Diversity through Dualism: The Balancing Principle as an Organizational Strategy in Culture Departments of Newspapers

Abstract

This article examines the changes in cultural journalism in newspapers with regard to its dual field structure. The influence of media organizations’ policies on professionalist dualism is discussed based on the results of a quantitative content analysis over the period 1978–2008 and semi-structured theme interviews with the heads of the culture departments of major Finnish dailies. The results indicate that culture departments have developed their own news production, with increased managerial control and the strengthening of the journalistic paradigm, whereas opinionated journalism, including criticism, is increasingly outsourced. The culture departments thus aspire to sustain a balance between the professional paradigms related to field-hybridity, which creates a distinct structural formalism in this specialized type of journalism and makes its evolution over time relatively stable.

Keywords

• cultural journalism
• art criticism
• reviews
• professionalism
• specialization
• newspapers