This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Ryfe, D. M. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Structure, agency, and change in an American newsroom

University of Nevada, Reno, USA, dryfe{at}unr.edu

Building on a prior ethnographic study conducted in the same newsroom, this essay offers a conceptual framework for understanding current efforts to transform metropolitan daily newspapers. At the time of the study, Calvin Thomas, a new editor and executive-vice president of the newspaper, mandated that his reporters produce more enterprise and less daily news. Yet, after a year, not only did reporters’ production of enterprise news decrease, their production of daily news actually increased. I explain this consequence as a result of the deep structure of daily newsgathering, coupled with the inability and/or unwillingness of reporters and editors to bear the costs of altering this structure. I argue that while the particulars of this case study may be peculiar to this newsroom, this conceptual framework is helpful for understanding the general process of transformation in American newspaper newsrooms that is currently under way.

Key Words: American journalism • ethnography of news • innovation in news • sociology of news

Journalism, Vol. 10, No. 5, 665-683 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1464884909106538


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?