allowing me to watch them work and answering my ignorant questions. My particular appreciation goes out to two informants who went above and beyond in their generosity by graciously re-doing interviews with me after my recordings of the initial interviews failed. I would have little to say in this dissertation were it not for all of these participants’ willingness to share their ideas and explain their work to me, and for that I am profoundly grateful. Finally, my deepest thanks goes to my family. For as long as I can remember, my parents, Curt and Joan, have championed all of my pursuits, offering me a bedrock support of unconditional love, a listening ear, and wise counsel at every turn. They have instilled in me a strong work ethic and earnestness for truth that have served me well in pursuit of a Ph.D. My daughters, Melody and Noelle, have brought me amazement and delight throughout the process. And most of all, I thank my wife, Dana, whose love, patience, self-sacrifice, and unwavering strength have served as the foundation on which vii this project has been built. No one has given so much of themselves to see this dissertation come to fruition, and for that I am forever grateful to her. I am proud to dedicate this dissertation to her for all she’s done for me. Thank you all, and to God be the glory. viii Telling Secondhand Stories: News Aggregation and the Production of Journalistic Knowledge Mark Allen Coddington, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2015 Supervisor: Stephen D. Reese News aggregation has become one of the most widely practiced forms of newswork, as more news is characterized by information taken from other published sources and displayed in a single abbreviated space. This form of newsgathering has deep roots in journalism history, but creates significant tension with modern journalism’s primary newsgathering practice, reporting. Aggregation’s reliance on secondhand information challenges journalism’s valorization of firsthand evidence-gathering through the reporter’s use of observation, interviews, and documents. This dissertation examines the epistemological practices and professional values of news aggregation, exploring how aggregators gather and verify evidence and present it as factual to audiences. It looks at aggregation in relationship to the dominant values and practices of modern professional journalism, particularly those of reporting. The study employs participant observation at three news aggregation operations as well as in-depth interviews with aggregators to understand the practices of news aggregation as well as the epistemological and professional values behind them. I found that aggregation proceeds by gathering textual evidence of the forms of evidence gathered through reporting work, positioning it as a form of second-order ix newswork built atop the epistemological practices and values of modern journalistic reporting. Aggregators’ distance from the evidence on which they base their reports lends them a profound sense of uncertainty, which they attempt to mitigate by using textual means to communicate their epistemological ambivalence to their audiences and by seeking out technologically afforded means to get closer to news evidence. Aggregators’ uncertainty extends to their professional identity, where they attempt to improve their marginal professional status by articulating their own ethical values but also by emphasizing their connections to traditional reporting. Narratively speaking, however, their work does not break down traditional journalistic forms, but instead broadens the narrative horizon to conceive of individual news accounts primarily as part of larger story arcs. The study illuminates the fraught relationship between aggregation and reporting, finding that while aggregation is heavily dependent on reporting, it can be developed as a valid, professionally valued form of newswork. Ultimately, both forms of work have a crucial role to play in providing vital, engaging news to the public. x Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................... xi List of Tables ....................................................................................................... xvi List of Figures ..................................................................................................... xvii INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Aggregation and the Changing Epistemology of Journalism ................1 Study Purpose .................................................................................................6

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