Media and Communication Open Access Journal | ISSN: 2183-2439
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Media and Communication Open Access Journal | ISSN: 2183-2439 Volume 7, Issue 4 (2019) PeripheralPeripheral ActorsActors inin Journalism:Journalism: AgentsAgents ofof ChangeChange inin Journalism,Journalism, CultureCulture andand PracticePractice Editors Avery E. Holton, Valerie Belair-Gagnon and Oscar Westlund Media and Communication, 2019, Volume 7, Issue 4 Peripheral Actors in Journalism: Agents of Change in Journalism, Culture and Practice Published by Cogitatio Press Rua Fialho de Almeida 14, 2º Esq., 1070-129 Lisbon Portugal Academic Editors Avery E. Holton (University of Utah, USA) Valerie Belair-Gagnon (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA) Oscar Westlund (Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway / Volda University College, Norway / University of Gothenburg, Sweden) Available online at: www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication This issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY). Articles may be reproduced provided that credit is given to the original and Media and Communication is acknowledged as the original venue of publication. Table of Contents Space for the Liminal Valerie Belair-Gagnon, Avery E. Holton and Oscar Westlund 1–7 Where Do We Draw the Line? Interlopers, (Ant)agonists, and an Unbounded Journalistic Field Scott A. Eldridge II 8–18 Working on the Margins: Comparative Perspectives on the Roles and Motivations of Peripheral Actors in Journalism Aljosha Karim Schapals, Phoebe Maares and Folker Hanusch 19–30 Online Participatory Journalism: A Systematic Literature Review Katherine M. Engelke 31–44 The New Advertisers: How Foundation Funding Impacts Journalism Patrick Ferrucci and Jacob L. Nelson 45–55 Molo.news: Experimentally Developing a Relational Platform for Local Journalism Andreas Hepp and Wiebke Loosen 56–67 Activism, Advertising, and Far-Right Media: The Case of Sleeping Giants Joshua A. Braun, John D. Coakley and Emily West 68–79 Open-Source Trading Zones and Boundary Objects: Examining GitHub as a Space for Collaborating on “News” Mario Haim and Rodrigo Zamith 80–91 From Peripheral to Integral? A Digital-Born Journalism Not for Profit in a Time of Crises Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young 92–102 Negotiating Roles and Routines in Collaborative Investigative Journalism Maria Konow-Lund 103–111 Friend, Foe or Frenemy? Traditional Journalism Actors’ Changing Attitudes towards Peripheral Players and Their Innovations Sherwin Chua and Andrew Duffy 112–122 About Actor Positioning in Journalism...Slowly Laura Ahva 123–126 Table of Contents Prophets without Honor: Peripheral Actors in Kenyan Journalism j. Siguru Wahutu 127–132 Populist Postmodernism: When Cultural Critique of an Enlightenment Occupation Goes Viral Jane B. Singer 133–137 Journalism at the Periphery Edson C. Tandoc Jr. 138–143 Media and Communication (ISSN: 2183–2439) 2019, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages 1–7 DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i4.2666 Editorial Space for the Liminal Valerie Belair-Gagnon 1,*, Avery E. Holton 2 and Oscar Westlund 3, 4, 5 1 Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN 55455, USA; E-Mail: [email protected] 2 Department of Communication, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA; E-Mail: [email protected] 3 Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, 0130 Oslo, Norway; E-Mail: [email protected] 4 Faculty of Media and Journalism, Volda University College, 6103 Volda, Norway 5 Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden * Corresponding author Submitted: 27 November 2019 | Published: 17 December 2019 Abstract This essay considers how social actors in news have come to shape the contours of news and journalism and what these changes may suggest for other industries. It looks more specifically at the question of who does journalism and news and what that may signal for power dependencies, status, and norms formation. It examines how authors who contributed to this thematic issue define who gets to decide what is news and journalism, what forms of power are exerted amongst groups, who gets to claim status, and how norms and epistemologies are formed. Ultimately, this essay illustrates how conformity to groups and organizations varies with the investments that these social actors have to core and more periph- eral journalism and media groups. Keywords digital journalism; journalism; journalism practice; news production; peripheral actors; sociology of work Issue This editorial is part of the issue “Peripheral Actors in Journalism: Agents of Change in Journalism Culture and Practice” edited by Avery E. Holton (University of Utah, USA), Valerie Belair-Gagnon (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA), and Oscar Westlund (Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway / Volda University College, Norway / University of Gothenburg, Sweden). © 2019 by the authors; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). 1. Introduction production, sharing, and distribution, there are a num- ber of social actors who occupy a liminal existence ad- Twenty-first century capitalism and globalization involve jacent to more established, organizational, and institu- a proliferation of emerging social actors across a broad tional ones. These are often specialty actors who exist swath of industries and professions. These social actors in close orbit to larger, often more-established ones, cre- are transforming contemporary work and professions, in- ating a kaleidoscopic structure of work that enables a cluding news and journalism. While the news media help variety of core and peripheral actors. This occurs at a the public make sense of these changes; they also are un- time also marked by the continued rise of powerful and dergoing the very shifts they are helping to contextualize global platform companies in spaces previously domi- (Couldry, in press; Zelizer, 2019). nated by mass media and news publishers (see Ananny, News and journalism offer a lens into the growing 2019; Myllylahti, 2019). importance of these social actors as well as the per- Along these same lines, journalism scholars have en- spectives and digital innovations they may help foster in gaged in continued debates of what journalism is and an evolving professional landscape. In the case of news who journalists are (Tandoc, 2019). A number of scholars Media and Communication, 2019, Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages 1–7 1 have questioned the authoritative professional bound- Figenschou, & Frischlich, 2019; Keith, 2019), we must aries of journalism, the shrinking autonomy of news or- look beyond the confining definitions traditionally asso- ganizations, and the changing culture of news produc- ciated with journalists or journalistic actors. tion to one that now includes, perhaps less begrudgingly This thematic issue broadens perspectives and un- than in the past, emerging social actors (see Carlson, derstandings of diverse social actors, organizations, and 2017; Tong, 2015; Wahl-Jorgensen, 2019). These are sig- institutions now involved in news and journalism. This is nificant questions to consider for journalism as an in- done at the peril of angels dancing on pinheads, so to dustry that is seeking ways to improve its financial foot- speak, because a number of studies have recently taken ing, which is associated with changing professional con- up considerations of the varying forms of actors, pars- ditions for news work and, in some cases, conditional ing from labels such as outside and peripheral actors to autonomy (see Myllylahti, 2019; Nel & Milburn-Curtis, media interlopers to explicit and implicit interlopers and 2019; Waldenström, Wiik, & Andersson, 2019). This hap- intralopers (see Eldridge, 2017; Holton & Belair-Gagnon, pens at a time when journalists are also wrestling with 2018). This layering of labels and definitions, though, sug- a plurality of epistemologies and platforms, authorita- gests a need for contextualizing a complex set of actors tive boundaries, and news processes that are becom- and factors contributing to changes in the processes and ing more publicly porous (see McIntyre & Sobel, 2019). power of journalism and related industries that consid- These questions may be applied to the examination and ers, rather than rejects, the importance of nuancing (see positioning of social actors in global industries, which Ryfe, 2019). themselves are experiencing an influx of such workers. This thematic issue offers peer-reviewed articles and In focusing on news and journalism, and digital jour- invited commentaries that help advance and nuance nalism more specifically, as a “networked production, the question of who carries out journalism, or more distribution, and consumption of news and information broadly who participates in journalism. While there has about public affairs” (Waisbord, 2019), Waisbord argues been much debate about this in journalism studies over that changes brought by digital journalism have resulted the years, this is not simply an intra-academic and in- in a broadening of what journalism and news are as tellectual exercise. There have also been discourses in process and product and who is involved in producing the news industry about who journalists are, when an and sharing news. He argues that “virtually anyone with outsider becomes an insider, and what influences such access to the internet can take part in digital journal- actors might have on news organizations, news audi- ism” (Waisbord, 2019,