From Value to Values, from Field to Discipline: Understanding Journalistic Culture in the 21st Century

Abstract

The Introduction to this Symposium, "Value and Values in the Organizational Production of News," outlines its primary themes. It begins with an elaboration of the argument that the past few years have seen a major shift in the analytical concerns of researchers interested in the production, consumption, and institutional transformation of news. Whereas public conversations about journalism in the first two decades of the internet era were primarily oriented toward questions of “value,” a series of political shocks have called into question not only the value but the normative values of news. The Introduction then discusses the two major aims of the Symposium through an overview of the articles and essays contained herein. The first aim is to apply the theories and tools of sociology to the analysis both of news value and news value(s). The second aim is to reflect on what this analytical framework can tell us about the disciplinary relationship between journalism studies and sociology.

Keywords

• journalism studies
• mass media
• political protest
• sociology
• values