! UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THREAT, MODELING AND MISCONCEPTIONS: A COORIENTATIONAL STUDY OF CITIZEN PHOTOJOURNALISTS’ AND PROFESSIONAL PHOTOJOURNALISTS’ VALUES A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By TARA M. BUEHNER Norman, Oklahoma 2013 ! ! THREAT, MODELING AND MISCONCEPTIONS: A COORIENTATIONAL STUDY OF CITIZEN PHOTOJOURNALISTS’ AND PROFESSIONAL PHOTOJOURNALISTS’ VALUES A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE GAYLORD COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION BY _________________________________ Dr. Peter Gade, Chair _________________________________ Dr. David Craig _________________________________ Dr. Julie Jones _________________________________ Dr. Charles Self _________________________________ Dr. Christopher Carter ! ! "!#$%&'()*+!,&!-./.!012342/!5678! .99!/()*+:!/;:;'<;=>! ! ! ! ! ! Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to an amazing advisor and mentor, Dr. Peter Gade. This man spent hundreds of hours advising me on this dissertation. He is a rare professor who genuinely wants to see his students do the very best work possible, even if that means a great deal of extra time and effort for him. It would have required much less work for him to advise a mediocre dissertation, but he wanted me to be excellent. He often sent me emails on the weekends after looking through my drafts, and sacrificed much of his own research time to invest in me. There was never a time that he was too busy to talk with me. He is a fiercely rational man who kept me focused on the task at hand throughout, reminding me that it was not fruitful to be frustrated or apathetic. There were numerous times when he should have been outwardly frustrated with me, but he always managed to guide me in a clear and direct manner. The patience he demonstrated was incredible, even when I repeated the same mistakes over and over again. Dr. Gade is a brilliant scholar from whom I have learned much of what I know. It goes without saying that this dissertation would be nothing without his help. I am so appreciative of his generous, selfless advising. Dr. David Craig, Dr. Julie Jones, Dr. Charles Self, and Dr. Christopher Carter helped me tremendously throughout the dissertation process. Dr. Craig is one of the kindest, most genuine people I know. I have always been appreciative of his true concern for my PhD studies and my experience in general. I learned a tremendous amount from him, and was very fortunate to be able to work with him. Dr. Julie Jones had a huge influence in the direction of ! "<! ! my studies. She was the one person in the program who had an expertise in the field of study that I wanted to pursue. She spent many, many hours introducing me to the great scholars of visual communication and online media creation. She also provided much-needed levity in my studies every time I could hear her laughing loudly way, way down the hall in the building. Dr. Charles Self stretched my thinking more than anyone. He forced me to think about things in ways that I didn’t know my brain was capable of doing. I’m grateful for his insistence on making me a more well-rounded scholar. I can only hope to have a small fraction of his brilliance at some point in my career. And finally, Dr. Christopher Carter has been the best outside committee member I could possibly ask for. He was gracious enough to join my committee late in the process, and has been very interested in and encouraging of my research. His insight added much to my dissertation. I am so fortunate to have all of these intelligent people take time out of their lives to invest into me. My fiancé, Chad Mortensen, also played a huge role in supporting me during the dissertation process. No one listened to me whine, sob and despair over this project more than he did. The poor guy was the first one I would call when I did not think I could handle the stress any more. He has a funny way of making me laugh and smile even through torrents of tears and smeared make- up. I went through a good eight months of being generally grumpy and depressed, and he stuck with me. I love him dearly. Many friends and colleagues from the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication have provided support and camaraderie. I especially appreciate the friendship of Erich Sommerfeldt, Aimei Yang, Kenna Griffin, Nur ! <! ! Uysal, Anna Klyuva, Christal Johnson and Jared Schroeder. These were the only people who truly knew what I was going through. I don’t think I could have or would have wanted to go through something as difficult as a doctoral program without friends like these. They were there to listen to me vent when things were tough, and cheer me on when things were going well. I appreciated that very much. Few people were more personally supportive of me than John Schmeltzer. John is one of the only people from the Gaylord College with whom I can really discuss what’s going on in my academic life. He reminds me not to take everything so seriously. He has always been a fantastic supporter of mine. I absolutely adore that guy. Thanks, Schmeltz. Kelly Storm was also such an integral part of the graduate experience at Gaylord. She is one of the most positive people I’ve ever met, and the best secretary in the world. I cannot believe how patient she was with me when I constantly lost forms, forgot to turn things in, or just generally had no idea what was going on. I will really miss hearing her yell down the hall “BEAN!” to greet me. Finally, my parents have also stood behind me and encouraged me. They have supported me emotionally and financially as I’ve struggled through graduate school. I could not have done any of this without their help. Thanks, everyone. ! <"! ! Table of Contents List of Tables ........................................................................................................ xii List of Figures ...................................................................................................... xv Abstract ............................................................................................................... xvi Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: The Changing Media Landscape ....................................................... 14 Economic Impact of Changing Media Landscape on Journalism ................... 17 Cuts in budgets, staff and content. ..................................................................... 21 Foreshadowings of the Current Media Landscape .......................................... 20 Postmodernism. ....................................................................................... 22 The communitarian critique and civic journalism. ................................. 25 Network society. ....................................................................................... 28 Summary: The Changing Media Landscape ................................................... 32 Chapter 3: Journalism Professionalism .............................................................. 34 Professions ........................................................................................................ 35 Journalism as a profession. ...................................................................... 38 Normative theory. .................................................................................... 42 Libertarian Theory. ............................................................ 42 Social Responsibility. ......................................................... 48 Objectivity: Its history as a journalistic norm ................... 53 The social construction of reality. ................................................. 57 ! <""! ! Journalism routines. .................................................................... 58 Journalistic values in contemporary practice. .................................................... 63 Summary: Journalism Professionalism .......................................................... 64 Chapter 4: Photojournalism Professionalism .................................................... 67 The Development of Photography ................................................................... 68 Early Uses of Photography .............................................................................. 69 The Joining of Photography and Journalism .................................................. 70 ?*%+%)(@&*'!@A=!B%C"@9!.D@(;A;::!>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>!E6! ! The Professionalization of Photojournalism .................................................... 72 Summary: Professional Photojournalism ........................................................ 76 Amateur Photography Values ........................................................................... 77 Amateur photography in a pre-digital age. .............................................. 78 Amateur photographers in the digital era. .............................................. 80 Summary: Professional and amateur photojournalism. ......................... 85 Chapter 5: Journalism in a Postmodern, Networked World .............................. 87 Inviting the Audience ....................................................................................... 88 Inviting visual content. ............................................................................. 95 Impact on Professional Journalists and Photojournalists .............................