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1 | Page SYNOPTIC REPORT TOWARDS the COMPLETION OF SYNOPTIC REPORT TOWARDS THE COMPLETION OF PHD BY PUBLICATION BRUNEL UNIVERSITY MURRAY DICK NOVEMBER 2015 TITLE News Values in Online and Visual Data Journalism INDEX OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 2 1.1 RESEARCH AIMS AND QUESTIONS 3 1.1.1 RESEARCH AIM 4 1.1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 5 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 10 2.1 SITUATION WITHIN ONLINE JOURNALISM LITERATURE 10 2.2 SITUATION IN AND CONTRIBUTION TO NEWS VALUES LITERATURE 12 2.3 SITUATION WITHIN LITERATURE ON THE 'FOURTH ESTATE' IDEAL 15 2.4 SITUATION WITHIN AND CONTRIBUTION TO 'TABLOIDIZATION' 29 2.5 SITUATION WITHIN AND CONTRIBUTION TO PROPAGANDA LITERATURE 23 2.6 SITUATION WITHIN AND CONTRIBUTION TO INTERACTIVITY LITERATURE 26 2.7 SITUATION WITHIN ONLINE LITERATURES ON VISUAL DATA JOURNALISM 29 3. METHODOLOGY: PARADIGM INTERPLAY 35 3.1 ACTION RESEARCH-AS-PRAXIS 35 3.2 ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODOLOGIES 42 3.2.1 INTERVIEWING 42 3.2.2 OBSERVATION 45 3.3 EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGIES 50 4 FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND CONTRIBUTION OF EACH PIECE OF WORK 62 4.1 2010. ‘Vanishing Point: On the consequences of lost online news in the UK.’ Ethical Space, 8(1-2): 14-19. 53 4.2 2011. ‘Search Engine Optimisation in UK News Production.’ Journalism Practice, 5(4): 462- 477. 54 4.3 2012. ‘The Rebirth of the Beat: A Hyperlocal News-gathering model.’ Journalism Practice 6(5-6): 754-765. 55 4.4 2013. Search: Theory and Practice in Journalism Online. London: Palgrave MacMillan. 56 4.5 2014. ‘Interactive Infographics and News Values.' Digital Journalism, 2(4), 490-506. 57 4.6 2015. 'Just Fancy That: An analysis of infographic propaganda in The Daily Express, 1956-1959.' Journalism Studies, 16(2), 152-174. 59 5 REFERENCES 61 6 APPENDIX 75 1 | P a g e 1. INTRODUCTION This submission explores tensions in the (Gansian) ‘news values’ evident in the working practice and outputs of online and data visual journalists; caught between discourses of 'tabloidization' and ‘the fourth estate’ ideal. I submit the following six pieces (included in appendix) – a monograph, and five peer-reviewed journal articles, for the award of PhD by publication: 2010 (I). ‘Vanishing Point: On the consequences of lost online news in the UK.’ Ethical Space, 8(1-2): 14-19. 2011. ‘Search Engine Optimisation in UK News Production.’ Journalism Practice, 5(4): 462-477. 2012. ‘The Rebirth of the Beat: A Hyperlocal News-gathering model.’ Journalism Practice, 6(5-6): 754- 765. 2013. Search: Theory and Practice in Journalism Online. London: Palgrave MacMillan. 2014. ‘Interactive Infographics and News Values.' Digital Journalism, 2(4), 490-506. 2015. 'Just Fancy That: An analysis of infographic propaganda in The Daily Express, 1956-1959.' Journalism Studies, 16(2), 152-174. Collectively this work fulfils the criteria for PhD by publication, in terms of volume and academic substance. In particular it: Forms a distinct contribution to knowledge in journalism studies; Evidences a broad knowledge and understanding of journalism studies; Is the product of the successful application of appropriate methodologies pertinent to high-quality research in this field; Is satisfactory in its literary presentation, and; That it is (self-evidently) suitable for publication. The body of work presented here is a hybrid PhD submission; partly arising from research-as-praxis developed over my ten years of working in journalism, and partly arising from empirical cultural studies and social scientific research epistemologies. Each output within this submission represents a point along the phenomenological arc of my contribution to new knowledge and understanding in the practice (and study) of online journalism. Collectively it represents a rigorous and significant challenge to the conventional way in which journalism is often understood within the academy; compromised between vocational and liberal arts approaches (Skinner et al 2001). My research is concerned with how news values are operationalized in two (relatively) new and related fields; online journalism and visual data journalism. Each work is, in turn, concerned with the interconnection between technology and process in the working cultures of these two fields. I found that the news values of the professionals who work here, defined with reference to Gans (1979), are broadly the same ‘fourth estate’ news values embraced within more traditional journalistic cultures. However, some non-journalistic values find voice too, amidst the constraints of organisational norms. While the online environment represents new ethical challenges for journalists (Dick 2010 I; Dick 2013), in national newsrooms across the UK, editorial judgement continues to drive journalistic work online; whether in the fields of trend-spotting (Dick 2011), news- gathering, beat-reporting (Dick 2012), interactive design or investigative journalism driven by 'big data' (Dick 2014). But just as these journalistic norms are seen to guide approach and judgement today, this was not always the case in visual data journalism. On the contrary, I find that the origins of infographics in UK news lie in cold war propaganda, rather than in the ‘fourth estate’ ideal (Dick 2015). The rise of visual culture, and of tabloidization; and the growing sense of self-confidence and autonomy amongst those specialists working in 2 | P a g e networked newsrooms, all represent essential context for our better understanding of contemporary practice in online and visual data journalism in the UK. 1.1 RESEARCH AIMS AND QUESTIONS Research questions must be answerable, that is capable of being answered within the context of the time-frame of a research project (Andrews 2003: 3). Throughout the research, and in each of the discrete research projects presented here, I sought to identify a series of questions towards answering one general, over-arching research aim, in the hope that this approach may yield nuanced understanding (and new knowledge) of news values in online and visual-data journalism. In essence this process involved a refining process [or 'tightening of aperture' (Andrews 2003: 10)] that in turn defined “the shape, direction and progress of the research” (Andrews 2003: 4). The primary influences over this refining process may be understood in terms of 'orienting decisions' (Cohen et al 2000:74); that is, each research project was informed by a series of structural factors which influenced its shape and design. In distinguishing my general aim from various research questions, I sought to ensure that each discrete research project was both manageable and workable (Andrews 2003: 24). Two approaches to identifying research questions were employed across the body of works presented here; some represent an attempt to identify, isolate and interrogate a particular manifestation of the general aim; others arose during the various literature reviews undertaken. In moving from a broad aim oriented around 'an investigation' to a series of 'what are' questions, my intention has been to tighten the 'aperture' to focus on applied news values in different contexts. Though 'what are' questions may be answered in several ways (using different methodological approaches), in terms of qualitative research, I have found them to be particularly well suited to yielding 'thick description' (Geertz 1973). In the remainder of this section, I will set out and justify my research aim and each of my research questions, in each case factoring in (where appropriate) the following key elements: Inspiration (and where appropriate, influences in extant literatures) Key definitions (that both contextualise and set the bounds of this research) 'Answerability' 'Workability' 'Aperture' 'Orienting decisions' 1.1.1 RESEARCH AIM To investigate news values in online and visual data journalism; and the extent to which these values tend towards 'tabloidization', or the 'fourth estate' ideal. Inspired in the first instance by my own experiences in the field, and latterly by a long-established body of organisational studies of the newsroom (Tunstall 1971; Schlesinger 1978; Tuchman 1978; Gans, 1979; Fishman 1980), this research aim seeks to tease out the tensions between theory and practice in two relatively new fields of news-work. By delimiting all but one of the studies presented here to a particular theorisation of news values (Gansian 1979), my intention was to tighten the theoretical aperture in what is a contested (and not to say 3 | P a g e disputed) field of study (Wahl-Jorgensen and Hanitzsch 2009: 10). I position my work amongst other studies of the phenomenon as a socially constructed phenomenon in the newsroom (in terms of values and decision- making). There is one exception to this approach within the works I present here; my study of infographic propaganda may more appropriately sit within a foundationalist approach to news values, what may otherwise been described as a 'uses and gratifications' approach. For the sake of this research, 'online journalism' may be defined as: News and other forms of journalistic output that is distributed via websites, social media, RSS feeds, email newsletters, and other forms of online communication. (Harcup 2014: 220) Though much of my working life has involved training journalists working across various media (from radio, to television, print and online), the process of research carried out online remains consistent; and indeed all but one of the works presented here are exclusively concerned with discrete manifestations of journalism that can only be enacted online (database research, newsgathering and beat-building; un-publishing; search engine optimisation
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