Inventing online journalism Development of the Internet as a news medium in four Catalan online newsrooms David Domingo Lecturer in Online Journalism Universitat Rovira i Virgili Tarragona, Catalonia [email protected] Director: Bernat López López Tutor: Jaume Soriano Clemente Memòria presentada per optar al grau de Doctor en Periodisme Departament de Periodisme i Ciències de la Comunicació Facultat de Ciències de la Comunicació Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Tarragona, maig 2006
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Inventing online journalismInventing online journalism Development of the Internet as a news medium in four Catalan online newsrooms
David Domingo
Memòria presentada per optar al grau de Doctor en Periodisme
Departament de Periodisme i Ciències de la Comunicació
Facultat de Ciències de la Comunicació
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Online journalism has developed in several directions and rhythms, taking different
shapes in different online news projects. Scholars have offered empirical evidence that
these directions are, in many occasions, far from the utopias envisioned in the 90s. We
are still inventing online journalism. A comparative research focused on four case
studies of Catalan online newsrooms traces the material and organizational constrains
in the definition and use of hypertext, multimedia and interactivity –those hyped
Internet features– by online journalists.
Professional routines and values of the four online newsrooms are analyzed, with the
aim of finding the similarities and divergences among different media traditions: a
national newspaper (El Periódico), a public broadcasting corporation (CCRTV), a local
newspaper (Diari de Tarragona) and a public-funded news portal (laMalla.net).
Observation of the journalists at work and in-depth interviews provide a close look at
the context and development of each case, interpreted with a constructivist approach
to the social adoption of new technologies.
Some of the findings of the study include: immediacy is the main value in three of the
online newsrooms; the rest of the online journalism utopias are shaped by this
decision; news wires are the main –and almost only– source for most of online news;
small sized staffs and the culture of immediacy discourage online journalists from going
out or contacting first-hand sources, specially in traditional media online newsrooms;
online journalists in traditional media environments tend to downgrade the value of
their work in regard to their offline mates; the online-only project overcomes some of
the problems with a specialization strategy, having each journalist focused on
particular topics, and they are more sensitive to explore utopias.
The author argues that more comparative studies at an international level on the
organizational and material structure of online newsrooms are needed to offer media
companies a realistic stand point to continue the invention of the internet as a news
medium.
inherent in the technology; it was constructed through a series
of social choices. The ingenuity of the system's builders and the
practices of its users have proved just as crucial as computers
and telephone circuits in defining the structure and purpose of
the Internet. (...) The Internet had to be invented—and
constantly reinvented—at the same time as the technology
itself. I hope that this perspective will prove useful to those of
us, experts and users alike, who are even now engaged in
reinventing the Internet.
Acknowledgements
Als periodistes digitals d’El Periódico, CCRTV, laMalla.net i Diari de Tarragona, que van
obrir-me molt més que les portes de les seves redaccions. No puc més que agrair la
vostra sinceritat i admirar l’esforç que feu inventant, a poc a poc, un nou mitjà de
comunicació. David, a mig camí entre el professional i l’investigador, vas ser el millor
aliat quan bussejava entre les meves notes buscant interpretacions per tot el que havia
viscut.
Al Bernat i el Jaume, que han sabut donar-me el consell més savi en els moments en
què més ho he necessitat.
To Ari, for his always challenging questions and the crucial opportunity of the stage in
Tampere, where this dissertation started to take shape.
Al John i l’Humberto, per una revisió lingüística de la tesi meticulosa i entusiasta.
A Pablo, por esos e-mails cargados de sentido y un libro que me convenció que
caminaba por terreno firme.
To Nora, for turning methodological reflection into a central issue and letting me walk
along in fostering the debate among Internet studies scholars.
Al Miquel i el Joan Manuel, que em van ajudar a saber que volia ser investigador en
confiar-me la responsabilitat de seguir l’evolució d’Internet a Catalunya.
A Javier y Ramón, por haber impulsado desde sus inicios el ciberperiodismo como
objeto de estudio científico y haber sabido aglutinar los esfuerzos de múltiples
investigadores en un grupo de investigación modélico.
A Héctor, por ir siempre un paso adelante en la utopía, provocando con futuro en los
presentes más grises.
Als amics de Vilanova, per creure en el projecte del Grup de Periodistes Digitals i
convertir la ciutat en punt de trobada de projectes, d’intercanvi d’idees.
Als companys de la Unitat de Comunicació de la URV, pel seu suport constant, i
especialment a l’Enric, pels interminables debats sobre el present i el futur del
periodisme digital.
Als amics d’aquí, d’allà, del passeig vora el mar fins a la conversa virtual, sempre hi
heu estat malgrat el meu permanent estat d’obnubilació: Internet atrapa, però una tesi
més.
1. Introduction ...................................................................................... 15
1.2. Research questions and hypotheses ........................................... 25
1.3. Dissertation outline ................................................................... 27
2. Literature review............................................................................... 33
the Internet ............................................................................... 37
2.3. The utopias of online journalism ................................................ 54
2.3.1. Hypertext utopias ...................................................... 67
2.3.2. Multimedia utopias .................................................... 74
2.3.4. Utopias in the context of online media history ........ 86
2.4. Empirical results of online journal sm research........................... 93 i
i
2.4.4. Constructivist approaches........................................122
2.5. Discussion: the challenges of online journal sm research ..........137
3. Theoretical framework.....................................................................141
technological innovation research .....................................155
3.2. Constructivist research on technolog cal innovation ..................169 i
l
i
3.3. Discussion: a constructivist toolkit for online journalism
research ..................................................................................196
4.1. Case studies .............................................................................209
PART II: Research results and discussion
5. History and evolution of the projects ..............................................251
5.1. A decade of online journal sm in Catalonia and Spain.................255
5.2. El Periódico Online....................................................................262
6.1. Newsroom roles, labour division and shifts ...............................316
6.2. News updating policy: the life-cycle of news stories ..................337
6.3. Homepage management ...........................................................366
6.4. Newsworthiness criteria ...........................................................385
6.5. Newsgathering practices ..........................................................392
6.7. Multimedia content production .................................................427
6.8. User participation management ................................................434
7. Material and social context of the online newsrooms ....................445
7.1. Technological artifacts as the material constraints of online
journalism ......................................................................................450
social constraints of online journalism .............................................466
7.3. Innovation edges and pro ect development ...............................487 j
8. Conclusions.......................................................................................503
8.2. Online journalism models .........................................................515
8.4. Strategies for a better online journalism ...................................527
9. References ........................................................................................533
Index of names.....................................................................................563
1. A model for the analysis of technological innovation in
newsrooms ........................................................................................168
3. Schedule of observation stages ..................................................................225
4. Professionals interviewed in the research .................................................239
5. Interview issues ...........................................................................................241
7. Homepage of El Periódico Online in April 1997..........................................269
8. Homepage of laMalla.net in May 2000 .......................................................287
9. Homepage of TVC Online in 1999 ...............................................................291
10. Homepage of the CCRTV news portal in May 2006 .................................298
11. Homepage of Diari de Tarragona in April 2001........................................302
12. Homepage of Diari de Tarragona in June 2004........................................308
13. Labour profiles in leading Catalan online media projects .......................315
14. Working shifts in the analyzed online newsrooms ..................................323
15. Special up-to-the-minute headlines on laMalla.net and CCRTV .............343
16. Different homepage templates of El Periódico Online.............................370
17. Hypertextual news story on aMalla.net...................................................416 l
18. Example of a standard special at CCRTV ..................................................498
1. Introduction
Inventing online journalism
“Online journalism is a very new and very fast-evolving branch of journalism,
with academic research about it lagging far behind. One of the reasons is
certainly that, by the time a researcher has developed a research question, set
up the design for a study (...) the object of scholarly curiosity might no longer
exist or may have changed dramatically since data collection first began”
(Kopper et al., 2000:499)
Kopper's reflection is still valid. Change might be included as a variable in your
research and in the end you may have the feeling that “Internet time” is not moving as
fast as the media hype tended to suggest. Nevertheless, one cannot avoid the vertigo
of being the observer of a newborn which is still discovering its language, finding its
rhythm, inventing its routines. At one of the media companies analyzed in this
dissertation, Diari de Tarragona, the very object of my inquiry melted away in one
month between my stages in the online newsroom and my interviews with relevant
members of the team. The owner of this local newspaper had decided to dismantle the
three-person online newsroom and to externalize the management of the website. Just
one of the editors of the paper would be overseeing the work of the external team,
made up of graphic designers and programmers, with no journalists at all. Production
routines obviously changed and, under the new circumstances, I had to revise all my
interpretations. The feeling that what you analyze will probably be different when you
publish your results is always hovering over research into online journalism. However,
17
Introduction
underlying principles and definitions about news production in the online newsrooms
seemed to be quite stable, and luckily enough, the sign of change was positive in most
of the cases I followed.
This research emerged out of a personal double disappointment: the disappointment of
mass media journalism, trapped in the logic of business behind the alibi of objectivity,
and the disappointment of what I call online journalism utopias ,1 which promised
salvation for the profession and a regained commitment to citizens and society but
ended up by mostly recreating old journalistic habits. Much of the research in the
1990s concentrated on building up the utopias (with an enthusiasm that I also once
embraced), and later on denouncing that the media industry was not living up to the
potential of the Internet. Empirical evidence suggested that the utopias were not being
developed in current online projects, even though professionals used them as the
definition of what online journalism should be. This dissertation follows the voices that
advocated refocusing online media research in order to overcome the intrinsic
technological determinism found in utopias and to produce results that would allow to
explain the factors that shape the actual development of the Internet as a news
medium, as a platform for the delivery of news products.
1 This concept is inspired by the work of historians of technology (see section 2.3) that remark that one of
the definitional attitudes of Western societies is technological utopianism: the tendency to think that
innovations will change society dramatically. Constructivist studies on technological innovation suggest
(see section 3.2) that the process of adoption of a technology is much more complex and the initial
utopias usually do not materialize as they were formulated. As it will be discussed in the dissertation,
some of the online journalism utopias have been adopted in online newsrooms, other adapted to the
needs and culture of journalists and other disregarded. The concept of “utopias” tries to describe the
distance from reality of the initial definitions of online journalism and their role as ideals that journalists
in the studied cases mostly depict as unreachable.
18
Inventing online journalism
This study attempts to describe the current characteristics of online news production in
real settings, something that has been rather unheeded within the research in the field
of online journalism. My point is that we need to enter online newsrooms if we are to
fully understand how a new technology such as the Internet has met the journalistic
culture and developed as a news medium. Most studies have focused on website
feature analysis and provide few explanations for the decisions that are shaping online
news. I have tried to go beyond the computer screen and the virtual world and meet
the flesh-and- blood people who are inventing online journalism. Borrowing from the
conceptual framework of research in technological innovation, I argue that the Internet
as a news medium was neither spontaneously adopted by media companies nor
designed beforehand and offered to them as a plug-and-play system that could be
attached to the existing working routines and structures with an easy-to-use manual of
instructions that would solve any problem in the development of online products.
Utopias could be seen as this ideal manual, but the fact is that technologies are
adopted and adapted by specific people in particular social and organizational settings.
We need to meet online journalists, learn their routines and their expectations about
the Internet if we are to understand why online journalism is being done the way it is.
Obviously, this approach lets us talk just about specific cases, at a specific moment in
their history. As the theoretical background of the study, based on constructivist
approaches to technological innovation suggests, the internet as a news medium is a
social product that has to be interpreted with historical perspective and contextual
awareness. And this needs to be done in concrete cases in order to open the black box
of online newsrooms.
19
Introduction
This research is not meant to be a refutation of online journalism utopias. We will
compare them with actual developments in four different cases of Catalan online
media, not in order to reject them, but to reinterpret their role in the decisions made
within the newsrooms when defining newsgathering practices, newsworthiness criteria,
ethical principles and writing conventions for the Internet as a news medium. With this
perspective, utopias are not the predefined path for online journalism, neither are they
discarded as useless. They are one among many other factors that influenced the
decisions of each media company to embrace online journalism. To what extent these
factors –some restricted to individual companies, some shared as the utopias– have
pushed online journalism towards homogeneous or heterogeneous solutions is one of
the aims of the study. Utopias transformed in another factor undermine the
deterministic approaches of much of online journalism literature. We defend that the
future of online news is open and this dissertation does not try to predict it: this study
just pretends to describe the maturing models of online journalism production in four
Catalan cases and interpret the factors that shape them and the consequences they
have to the reporters’ work. Utopias may some day be achieved, or they themselves
may evolve. I argue that there are many factors that make it difficult for current online
journalism utopias to be put into practice in news media companies. But the path is
open and, to some extent, in the hands of the daily decisions of online journalists.
By making visible the historically embedded and locally produced processes of adopting
the Internet as a news medium in four media companies, I wish to provide online
journalists some insights and interpretative tools that may empower them to take more
informed decisions in developing their still nascent news medium. A decade has passed
20
Inventing online journalism
since the first experiences of newspaper websites were developed, but the title of this
dissertation tries to highlight the fact that the process by which the Internet is to
become a standardized delivery channel of news is still open: we are still inventing
online journalism.
1.1. Object of study
Before going any further, we should clarify the framework of the research in terms of
its object of study. Online journalism is the widely used term in scholarly literature to
refer to news production and distribution over the Internet, mainly through websites.
Deuze et al. suggested the following definition for online journalists: “Media
professionals who are directly responsible for the Internet content of news ventures
(be it existing print or broadcast media or be it independent online ventures)”
(2004:20).
Most of the research specializing in this form of journalism has concentrated on a
particular element of the phenomenon: the product (news websites), the producers
(online journalists) or the consumers (Internet users). We will concentrate on the
second element, as the theoretical foundations for the present study –found both in
the sociology of newsmaking and in constructivist disciplines devoted to the analysis of
technological innovation in order to overcome the interpretative limitations of
deterministic research paradigms– suggest that the research focus should be on the
social context of the use of the technology. In this study, our attention focuses on the
point at which journalistic culture and the Internet meet: the social context, in this
case, is media companies and, more specifically, the newsrooms where journalists
work with the Internet as a news medium. It is here that the process of adopting the
technology took place and where the definitions of what online journalism is are put
into practice through working routines and professional values.
22
Inventing online journalism
The constructivist theoretical background invites for a broad approach to the object of
study. Researchers must be aware of the multiple factors that influence the use of a
technology, from business logic to professional culture. In this study, the product and
the audience have been regarded as part of the production process, but nevertheless
the focal point in research design and research questions is online newsrooms and
journalists, the creators of the Internet as a news medium. Relationships of the online
staff with other departments of the companies were also explored and the
ethnographic work suggested that the technical staff (responsible of developing the
tools for online publishing) and the traditional newsroom played an important role (not
always active) in the shaping of online news products and routines. The marketing
department did not have any explicit presence in online journalists everyday life and,
as the focus of this dissertation is on the journalistic aspects of online news media, it
was not considered relevant extending the analysis to that area of the companies.
For news media companies, the process of exploring a new medium is not being easy.
“The issues surrounding creation, maintenance and staffing of online products go far
beyond changing a single tool. In effect, they involve launching whole new lines of
business – lines that will require major commitments of personnel, money and
attention from newsroom managers to succeed” (Singer et al., 1999:32). Research can
help in this process, making companies aware of the implications of their decisions and
the constraints that surround them. “Also needed is an exploration of the workings of
online newsrooms, including their organizational structures, work routines, staff
interactions and ethical decision-making processes. In short, a thorough exploration of
the sociology of online news work would be valuable not only because it would
23
Introduction
enhance our understanding of online journalism but also because it would enhance our
understanding of the professional as a whole and its changing role in our changing
society” (Singer, 2003:157).
Catalan online media have followed similar development paths to other European and
American media. As will be discussed further below (see chapter 5), there was an
initial exploratory phase in the mid-1990s, a boom at the turn of the century and then
an important recession. The fieldwork for this research was conducted between 2003
and 2004, when it was still not clear whether the recession had been overcome and
there was a great deal of skepticism about the Internet in Catalan media companies.
The study attempts to put this period into its historical context, and to interpret it as a
phase in the evolution of online journalism. A phase during which utopias were
conceived by online newsrooms as ideals that material and social constraints made
unreachable.
Four concrete cases were selected for the analysis, trying to have a maximum variation
sample among Catalan online news sites, as reasoned in section 4.1:
A newspaper online venture: El Periódico Online
A purely online project: laMalla.net
A broadcaster online news portal: CCRTV
A local newspaper online version: Diari de Tarragona
24
1.2. Research questions and hypotheses
This research tries to shed some light on questions for which online journalism
research has not been able to provide thorough and empirically grounded explanations.
Literature has mostly been prospective, normative, descriptive and/or intuitive, but
little data has been gathered to help interpret the current evolution of online media –
i.e. the process o adopting the Internet as a news medium and the online news
production culture resulting…
David Domingo
Memòria presentada per optar al grau de Doctor en Periodisme
Departament de Periodisme i Ciències de la Comunicació
Facultat de Ciències de la Comunicació
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Online journalism has developed in several directions and rhythms, taking different
shapes in different online news projects. Scholars have offered empirical evidence that
these directions are, in many occasions, far from the utopias envisioned in the 90s. We
are still inventing online journalism. A comparative research focused on four case
studies of Catalan online newsrooms traces the material and organizational constrains
in the definition and use of hypertext, multimedia and interactivity –those hyped
Internet features– by online journalists.
Professional routines and values of the four online newsrooms are analyzed, with the
aim of finding the similarities and divergences among different media traditions: a
national newspaper (El Periódico), a public broadcasting corporation (CCRTV), a local
newspaper (Diari de Tarragona) and a public-funded news portal (laMalla.net).
Observation of the journalists at work and in-depth interviews provide a close look at
the context and development of each case, interpreted with a constructivist approach
to the social adoption of new technologies.
Some of the findings of the study include: immediacy is the main value in three of the
online newsrooms; the rest of the online journalism utopias are shaped by this
decision; news wires are the main –and almost only– source for most of online news;
small sized staffs and the culture of immediacy discourage online journalists from going
out or contacting first-hand sources, specially in traditional media online newsrooms;
online journalists in traditional media environments tend to downgrade the value of
their work in regard to their offline mates; the online-only project overcomes some of
the problems with a specialization strategy, having each journalist focused on
particular topics, and they are more sensitive to explore utopias.
The author argues that more comparative studies at an international level on the
organizational and material structure of online newsrooms are needed to offer media
companies a realistic stand point to continue the invention of the internet as a news
medium.
inherent in the technology; it was constructed through a series
of social choices. The ingenuity of the system's builders and the
practices of its users have proved just as crucial as computers
and telephone circuits in defining the structure and purpose of
the Internet. (...) The Internet had to be invented—and
constantly reinvented—at the same time as the technology
itself. I hope that this perspective will prove useful to those of
us, experts and users alike, who are even now engaged in
reinventing the Internet.
Acknowledgements
Als periodistes digitals d’El Periódico, CCRTV, laMalla.net i Diari de Tarragona, que van
obrir-me molt més que les portes de les seves redaccions. No puc més que agrair la
vostra sinceritat i admirar l’esforç que feu inventant, a poc a poc, un nou mitjà de
comunicació. David, a mig camí entre el professional i l’investigador, vas ser el millor
aliat quan bussejava entre les meves notes buscant interpretacions per tot el que havia
viscut.
Al Bernat i el Jaume, que han sabut donar-me el consell més savi en els moments en
què més ho he necessitat.
To Ari, for his always challenging questions and the crucial opportunity of the stage in
Tampere, where this dissertation started to take shape.
Al John i l’Humberto, per una revisió lingüística de la tesi meticulosa i entusiasta.
A Pablo, por esos e-mails cargados de sentido y un libro que me convenció que
caminaba por terreno firme.
To Nora, for turning methodological reflection into a central issue and letting me walk
along in fostering the debate among Internet studies scholars.
Al Miquel i el Joan Manuel, que em van ajudar a saber que volia ser investigador en
confiar-me la responsabilitat de seguir l’evolució d’Internet a Catalunya.
A Javier y Ramón, por haber impulsado desde sus inicios el ciberperiodismo como
objeto de estudio científico y haber sabido aglutinar los esfuerzos de múltiples
investigadores en un grupo de investigación modélico.
A Héctor, por ir siempre un paso adelante en la utopía, provocando con futuro en los
presentes más grises.
Als amics de Vilanova, per creure en el projecte del Grup de Periodistes Digitals i
convertir la ciutat en punt de trobada de projectes, d’intercanvi d’idees.
Als companys de la Unitat de Comunicació de la URV, pel seu suport constant, i
especialment a l’Enric, pels interminables debats sobre el present i el futur del
periodisme digital.
Als amics d’aquí, d’allà, del passeig vora el mar fins a la conversa virtual, sempre hi
heu estat malgrat el meu permanent estat d’obnubilació: Internet atrapa, però una tesi
més.
1. Introduction ...................................................................................... 15
1.2. Research questions and hypotheses ........................................... 25
1.3. Dissertation outline ................................................................... 27
2. Literature review............................................................................... 33
the Internet ............................................................................... 37
2.3. The utopias of online journalism ................................................ 54
2.3.1. Hypertext utopias ...................................................... 67
2.3.2. Multimedia utopias .................................................... 74
2.3.4. Utopias in the context of online media history ........ 86
2.4. Empirical results of online journal sm research........................... 93 i
i
2.4.4. Constructivist approaches........................................122
2.5. Discussion: the challenges of online journal sm research ..........137
3. Theoretical framework.....................................................................141
technological innovation research .....................................155
3.2. Constructivist research on technolog cal innovation ..................169 i
l
i
3.3. Discussion: a constructivist toolkit for online journalism
research ..................................................................................196
4.1. Case studies .............................................................................209
PART II: Research results and discussion
5. History and evolution of the projects ..............................................251
5.1. A decade of online journal sm in Catalonia and Spain.................255
5.2. El Periódico Online....................................................................262
6.1. Newsroom roles, labour division and shifts ...............................316
6.2. News updating policy: the life-cycle of news stories ..................337
6.3. Homepage management ...........................................................366
6.4. Newsworthiness criteria ...........................................................385
6.5. Newsgathering practices ..........................................................392
6.7. Multimedia content production .................................................427
6.8. User participation management ................................................434
7. Material and social context of the online newsrooms ....................445
7.1. Technological artifacts as the material constraints of online
journalism ......................................................................................450
social constraints of online journalism .............................................466
7.3. Innovation edges and pro ect development ...............................487 j
8. Conclusions.......................................................................................503
8.2. Online journalism models .........................................................515
8.4. Strategies for a better online journalism ...................................527
9. References ........................................................................................533
Index of names.....................................................................................563
1. A model for the analysis of technological innovation in
newsrooms ........................................................................................168
3. Schedule of observation stages ..................................................................225
4. Professionals interviewed in the research .................................................239
5. Interview issues ...........................................................................................241
7. Homepage of El Periódico Online in April 1997..........................................269
8. Homepage of laMalla.net in May 2000 .......................................................287
9. Homepage of TVC Online in 1999 ...............................................................291
10. Homepage of the CCRTV news portal in May 2006 .................................298
11. Homepage of Diari de Tarragona in April 2001........................................302
12. Homepage of Diari de Tarragona in June 2004........................................308
13. Labour profiles in leading Catalan online media projects .......................315
14. Working shifts in the analyzed online newsrooms ..................................323
15. Special up-to-the-minute headlines on laMalla.net and CCRTV .............343
16. Different homepage templates of El Periódico Online.............................370
17. Hypertextual news story on aMalla.net...................................................416 l
18. Example of a standard special at CCRTV ..................................................498
1. Introduction
Inventing online journalism
“Online journalism is a very new and very fast-evolving branch of journalism,
with academic research about it lagging far behind. One of the reasons is
certainly that, by the time a researcher has developed a research question, set
up the design for a study (...) the object of scholarly curiosity might no longer
exist or may have changed dramatically since data collection first began”
(Kopper et al., 2000:499)
Kopper's reflection is still valid. Change might be included as a variable in your
research and in the end you may have the feeling that “Internet time” is not moving as
fast as the media hype tended to suggest. Nevertheless, one cannot avoid the vertigo
of being the observer of a newborn which is still discovering its language, finding its
rhythm, inventing its routines. At one of the media companies analyzed in this
dissertation, Diari de Tarragona, the very object of my inquiry melted away in one
month between my stages in the online newsroom and my interviews with relevant
members of the team. The owner of this local newspaper had decided to dismantle the
three-person online newsroom and to externalize the management of the website. Just
one of the editors of the paper would be overseeing the work of the external team,
made up of graphic designers and programmers, with no journalists at all. Production
routines obviously changed and, under the new circumstances, I had to revise all my
interpretations. The feeling that what you analyze will probably be different when you
publish your results is always hovering over research into online journalism. However,
17
Introduction
underlying principles and definitions about news production in the online newsrooms
seemed to be quite stable, and luckily enough, the sign of change was positive in most
of the cases I followed.
This research emerged out of a personal double disappointment: the disappointment of
mass media journalism, trapped in the logic of business behind the alibi of objectivity,
and the disappointment of what I call online journalism utopias ,1 which promised
salvation for the profession and a regained commitment to citizens and society but
ended up by mostly recreating old journalistic habits. Much of the research in the
1990s concentrated on building up the utopias (with an enthusiasm that I also once
embraced), and later on denouncing that the media industry was not living up to the
potential of the Internet. Empirical evidence suggested that the utopias were not being
developed in current online projects, even though professionals used them as the
definition of what online journalism should be. This dissertation follows the voices that
advocated refocusing online media research in order to overcome the intrinsic
technological determinism found in utopias and to produce results that would allow to
explain the factors that shape the actual development of the Internet as a news
medium, as a platform for the delivery of news products.
1 This concept is inspired by the work of historians of technology (see section 2.3) that remark that one of
the definitional attitudes of Western societies is technological utopianism: the tendency to think that
innovations will change society dramatically. Constructivist studies on technological innovation suggest
(see section 3.2) that the process of adoption of a technology is much more complex and the initial
utopias usually do not materialize as they were formulated. As it will be discussed in the dissertation,
some of the online journalism utopias have been adopted in online newsrooms, other adapted to the
needs and culture of journalists and other disregarded. The concept of “utopias” tries to describe the
distance from reality of the initial definitions of online journalism and their role as ideals that journalists
in the studied cases mostly depict as unreachable.
18
Inventing online journalism
This study attempts to describe the current characteristics of online news production in
real settings, something that has been rather unheeded within the research in the field
of online journalism. My point is that we need to enter online newsrooms if we are to
fully understand how a new technology such as the Internet has met the journalistic
culture and developed as a news medium. Most studies have focused on website
feature analysis and provide few explanations for the decisions that are shaping online
news. I have tried to go beyond the computer screen and the virtual world and meet
the flesh-and- blood people who are inventing online journalism. Borrowing from the
conceptual framework of research in technological innovation, I argue that the Internet
as a news medium was neither spontaneously adopted by media companies nor
designed beforehand and offered to them as a plug-and-play system that could be
attached to the existing working routines and structures with an easy-to-use manual of
instructions that would solve any problem in the development of online products.
Utopias could be seen as this ideal manual, but the fact is that technologies are
adopted and adapted by specific people in particular social and organizational settings.
We need to meet online journalists, learn their routines and their expectations about
the Internet if we are to understand why online journalism is being done the way it is.
Obviously, this approach lets us talk just about specific cases, at a specific moment in
their history. As the theoretical background of the study, based on constructivist
approaches to technological innovation suggests, the internet as a news medium is a
social product that has to be interpreted with historical perspective and contextual
awareness. And this needs to be done in concrete cases in order to open the black box
of online newsrooms.
19
Introduction
This research is not meant to be a refutation of online journalism utopias. We will
compare them with actual developments in four different cases of Catalan online
media, not in order to reject them, but to reinterpret their role in the decisions made
within the newsrooms when defining newsgathering practices, newsworthiness criteria,
ethical principles and writing conventions for the Internet as a news medium. With this
perspective, utopias are not the predefined path for online journalism, neither are they
discarded as useless. They are one among many other factors that influenced the
decisions of each media company to embrace online journalism. To what extent these
factors –some restricted to individual companies, some shared as the utopias– have
pushed online journalism towards homogeneous or heterogeneous solutions is one of
the aims of the study. Utopias transformed in another factor undermine the
deterministic approaches of much of online journalism literature. We defend that the
future of online news is open and this dissertation does not try to predict it: this study
just pretends to describe the maturing models of online journalism production in four
Catalan cases and interpret the factors that shape them and the consequences they
have to the reporters’ work. Utopias may some day be achieved, or they themselves
may evolve. I argue that there are many factors that make it difficult for current online
journalism utopias to be put into practice in news media companies. But the path is
open and, to some extent, in the hands of the daily decisions of online journalists.
By making visible the historically embedded and locally produced processes of adopting
the Internet as a news medium in four media companies, I wish to provide online
journalists some insights and interpretative tools that may empower them to take more
informed decisions in developing their still nascent news medium. A decade has passed
20
Inventing online journalism
since the first experiences of newspaper websites were developed, but the title of this
dissertation tries to highlight the fact that the process by which the Internet is to
become a standardized delivery channel of news is still open: we are still inventing
online journalism.
1.1. Object of study
Before going any further, we should clarify the framework of the research in terms of
its object of study. Online journalism is the widely used term in scholarly literature to
refer to news production and distribution over the Internet, mainly through websites.
Deuze et al. suggested the following definition for online journalists: “Media
professionals who are directly responsible for the Internet content of news ventures
(be it existing print or broadcast media or be it independent online ventures)”
(2004:20).
Most of the research specializing in this form of journalism has concentrated on a
particular element of the phenomenon: the product (news websites), the producers
(online journalists) or the consumers (Internet users). We will concentrate on the
second element, as the theoretical foundations for the present study –found both in
the sociology of newsmaking and in constructivist disciplines devoted to the analysis of
technological innovation in order to overcome the interpretative limitations of
deterministic research paradigms– suggest that the research focus should be on the
social context of the use of the technology. In this study, our attention focuses on the
point at which journalistic culture and the Internet meet: the social context, in this
case, is media companies and, more specifically, the newsrooms where journalists
work with the Internet as a news medium. It is here that the process of adopting the
technology took place and where the definitions of what online journalism is are put
into practice through working routines and professional values.
22
Inventing online journalism
The constructivist theoretical background invites for a broad approach to the object of
study. Researchers must be aware of the multiple factors that influence the use of a
technology, from business logic to professional culture. In this study, the product and
the audience have been regarded as part of the production process, but nevertheless
the focal point in research design and research questions is online newsrooms and
journalists, the creators of the Internet as a news medium. Relationships of the online
staff with other departments of the companies were also explored and the
ethnographic work suggested that the technical staff (responsible of developing the
tools for online publishing) and the traditional newsroom played an important role (not
always active) in the shaping of online news products and routines. The marketing
department did not have any explicit presence in online journalists everyday life and,
as the focus of this dissertation is on the journalistic aspects of online news media, it
was not considered relevant extending the analysis to that area of the companies.
For news media companies, the process of exploring a new medium is not being easy.
“The issues surrounding creation, maintenance and staffing of online products go far
beyond changing a single tool. In effect, they involve launching whole new lines of
business – lines that will require major commitments of personnel, money and
attention from newsroom managers to succeed” (Singer et al., 1999:32). Research can
help in this process, making companies aware of the implications of their decisions and
the constraints that surround them. “Also needed is an exploration of the workings of
online newsrooms, including their organizational structures, work routines, staff
interactions and ethical decision-making processes. In short, a thorough exploration of
the sociology of online news work would be valuable not only because it would
23
Introduction
enhance our understanding of online journalism but also because it would enhance our
understanding of the professional as a whole and its changing role in our changing
society” (Singer, 2003:157).
Catalan online media have followed similar development paths to other European and
American media. As will be discussed further below (see chapter 5), there was an
initial exploratory phase in the mid-1990s, a boom at the turn of the century and then
an important recession. The fieldwork for this research was conducted between 2003
and 2004, when it was still not clear whether the recession had been overcome and
there was a great deal of skepticism about the Internet in Catalan media companies.
The study attempts to put this period into its historical context, and to interpret it as a
phase in the evolution of online journalism. A phase during which utopias were
conceived by online newsrooms as ideals that material and social constraints made
unreachable.
Four concrete cases were selected for the analysis, trying to have a maximum variation
sample among Catalan online news sites, as reasoned in section 4.1:
A newspaper online venture: El Periódico Online
A purely online project: laMalla.net
A broadcaster online news portal: CCRTV
A local newspaper online version: Diari de Tarragona
24
1.2. Research questions and hypotheses
This research tries to shed some light on questions for which online journalism
research has not been able to provide thorough and empirically grounded explanations.
Literature has mostly been prospective, normative, descriptive and/or intuitive, but
little data has been gathered to help interpret the current evolution of online media –
i.e. the process o adopting the Internet as a news medium and the online news
production culture resulting…
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