Hope as a Portal to Change: Reimagining Journalism’s Value(s)

Abstract

In this article, we explore how normative understandings of what "proper journalism" is affects journalistic practices, particularly for those who are trying to develop new types of practices. Drawing on the autoethnography of one of the authors of this article, who is both an academic and an entrepreneurial journalist, we explore how explicit and implicit norms of journalism, and the central values they imply, impact individual experiences of doing journalism. We highlight the pressure that these dominant values and understandings can induce and explore an alternative value that can help guide innovation in journalism. We argue that putting the value of “hope” centrally in the discourse and practice of journalism can help change journalism for the better. By seeing how hope is a driver of change in entrepreneurial journalism - as its practitioners see what is possible, but not yet actual - we provide a new conceptualization of innovation in journalism. In redirecting our attention away from pressure, and toward hope, we also redirect our focus to what is possible in the field. By doing so we can tap into the huge potential for change journalism’s hopeful practitioners endeavor to realize.

Keywords

• pressure
• hope
• entrepreneurial journalism
• innovation
• autoethnography